Online Class: Searching for the Heart of Kinbaku: A History of Japanese Rope and the People Who Created It

Register Online at Voxbody

The history of kinbaku in Japan is a story that has been told many times. It has also been the site of conflict and struggle for grounding what kinbaku means today. Is it a noble and artistic pursuit following the glorious traditions of the ancient samurai? Is it dirty, sexual, hentai play that found its true expression in strip clubs and the Japanese adult video industry? Is it the product of kinky perverts trying to make a living doing bondage at the end of the Showa era as bondage magazines, stage shows, and VHS video started to become increasingly available?

In a way it is all of those things and more. Every story that is told about the history of kinbaku has something to teach us about what it is we do today. This presentation is not the history of Japanese rope, but rather a history. In that sense it is much more personal reflection and interpretation rather than history per se.

It is also an invitation for everyone who attends to write their own history of kinbaku, to find the stories that are meaningful and that resonate in a way that can give meaning to your own experience and practice and to imbue it with a richness that can make your connection to rope more meaningful and more personal.

My story is one of discovery. Starting with computer bulletin board systems in the 1980s, where I saw my first images of kinbaku and which ultimately led me to Japan in 2006 to start my studies of kinbaku. Along the way, I have amassed a collection of books, videos, ephemera and memories and have had countless discussions with practitioners in Japan that has led me to dig deeper into the question

“What is the heart of kinbaku?”

My story begins with the stories of three men, Ito Seiu, Minomura Kou, and Tsujimura Takashi and how their lives, as well as their styles of rope, created the basis for much of what we call kinbaku today. Along the way, I discuss Osada Eikichi and the invention of the kinbaku stage show, Nureki Chimuo’s Kinbiken salons, Urado Hiroshi and Pink Eiga films, Akechi Denki and the evolution of rope styles, and Yukimura Haruki’s style of caressing rope.

PLEASE NOTE THAT EVENT TIME IS 7pm PACIFIC TIME. WE ARE HOSTING FROM OAKLAND, CA.
* We will send the Zoom link and password upon registration. Therefore we are not able to offer refunds for any tickets for online classes purchased at any time. Thank you for understanding!

* There will be no recording of this class.

About the presenter:

Zetsu has been studying kinbaku since 2006. His personal collection includes more than 700 Japanese books and magazines on kinbaku and over 1,000 videos, including some of the first publications of Japanese erotic rope bondage.He has spent time studying rope (and kinbaku photography) with Urado Hiroshi, Naka Akira, Chiba Eizo, Murasaki, Ibarako, Sugiura Norio, and Osada Steve in Japan and in 2013 was accepted into Yukimura Haruki’s school as Haru Yutaka and became the 5th person to be given an instructor’s license to teach Yukimura Ryuu. In 2017, he was accepted as a student in Miura Takumi’s Bakuyukai dojo in Sugamo, Tokyo. He is the founder and head instructor of LA Rope, a teaching space in Los Angeles, founded in 2011. LA Rope hosted the first workshops in America to be taught by Japanese instructors (Yukimura Haruki in 2012 and Naka Akira in 2014). He is the founder and editor of the online rope publication KinbakuToday.com and is the author of Discovering Kinbaku: What my Adventures in Japan Taught Me About the Art of Erotic Rope Bondage (2019).