Tokyo

The Tokyo scene

Several chapters of kinbaku’s history on this site are set largely in Tokyo: the postwar magazines in Postwar Japan: kasutori magazines and Kitan Club, the films and SM magazines in SM magazines and pink film: the 1960s to the 1980s, and the strip-theater shows, seminars and SM bars in Performers, stages and rope bars. This page explains how the city’s rope scene works today.

Bars as classrooms

Several Tokyo SM bars hold rope classes, and at least one has done so for decades. Black Heart in Ginza says it has been open for almost thirty years and has held a kinbaku class for that whole time. It names the late Akechi Denki among the teachers of that class. Today the bar runs the class twice a month, holds a monthly Kinbaku Night and hosts Otome Nawakai, a small rope lesson for women only. Its sister bar TABOO, also in Ginza, opened in 2000, according to Time Out Tokyo’s 2019 nightlife guide.

MilkyWay in Gotanda is another example. It holds booked classes on Tuesdays and Saturdays, says the safety of the person being tied comes first, offers a separate safety course and does not allow drinking before class. People who come alone can be paired with a model the bar arranges.

Schools and lineages

Several named schools, or ryū, are taught in Tokyo. Hajime Kinoko leads Ichinawakai. Its weekly drop-in class is graded from tenth kyū up to first kyū and is taught in an order Kinoko designed. In 2019 Time Out Tokyo described a session near Takadanobaba with twenty to thirty people, some foreign visitors among them. Osada Steve, who took the Osada name from Osada Eikichi in 2001, teaches Osada-ryū. Yagami Ren, who teaches in Tokyo, founded Yagami-ryū. Other teachers build their teaching around one idea. One is Takase Shinnosuke, whose Shibaraku salon and school teach a style he calls 抱縛, a hug-like rope built on dialogue between the partners.

Such lineages travel through licensed teachers. Yagami-ryū, for example, lists instructors in Bulgaria, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Hong Kong and Australia, so a class in Melbourne may lead straight back to a Tokyo teacher. The Ichinawa-kai page describes how Kinoko’s school licenses its instructors.

Festivals and nights out

Rope is also performed on stage. Yoshida Yoi has organized Onawa Asobi, a two-day kinbaku performance festival, every year since 2009. Past Japanese performers include Naka Akira, Hajime Kinoko, Kazami Ranki and Yagami Ren, and a European edition has been held in Antwerp. Fetish nights put rope in a wider setting. Time Out Tokyo’s 2019 guide lists Department H, a monthly party at Tokyo Kinema Club in Uguisudani whose shows can include bondage, and Torture Garden Japan, held about three times a year with suspension performers.

Languages and visiting

Many venue websites, among them those of Black Heart, MilkyWay and Shibaraku, are in Japanese only, but some teaching is offered in other languages. The 2019 guide noted English-speaking instructors at the Ichinawa class. On Mondays, when the bar is otherwise closed, MilkyWay holds a salon for foreign visitors. Louis Kordexe teaches private lessons in English, French and Japanese at his studio near Shinjuku. Some venues have no sign at the door; MilkyWay, for one, asks visitors to call when they are close, and many classes, including MilkyWay’s, must be booked ahead. For advice on visiting respectfully, see Rope when you travel.