Shibaraku-shiki 縛楽式
The Tokyo method of bakushi Takase Shinnosuke, which presents itself as a dialogue-based, embracing style of contemporary kinbaku and is taught in small classes alongside the Shibaraku salon.
Shibaraku-shiki, which its own site also calls the Shibaraku Method, is the way of tying taught by Takase Shinnosuke, a bakushi working mainly in Tokyo. The method’s site names the style “Houbaku-style Contemporary Kinbaku”, rendered here as hōbaku, and describes it as a dialogue-based form of kinbaku in which contemporary technique is applied to an embracing, hug-like practice.
Setting
The method is one part of the Shibaraku project, Takase’s umbrella for his rope activities. The project describes three parts: the Shibaraku kinbaku salon, a space where people who want to tie, people who want to be tied and the curious can meet; the Shibaraku-shiki classes; and a small online shop for rope goods. Takase’s profile describes the project’s purpose as research and practice that shares kinbaku as a culture of the body. The project’s site carries a copyright line from 2021; none of the pages gives a founding date for the method itself.
Character
Two ideas run through the school’s description of itself. The first is embrace: the profile states that the classes are built on embracing kinbaku, which the school calls hōbaku. The second is dialogue: the project frames rope as embracing communication and the method as an interactive style of kinbaku.
The school publishes a series of guide essays arranged under three headings, technique, interaction and cultural context. The titles on the method’s home page in November 2026 dealt with finishing hemp rope and how it meets the skin, with receiving a partner’s reactions through the rope, and with the relationship between kinbaku and SM. Lesson materials and a kinbaku glossary are listed as in preparation.
Teaching
Classes are held in small groups and open to the public, starting with the basics, and are booked in advance through the site. Takase’s profile also lists a broader program of community and study events since 2019, including a rope study circle, a Saturday daytime salon and a kinbaku philosophy dialogue, together with courses on avoiding and responding to rope accidents (2023), on learning about the body in rope (2024) and a kinbaku lifesaving course (2025).
Characteristics
- Embracing, hug-like rope (hōbaku)
- Rope framed as dialogue between partners
- Small-group classes from the basics upward
- Writing on technique, interaction and cultural context