Japan

Japan is where the practice this site describes took shape, and the history section tells that story in order. It begins with Hojōjutsu: rope and the law in Edo Japan, moves to Meiji and Taishō: Itō Seiu and the art of seme-e, follows rope into print in Postwar Japan: kasutori magazines and Kitan Club and SM magazines and pink film, and onto live stages in Performers, stages and rope bars. Kinbaku goes global and The contemporary scene carry it abroad and into the present. This overview shows how that inheritance is organized in Japan today.

Schools and their founders

Much Japanese rope is taught through named schools, or ryū, each carrying the name or method of a founder. Yukimura-ryū goes back to Yukimura Haruki, who had a studio in Shibuya and died in Tokyo in 2016, according to a biography published by Shibari Dojo. Akechi-ryū grew from the rope of Akechi Denki, active from 1978 to 2005; its official page says Akechi Kanna, who began studying with him in 2000, took the Akechi name in 2022. Naka Akira names Nureki Chimuo as his teacher and says on his own site that he came to the Kinbiken study group in his thirties; his style is Naka-ryū. Osada Steve became the designated successor of Osada Eikichi in 2001 and teaches Osada-ryū from a headquarters dojo in Tokyo. Newer schools include Ichinawa-kai, led by Hajime Kinoko, Yagami-ryū, founded by Yagami Ren, and Shibaraku-shiki, the dialogue-based method of Takase Shinnosuke.

Tokyo and beyond

Most of the documented scene is in Tokyo. Its guide describes SM bars that hold rope classes, the lessons of the schools above and the Onawa Asobi festival, which its European edition says has been held in Tokyo every year since 2009. A Kinbaku Today roundtable adds that a great number of amateur rope gatherings, or nawa-kai, appeared in the 2000s, and that many of today’s teachers are connected with “happening bars”, where customers may play and practice tying.

The public record outside the capital is thinner. Kitan Club, the magazine at the center of the postwar print story, was published in Osaka from 1947 to 1975, according to English Wikipedia. Kazami Ranki, whose way of tying is taught abroad as Kazami-ryū, is based in the Kansai region; Nawapedia records that he founded the SM circle Circle M’s in 1996, and London Kinbaku calls him the Rope Master of Osaka. Ichinawakai lists branches in Sapporo, Fukuoka and Kumamoto.

Visiting and learning

Many venue websites are in Japanese only, and some make a point of welcoming visitors from abroad. Time Out Tokyo’s 2019 nightlife guide reported foreign tourists at the weekly Ichinawa class and several instructors there who speak English. MilkyWay in Gotanda lists a Monday-evening salon for foreign visitors, and Louis Kordexe offers private lessons in English, French and Japanese. Many people first meet Japanese rope outside Japan: Ichinawakai lists branches in Seoul and Perth, Yagami-ryū lists instructors in six places outside Japan, the Osada-ryū dojo list names dojos in Vienna and Bremen, and Nawapedia records that Kazami Ranki has taught abroad since 2011. For practical advice, see Rope when you travel.

Words that travel with the rope

The practice brought its vocabulary with it. Kinbaku is the traditional Japanese term for artistic or erotic tying, while shibari, an everyday word for tying, became the usual name in the West in the 1990s. English Wikipedia notes that the Western habit of reserving shibari for aesthetic rope and kinbaku for the whole practice has no known counterpart among Japanese practitioners; Kinbaku vs shibari explains the difference. Rope artists are called nawashi or kinbakushi, often shortened to bakushi. School words such as ryūha, dojo, sensei and menkyo come from Japan’s traditional arts and martial arts, and hojōjutsu names the older discipline that is one of kinbaku’s roots. The glossary collects the rest.