Yukimura-ryū 雪村流
The style of kinbaku developed by Yukimura Haruki — gentle and emotional, built on "caressing rope" rather than the hard, punishing rope of semenawa.
Yukimura-ryū is the style of kinbaku that Yukimura Haruki developed over many years of teaching. In his own description it is a gentle, loving way of tying, set apart from the hard, punishing kind of rope bondage that Japanese calls semenawa.
At its center is aibu no nawa, “caressing rope”, Yukimura’s own name for his way of tying: the rigger controls the tension of the rope in order to pass emotion on to the partner. Yukimura named three essential elements: controlling the tension at the ends of the rope (nawajiri), the tie you choose, and admiring the pose in which your partner is tied.
Shibari Dojo’s biography of Yukimura adds that he put emotion, shame and intimacy at the heart of kinbaku, with the wordless exchange between rigger, rope and partner at its core. It describes his Shibuya studio in Tokyo as a place that both Japanese and foreign practitioners looked to, and notes that only a small number of his students ever received a bakushi name or the right to teach.
Characteristics
- Aibu no nawa — "caressing rope"
- Control of rope tension to transmit emotion
- Choice of ties
- Appreciation of the partner's posed position