Thailand

The sources found for this overview describe rope in Bangkok and say little about the rest of the country. How Japanese rope spread across Asia, including Thailand, is told in Kinbaku in Asia-Pacific; this page gives the national outline.

From the underground to the stage

In June 2018 Khaosod English reported that shibari, though Japanese culture is popular in Thailand, was still little known there, and that it had only recently stepped out of closed fetish circles in Bangkok into occasional shows at a few venues open to a wider audience. The paper described the wider setting as conservative: censors banned explicit sex scenes and sex toys were illegal. It reported that most of the few Thai riggers who performed suspensions kept their identities private, worried about their day jobs. The same report described a crowded rope show at a Bangkok venue, where a visiting Japanese teacher who ran rope bars in Tokyo told the paper she hoped Thailand would have more shibari professionals to advise and teach newcomers.

Art venues opened their stages to rope in the same period. In April 2018 Khaosod announced a shibari performance by local artists, with live ambient music and a panel discussion, at a new art space and photo studio in Bangkok whose owner wanted to show art forms little known to the mainstream.

Studios and collectives

Regular classes began in the same years. Yada Kinbaku began teaching shibari in 2018 and has held workshops under the Kotori name since 2019; her performance and visual art address power, sexuality, censorship and women’s autonomy in Southeast Asia. The Bangkok guide describes her studio, the city’s teaching collectives, guest shows and rope nights at kink venues.

In 2026 the scene put itself on screen. Bangkok Shibari, a documentary of almost an hour in which practitioners describe how they found rope and what it changed for them, was screened at Cinema Oasis from 30 May to 11 July with three short films and an exhibition by ten shibari artists. Writing in the Bangkok Post, Thana Boonlert saw Thai shibari as a mix of three strands: Japanese tradition, European influence and a Thai sensibility.

Visiting

The 2018 Khaosod report already described a Bangkok rigger who taught both Thai and Western students. For advice on joining classes in another country, see Rope when you travel.