Japanese rope bondage master Osada Steve has launched the World Kinbaku Federation, a new organization that "strives to protect and preserve authentic kinbaku as practiced in Japan."
Osada notes the rich and layered history of kinbaku (also known as shibari), which traces its origins back to the use of rope in the martial arts and developed into forms of rope torture and, in the postwar period, a type of erotic and BDSM practice. Thanks to the internet, kinbaku is now globally known and practiced, and Osada's own proactive efforts with his online platforms have definitely played a strong ...
As regular readers will know, Osada Steve is a true rope master who practices the Osada-ryu school of shibari (kinbaku) bondage and is something of a legend in the Japanese BDSM scene.
We interviewed Osada-sensei about six months ago to find out more about his amazing career, how he entered the secret world of shibari rope bondage, and his insights on the future of kinbaku.
Now he has let us know about a new project he recently launched: a "toy salon" where top-quality Japanese female pleasure items can be tested under the expert guidance of trained counselors.
In addition to the various ...
Following our recent interview with kinbaku rope master Steve Osada, we were interested to read this interview with a very different kind of rope artist, Hajime Kinoko, in Tokyo Weekender last month.
Kinoko notes that he prefers shibari to kinbaku to describe his style of rope bondage, regarding the latter as about emotional exchange with a model during a session, and the former as more general.
Kinoko is known for his high-profile collaborations and more artistic style, which may involve tying a model to an object like a motorcycle.
"I am actually closer to an artisan, like a chef," ...
"Shibari is 90% emotional. The other half is technical."
Following our earlier article about Steve Osada's online Japanese rope bondage learning platform, Kinbaku Academy, we sat down with the rope master for a conversation about his career and the state of shibari/kinbaku today.
Steve Osada (also often referred to using the Japanese name order, Osada Steve) inherited the Osada name in 2001 from grandmaster Eikichi Osada when he died. They had first met in 1998 for a photo shoot and Steve eventually started helping the grandmaster with his weekly shows as a pulley operator. The rest, as ...
Kinbaku (shibari) rope bondage sensei Steve Osada, formerly known as the photographer Dr D Vice, is the inheritor of the Osada name and tying style (Osada-ryu) from Eikichi Osada.
The late master is one of the people responsible for making kinbaku known in the mainstream. He staged his first kinbaku performance at a ballet school in Asagaya, Tokyo, in 1965, which ushered the previously hidden world of rope bondage into the open. He subsequently moved his performance act to the strip show venue circuit in the late 1970s. In the 1980s, he did many shows with pink movie legend Hiromi Saotome, ...
Feti Fes is Japan's top fetish festival. We have attended before and previously posted photo reports that readers seemed to like.
It's the kind of event where every little room, cubbyhole, or booth is dedicated to a whole other fetish. Participants include chika (underground) and gravure idols, ero-cosplayers, fetish service providers, and goods and merchandise retailers.
After postponement due to the pandemic -- obviously, given the nature of the event, it's hardly compatible with social distancing guidelines -- Feti Fes 19 was finally held in April. We were not able to attend but, as we ...
Shibari, the Japanese art of rope bondage, is a sexual subculture, something confined to certain clubs and establishments, right? Wrong.
As one event proved, shibari (also known as kinbaku) is also very visible in the streets of Tokyo.
On May 7, Hajime Kinoko, probably the most successful and well-known shibari rope artist in Japan, created an outdoor installation on the walls of a venue in Cat Street, a shopping street in Harajuku, central Tokyo.
The installation involved him and his team suspending five female models (one of whom was Lisa M, aka Lisa Mizuno) in shibari positions on the ...
We loved her when she was a braless Uber Eats cyclist, delivering alluring charm around the city. We loved her when she was a ring girl.
We really loved her when she was in sexy lingerie or semi-nude for gravure shoots.
We didn't think we could love Yu Maria (マリア友) anymore, but we were wrong.
The bronze-tanned, big-lipped haafu hottie has now teamed up with renowned shibari master Hajime Kinoko for a Japanese rope bondage photo shoot. And the results are as awesome as you'd expected from such a collaboration and concept.
The shots have a striking red or white theme. Maria's body ...
Was this inevitable? Everything seems to be getting in on the non-fungible tokens boom, which has now reached the Japanese adult industry.
The legendary shibari (kinbaku) rope bondage artist Hajime Kinoko is going sell an NFT of the latest entry in his "red" series of bondage images -- his first NFTs release and his first all-digital addition to the series.
The project is organized in partnership with Zak Shibuya of Reality Production Management (RPM Tokyo), which is planning an Instagram launch event and charity event to accompany the NFT.
It's another first for renowned Hajime Kinoko: ...
Sex education is notoriously inadequate in Japan, contributing to the relatively low usage of condoms by young people.
But it seems some pedagogues are determined to make up for this in other areas of teaching.
At least, that might appear to be the logic partially behind why an educational event at Kyoto University recently included a live demonstration of shibari Japanese rope bondage.
Pics and tweets about the incident went viral last week in Japan, not least because of the incongruous notion of a renowned institution hosting such a sexual subculture.
Kyoto University is one of the most ...
