Yoshida Yoi (吉田よい)
Tokyo organizer who founded Onawa Asobi, a two-day kinbaku performance festival held every year in Tokyo since 2009, and created its European edition in Antwerp, first held in 2020, where Yoshida has also presented, led the Japanese team and performed.
Yoshida Yoi, written Yoi Yoshida in Western order, is a Tokyo rope organizer and performer and the founder of Onawa Asobi, an annual kinbaku performance festival. Published information comes from the festival’s European website and from Yoshida’s own announcements; no biography covering Yoshida’s own rope practice has been published.
Onawa Asobi in Tokyo
The European festival site describes Onawa Asobi as a two-day event for kinbakushi held every year in Tokyo since 2009, with Yoshida as its initiator and organizer. Its concept is a gathering of amateur kinbaku enthusiasts in a friendly, respectful, creative and supportive atmosphere, and the site calls it a stepping stone for many of Japan’s best-known rope performers, naming Naka Akira, Hajime Kinoko, Kazami Ranki, Yagami Ren, Hourai Kasumi, Bingo Shigonawa and Ero Ouji among those who have taken part. Yoshida announced the 2026 Tokyo edition on X.
Onawa Asobi Europe
According to the festival site, Yoshida teamed up with BeShibari from Belgium to organize the European edition at the Shibari Lounge in Antwerp; the 2025 credits name BeShibari and Shibarista Jess as festival managers, and the 2024 credits list them as organisers. Each edition credits Yoshida with the festival concept. The pages list editions in 2020, the first, and in 2023, 2024 and 2025, and the 2026 festival on 26 and 27 September was billed as the fifth edition, with sixteen shows over two days, performers from ten countries including six from Japan, and a Shibari Night rope party on the Saturday. The European format keeps the Tokyo idea of a shared stage for performers from newcomers to veterans.
Yoshida’s role goes beyond the concept. The credits of the 2024 and 2025 editions name Yoshida and Shibarista Jess as the presenters on stage, and in 2024 Yoshida was also credited as leader of the Japanese team. Yoshida also performs at the festival: the 2024 Sunday program included a piece by “Yoi Yoshida & Team Japan”, and the 2026 Saturday line-up paired Yoshida with TatiAna from France.
Stated aims
After the 2025 edition the festival site published a short statement by Yoshida, who wrote of the joy of the encounters and new friendships, of two days sharing a single stage with people from across Europe and Asia, and of the closeness that grows when performers cross language barriers to prepare a show together, describing these as feelings that purely commercial show events cannot offer.