Osada Steve
Berlin-born photographer and kinbaku teacher in Tokyo who inherited the Osada name from Osada Eikichi in 2001 and founded the Osada-ryū school in 2007.
Osada Steve is a Berlin-born photographer and kinbaku teacher who has lived in Japan since 1980 and leads the Osada-ryū school from Tokyo. The school’s own site describes him as the designated successor of Osada Eikichi from 2001.
From photography to rope
His profile, mirrored by KinbakuMania, says he came to Japan after spending about a year each in India, Thailand and Hong Kong, and trained in Shōtōkan karate and aikidō. He worked as a fashion photographer and in the 1990s moved into fetish photography, photographing a large part of the SM world in Tokyo. In 1998 he met Osada Eikichi at a photo shoot and began assisting at his stage shows; by 1999 he joined Eikichi’s weekly performances at a bar in Roppongi. In April 2000 he opened Studio SIX in Tokyo to host Eikichi’s Osada Seminar, and it remains his base.
Inheriting the name
When Eikichi stopped performing, Steve continued the shows under the Osada name. The sources disagree on the timing: KinbakuMania’s account of Eikichi dates his last show to November 2000, while German Wikipedia places his stroke on stage in January 2001. Both agree that Eikichi died in September 2001. Steve’s profile records a memorial show for him in Roppongi that November.
Further teachers
Steve did not stop with one teacher. German Wikipedia records lessons with Akechi Denki from 2002, study with Nawashi Kanna from 2005, and from 2007 with Yukimura Haruki, who in 2008 gave him the bakushi name Harumine; from 2017 he also studied with Yagami Ren. German Wikipedia uses these teachers to divide his rope into phases, from dramatic suspension through tight geometric semenawa to floor work and, most recently, body mechanics. Shibari Classes describes his style as heavily shaped by Yukimura’s floor work.
Osada-ryū and teaching
His profile dates the founding of Osada-ryū and its headquarters dojo in Tokyo to June 2007, the first instructor certificates to January 2008 and the opening of a Berlin dojo that May. German Wikipedia describes a structured curriculum of nine kyū grades and a set of nine principles called gates, and lists affiliated dojos in Austria, Germany and Switzerland as of 2024. Steve began teaching at Studio SIX in 2002 and, from 2004, traveled regularly for workshops in Europe, Australia and the United States; during the COVID-19 pandemic he moved much of his teaching online. Shibari Classes says his Osada-ryū versions of the three-rope takate kote and of side suspension underlie many versions taught in the West.
His profile also lists rope work for Japanese and foreign video productions from 2003, rope for Sugiura Norio’s photo shoots from 2010 and the photobook Aiko in 2009.