Miami

The Miami scene

The sources found for this guide on Miami’s rope history are two articles in the local weekly Miami New Times. In August 2012 the paper reported on a shibari workshop at Mizucon, an annual anime convention. The teacher, billed as Master Tatu, opened with a slide presentation on the history of the practice and a handout, then demonstrated basic ties such as the body harness, wrist cuffs and the gote on two assistants, while one couple in the audience followed along with their own rope. He preferred the words kinbaku and kinbaku-bi to describe his work and spoke of the person in rope as a canvas, and the paper noted that he had performed suspension at a fetish party earlier that year.

A performance in Art Week

In December 2024 Miami New Times previewed a show billed for Miami Art Week: the rope artist Hajime Kinoko and the model Marie Sauvage were to perform at the Ground on 4 December. The plan was for Kinoko and a team of volunteers to spend about an hour building a rope installation, after which he would tie Sauvage and suspend her from it for roughly another hour, to DJ sets. Kinoko told the paper that trust between the partners and the model’s safety matter most. The paper presented the Miami date as the opening of a United States tour that was to continue to Chicago, Detroit, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. How Kinoko’s school spreads through licensed teachers is described on the Ichinawa-kai page.

A community group

Kinbaku Miami is a community group that describes its purpose as embracing the art of Japanese rope in Miami and connecting people through it. In 2026 it held a rope jam on the last Tuesday of every month at Dear Eleanor, a community arts space. The listing calls the jam community-led and open to all levels, says it is not a class, and mentions hardpoints for suspension, props such as bamboo and loaner rope. In May 2026 the group also presented a beginner-to-intermediate class on lower-body harnesses with two guest teachers, and Dear Eleanor’s calendar has listed rope classes by other teachers as well. For advice on finding rope while visiting a city, see Rope when you travel.

Finding your way in

Kinbaku Miami’s pages are in English. At a jam, people tie, get tied or watch, and nobody teaches a set lesson; Rope jams, munches and salons explains how jams differ from classes, and What happens at a first shibari class describes a typical beginner lesson.