I’m delighted to say that all the hard work seems to be paying off and the sales of my shibari tutorial DVDs have got off to a flying start. We have already exceeded a target that I thought optimistic by Christmas and the huge piles of boxes of DVDs look less daunting. Sales have gone well from my own site, www.shibari.co, and they are now on Amazon.com and in my eBay shop.
The reviews are beginning to flood in now and, bar the inevitable bit of nit-picking, they have been glowing. I seems to have hit a c(h)ord combining the practical with the art of connecting with rope. Of course, they also fill the gap in the market for a comprehensive English language guide to authentic techniques as opposed to the heavily fusion based offerings to date. As more and more people get first or, at least second hand, tuition from Japanese masters, there seems to be a greater move towards purism and the tide seems to be turning against the bastardisation of traditional methods and calling anything vaguely Japanese style shibari. Of course, each to their own and what ever rocks their boat, no style can be said to be superior. We can be grateful for fusion and all the new styles that arise, e.g. neobari. However, I know what I like and what I prefer to teach.
Here are a few comments from reviews:
“…they are a great resource for any level of experience and for people that aren’t able to make it to classes they are the best resource I know for learning how to do rope bondage well.” Hebari
“…they are outstanding. I feel they are the best resource for the Japanese style that we have in the west.” Jimi Tatu
“I have never seen a tutorial that gives the idea of rope bondage that much soul.” Ralf
“…probably the best & handy resource material & tutorials available in the west and also very good in explaining the core of Shibari” 123Avalon
“Well fucking done sir! Best I’ve seen and worth every cent.” PopeBacon
“These dvds are extraordinarily simples, completes, detailed and really step by step explained: worth each euro they cost” Alchimia_bond
“The tutorials are excellent. They show genuine Japanese techniques, broken down into convenient , easy to follow bits, that often tell you why and not just what.” Guilty
“Yes, I would recommend these DVDs to all starters!” Matthias Grimme
I’m hoping these DVDs have raised the bar a little and would love them to become a classic reference work like Midori’s ‘Seductive Art of Japanese Bondage’. That book has stood the test of time and earns it’s place in history as one of the first to touch on the essence of kinbaku, connecting with rope. In fact, Midori has a lot to answer for. Little did I suspect attending her workshop in Conway Hall, over a decade ago, was the first step on a journey of a thousand miles; in fact, the 5,000 miles to Tokyo!