Gyaku ebi 逆海老縛り

Gyaku ebi (逆海老) means reverse shrimp. Where the ebi folds the body forward over crossed legs, this tie bends it the other way: Japanese Wikipedia describes the upper body being tied and the feet brought up from behind toward the head, and explains the name by the back arching in the opposite direction to the shrimp. English Wikipedia writes the tie as sakasa ebi shibari (逆さ海老縛り) and also lists a suspended form, gyaku ebi tsuri shibari.

Relation to the hogtie

Sources agree that gyaku ebi and the Western hogtie are close relatives. Japanese Wikipedia says English speakers call it a hogtie, and Rope365 gives gyaku ebi shibari as a Japanese name for the hogtie, a tie with the ankles and wrists joined at the back. Shibari Study draws a finer line: in gyaku ebi the arch of the back is pronounced, and the form is commonly made by tying the legs into a gote, either from ties on the ankles or hips or from futomomo. Crash Restraint, by contrast, files several hogtie variants under basic floorwork.

In suspension

Shibari Study lists gyaku ebi zuri (逆海老吊り) as the suspended version and notes that it can be done in many ways, but is most often a face-down suspension. The same glossary defines utsubuse zuri as a face-down suspension, so the suspended gyaku ebi usually belongs to that family and carries the risks of full suspension.

Variations by teacher and school

• Shibari Study describes Gorgone’s Gyaku Ebi, Hog Tie course as three classes covering floorwork, partial suspension and a full transition; Kinbaku World read the public course listing, not the lessons. Gorgone uses a TK3 and a fast leg tie, and the course page says a simple chest harness can replace the TK3 in the floor version. The page rates the three parts for different levels of experience.
• Reborn Ropes, a rope seller, defines the gyaku ebi as the shibari version of the hogtie in which the feet are connected to a gote or a chest harness so that the body arches backward. It lists the hogtie as a separate entry, a Western-style tie with the back and legs arched.
• English Wikipedia describes a reverse shrimp with a chest harness, joined ankles and a face-down position. Wikipedia also calls the tie a Japanese hog-tie or crossbow tie.
• Eric Shore, a Lyon teacher, writes that the gyaku ebi is very similar to the Western hogtie, with hands and feet tied together behind the back, that many versions exist, simple and complex, and that it is a very strict position for very flexible people.
• Bob Roos of RopeMarks shows a suspended form in which each leg is hung separately, and says that suspension raises the physical demands of the position.
• LA Rope Dojo’s 2015 class announcement said that Master K and Zetsu would teach a basic gyaku ebi shibari together with the agura and the ebi. See the hogtie page for how Western teachers build the hogtie.

How it developed

The name is built from the ebi: Shibari Study derives it from gyaku, reverse, and ebi, shrimp, and Japanese Wikipedia explains it by the back arching opposite to the shrimp. The sources describe the tie’s history at different levels of detail. LA Rope Dojo’s 2015 class announcement calls the ebi and the gyaku ebi two famous torture ties from Edo-period Japan and says the gyaku ebi is the Japanese version of the hogtie. RopeMarks says only that the position is associated historically with coercive restraint, including interrogation, and gives no date. The Edo-period methods that Nipponica and Sekai Daihyakka Jiten list, as the ebi page describes, are whipping, stone-holding, ebi-zeme and hanging, and none is named as a reverse shrimp. Kinbaku World found no source establishing when gyaku ebi was first used or crediting it to a person.

Difficulty and risk

Kinbaku World lists gyaku ebi as intermediate because it is usually built on a gote, the arm tie the site rates at that level, even though simpler hogties appear in basic floorwork. Kinbaku World rates its risk as high. Shibari Study calls the position intense, and English Wikipedia notes that the hogtie position presses on the abdomen and can make breathing hard. Evidence from police restraint is mixed: Wikipedia’s article on positional asphyxia cites deaths associated with the hogtie or hobble prone position, while a 1997 laboratory study of healthy volunteers in that position measured reduced lung function without a meaningful drop in oxygen. Neither involves rope bondage, and the suspended form adds the risks of full suspension.