Shinju 真珠

A shinju is a chest harness that holds the upper body without binding the arms; the name, 真珠, is the ordinary Japanese word for pearl. English Wikipedia describes rope running above, below and between the breasts, joined to a halter that passes over the shoulders and behind the neck, and calls the word a euphemism for breast bondage. Voudou Ropes reduces the shinju to two bands of rope, one above the breasts and one below. This page describes the tie; it does not teach it.

The name

The name is contested. English Wikipedia reports that, despite popular claims, a tie called shinju is not found in historic or present-day kinbaku, citing The Duchy. Shibari Study says the word is often applied to chest harnesses that emphasize the breasts and prefers munenawa (chest rope), while Rope365 files both shinju and munenawa as synonyms of the chest harness. In practice, then, shinju is less one fixed pattern than a widely used label for a family of breast-framing harnesses.

Uses

A chest harness can stand on its own or serve as the base that other ties attach to, as cee explains in Autostraddle’s Shibari 101 series. Autostraddle calls its tutorial a basic chest harness and does not use the word shinju; it is compared on this page because Rope365’s vocabulary gives shinju as one name for the chest harness, the family this tie belongs to. Crash Restraint’s tie index shows the range of the shinju family: a shinju sits among its basic floorwork ties, a reverse shinju among the intermediate ones, and a separate shinju under introductory suspension. In a reader reply, cee warns that a basic chest harness used for suspension would hurt and could damage the ribs, and recommends suspending only with experienced help.

Before you tie

• Rope. Reborn Ropes ties its shinju with two 8 metre jute ropes and has to add the second rope part-way through. Autostraddle’s basic chest harness gives no length, but says you may need to extend the rope during the tie.
• Skills first. Autostraddle expects you to know the single column tie and the double column tie (single column tie, double column tie). Voudou Ropes names the single column tie and the ladder tie as the base of a shinju.
• Talk first. Before any rope goes on, Voudou Ropes asks the person being tied about earlier chest or shoulder injuries, operations and nerve problems, and settles how they will say at once that something feels wrong.
• Body areas at risk. The chest and the armpits. Keep the upper band off the armpits, because wraps that pass high under the arms can affect the nerves and blood vessels of the arm (Voudou Ropes; see also the safety notes above).
• What to check while tying. Voudou Ropes checks that two fingers slide easily under the upper band, the lower band and wherever rope crosses a shoulder or runs under an arm, and re-ties a band that fails; this is a first check, not proof that the tie is safe. Autostraddle asks for snug but never so tight that breathing suffers. Rope365 says to keep checking whether the person can open and close their hands, to touch the skin to catch the first numbness, and that skin colour alone is a poor sign of circulation; ask. If the hands or arms tingle or go numb, undo the rope at once.
• Shears. Keep safety shears within reach, ideally on your body (Rope365; Voudou Ropes).
• Read safety before you start, and find in-person teaching on the places pages.

Where to see it tied

These are free public tutorials by the teachers named below. Kinbaku World has not tested them. In-person teaching is linked under “Before you tie”.

• Anastasia, Voudou Ropes: Shinju Shibari Chest Harness is an 11:17 video in English with spoken explanation (automatic English captions), filmed outdoors with a standing, clothed person being tied. The description labels it for beginners, gives 1.5 to 2 ropes of 8 metres, and says the harness is not for suspension; the narration says the same (2:52 to 2:58). It adds a second short rope partway through with a lark’s head (6:09 to 6:21). The article that carries the video adds a written section on the armpits, collarbones and a two-finger check.
• Taller de Bondage: Shinju con kanukis is a 2:17 video in Spanish with spoken explanation (automatic Spanish captions), shown on a standing, clothed person. It teaches a variant: the teacher presents it as a variation on the traditional shinju, the title names kanukis, and the narration mentions friction (1:00 to 1:17). It opens with a Spanish card recommending in-person classes.

Variations by teacher and school

• Order of the wraps. Autostraddle lays its wraps below the chest first and the wraps above the chest after them. Reborn Ropes starts with a wrap above the chest and adds the lower wraps under the breasts afterwards.
• Where the lower wrap sits. Reborn Ropes adapts the lower wrap to the body: close under the breasts on a person who has them, otherwise across the pectoral muscle a little below nipple height.
• How the front is finished. Reborn Ropes shows four front patterns on the same base: a turn, a teardrop, a locked teardrop (which it says looks neater), and two twists.
• Knot where the shoulder ropes cross at the back. Reborn Ropes ties a nodome (a decorative friction knot) there and shows how only in photos, which Kinbaku World has not checked; Autostraddle passes the ends through the ropes without a named knot.
• One rope, doubled, and more wraps for a larger body. Lazarus Redmayne’s Shinju tutorial at TheDuchy works from the middle of one long rope (his demonstration uses about 9 metres of 6 mm natural fibre on a small model, and he says more rope may be needed), and locks each strap with a half hitch; his photo series starts with the lower strap, his video with the upper one. He places the lower strap around the middle of the chest and cautions against letting it sit on the floating ribs. He gives two wraps per strap as the base and advises three to five for a larger frame, and he treats a second twist on the shoulder strap as optional.
• Number of half hitches at the end. Autostraddle makes one half hitch on the vertical rope along the spine; Reborn Ropes makes two.
• Two bands. Voudou Ropes describes the shinju as a lower band below the breasts and an upper band between the breasts and collarbones, joined front and back in a V, and does not give the knots.
• Reverse shinju and suspension versions. Crash Restraint’s index lists a reverse shinju and a separate shinju for suspension by name only (see Uses above); how they are built is not described here.

Difficulty and risk

Crash Restraint lists the floor shinju as basic, so Kinbaku World rates it beginner. Because the harness wraps the chest and passes near the armpits, its risk is given as moderate rather than low; suspension versions carry the higher risks of suspension.