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There appear to be quite a few incidents due to failures of suspension line tie offs. We had a minor one on a course I was running where a student failed to tie off and merely used frictions. Luckily, no harm was done apart from a bruised ego and severly ‘bent ear’ from me. We …

I have deliberated much upon the short-comings of the traditional reef knot style tie off used in, for example, the wrist tie of many takate-kotes. It seems to me that this type of knot is most unsuitable for a load at 90 degrees as this will often capsize the knot into hitches, which have the …

No, aural, i.e. sound, not oral sex! Not that anything precludes the latter, of course. As I frequently say, kinbaku is not about knots and all about the way you use rope to create the experience. I often compare ‘just tying’ with eating simply to fill your stomach, which could be achieved with a bag …

Let me preface this with the usual “I am not a doctor”! The information is provided in good faith; it has been obtained from personal experience or reputable sources and checked by various well-qualified medical personnel and riggers but opinions vary, knowledge changes and this is not a well-researched area. Most of all, people vary, …

I recently ran intermediate and advanced courses in which I taught the standard OS TK and revised the tie with those who professed to know it. Almost all of those who already had a good idea of how to complete the steps, and many of those who were taught from scratch, were leaving insufficient safety …

Written by Rida after a newaza session with me at Kinoko’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’ happening bar during the Toubaku week. I take her words as a great compliment as they echo my feelings about the session and express very eloquently what effect kinbaku can have when one uses the rope and doesn’t just tie mechanically. It …

In my experience, side suspension carries a higher risk of radial nerve injury in the upper arm area on the side nearest the ground. It seems logical that since all the weight is transferred to one side, rather than distributed across the torso and both arms, that this would be so. I suspect most problems …

As a special offer, members of this site can get a ‘cash-back trade-in’ on their copy Douglas Kent’s ‘Complete Shibari: Land‘ against Volume II of my tutorial DVD ‘Japanese Rope Bondage: Tying people, not parcels.‘. The deal is simple. Buy a copy of Volume II at the normal retail of $44.95 (shipped) and upon return …

It was observed on one of the forums that many of the Japanese rope masters, e.g. Randa Mai, Arisue Go, Osada Steve, seem to start a takate-kote in much the same way. Namely, the wrist tie commences with the bight passing upwards between the wrists and the back, then completed as a standard single column …

I discovered this video in which Randa Mai shows how he rigs a suspension point and discusses kinbaku. There are also links to various other videos of his work in this article.