School of Rope

School of Rope is the teaching arm of Rope Tales, the project of the Milan couple Kirigami and Tenshiko, who have performed and taught together since 2011 in Italy and elsewhere in Europe. They opened the school in 2016. It is run by their association, Kiri Nawa Kai APS, and its classes take place at Yugen Studio near the Crescenzago stop of Metro Line 2. Kirigami was a certified instructor of the Kinbaku Luxuria group from 2018 to 2022 after passing an exam with Riccardo Wildties, and the school teaches Japanese-style rope, which it calls shibari or kinbaku.

How the teaching builds

According to the school, lessons go beyond the mechanics of individual ties to the physical, aesthetic and psychological sides of the practice, with some Japanese history and culture, and stretching for the person being tied is part of every class. After a general introduction, students start with the technical basics needed for safe and effective tying. As techniques grow more complex, fluidity, movement and communication between the person tying and the person tied are added step by step, so that the rope becomes a means of expression rather than an end in itself. Courses run as Wednesday evening classes, with intensive weekend versions for students who live outside Milan.

Courses and practice

The basic course covers some history, anatomy and safety, materials, tying one and two limbs, frictions, counter-tension and lacing. Later evening courses go beyond the basics to rope tension and building a session, and to the takate kote, including suspension lines and how to lock them off. Weekend courses lead from a basic intensive through semi-suspension and floor work to body handling and basic suspension; the winter 2026–27 calendar lists Balance & Tension, Body Handling – Basic Suspension and Progression and Predicaments. On Tuesdays and Thursdays the studio opens for Kinbaku Training Sessions, in which the teachers set two themes per evening for each pair to work through at its own level instead of giving a lesson. Materials are provided in the evening courses and the basic weekend course, while the semi-suspension and suspension weekends ask each student to bring safety shears and eight 8-meter ropes of hemp, jute or linen. The tutorials on the school’s website are reserved for students who took the matching course.