Portugal
Portugal's documented rope activity centers on Lisbon, home of the teacher Pedro Cordas, and on Porto, base of the community project KNOTY, which runs workshops and jams and has also taught in Lisbon.
Cities
Numbers show studios and communities.
Regular events
Shibari in Portugal
Public rope activity in Portugal is documented mainly in two cities, Lisbon and Porto. One long thread runs through Pedro Cordas, a teacher who lives in Lisbon and is named in full on his ShibariNews profile. His Studio Kink profile says he began studying rope in Tokyo in 2003, trained with Akechi Denki from 2004 until Akechi’s death in 2005 and then with Kanna, and performs mainly in Portugal, with appearances elsewhere in Europe, in the United States and in Japan. He lists teaching in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, the Czech Republic and other European countries as well as in the United States, Canada and Australia. The Lisbon guide tells his story and the lineage behind it in more detail.
Rope on a stage
Rope has also reached Portugal’s cultural institutions. The touring teacher Gestalta lists in her CV a 75-minute piece titled Shibari, performed with Pedro Diniz Reis at Culturgest in Lisbon in June 2016.
A community project in Porto
Much of the recent teaching comes from KNOTY, which describes itself as a Portuguese project for people who want to learn or make rope, covering shibari, rope bondage and BDSM in general. It is based in Porto, at a space it calls The Knoty (W)Hole, and its program includes workshops, rope jams, talks, private lessons, a matching service for people looking for a rope partner and a shop for jute rope. In August 2025 it held a four-hour workshop in Porto on five ways to tie with a single rope, for people with some basic knowledge, open to those coming alone, as a pair or to learn self-tie.
KNOTY also travels to the capital. In July 2025 it took a four-hour beginner workshop to a cultural venue in Lisbon, mixing theory and practice: safety, what to expect at a first session, the single column tie, locks, friction, tension and rope handling. Lisbon also has a community project of its own, Knot Lounge, where, according to the partner page of The Joy Spot, two practitioners give workshops and performances; the Lisbon guide covers it.
Languages
KNOTY’s site and its Lisbon listing are in Portuguese, with some headings in English. For the European context of these teachers and stages, see Kinbaku in Europe, and for a first session, What happens at a first shibari class.