Recently, there has been quite a bit about Japanese rope bondage in the media. The good news is that Japanese rope bondage is being positive portrayed positively and as a performance art. For far too long, the media treated BDSM as a freak-show and rarely taking the trouble to discover why people enjoyed seemingly bizarre activities. In fact, the weirder the kink and the people, the better. I am most gratified to see intelligent journalism in reputable media and that very often those journalists are able to recognise and appreciate what we do. Even if it doesn’t rock their boat, they treat the subject respectfully. Shibari is definitely moving out of the shadows judging by the examples given in Dazed magazine’s: ‘How the Japanese art of rope bondage hit pop culture’ which has the sub-heading ‘Shibari has been making its way into the mainstream – we talk to contemporary performers who’ve fallen in love with the ancient, evolving art form‘.
It’s a nice article but I should correct two things it says about about me. I only mention myself, not from an egocentric point of view, but because I’m the only person I can speak for.
Firstly, I apparently say “…it differs from its Japanese and US counterparts because the scene here is performance-centric“. This does not make sense to me. I am not sure what that was meant to convey as I can’t think of any comparison with the UK scene that would lump the US and Japan together. As far as I know, the concept of public kinbaku shows began with Eikichi Osada, Osada Steve’s sensei. I became aware of shows here in London in the late 90’s with people Nawashi Murakawa and Kazuyo performing at Torture Garden. The latter routinely used UV ropes, so we had ‘cyber shows’ here long ago. In the west, shibari shows are probably less underground and the shibari porn industry is negligible. In contrast, many Japanese nawashi are prolific with 100’s if not 1,000’s of video productions and a constant circuit of shows in strip clubs or similar venues.
I recall saying that Americans generally have a different concept of shibari as theirs has a more western flavour from the likes of Lee Harrington, Midori, Lew Rubens et al, whereas as Europe had more early exposure to Japanese teachers. Let’s face it, how many “Recommend me sources for learning shibari” threads get posts from our cousins across The Pond saying Two Knotty Boys?
Secondly, whilst Arisue Go was my first Japanese teacher, he is certainly not the only one. Although, I can’t deny he opened my eyes. I met Arisue more than 10 years ago when he dropped by to one of my classes while in London accompanying his partner who was in a dance production here. As a result, the next year, I went to Japan for a month spending a couple of weeks doing lessons with him. However, Osada Steve is probably my main influence but I have received lessons from and been exposed to many other influences from Japanese masters.
I was also interviewed about BOUND by After Dark, a classy top-end adult magazine. Oh, yes, BOUND is moving up in the world! Don’t forget to join us forthe first of the year on Friday 17 February.
You can see the After Dark article here. I’m delighted with it. Once again, a little something has been lost in translation in the mention of the Love shoot being attributed to the ‘infamous Ian Marcus’. I am not sure who he is. Google seems to favour a gentleman with some acumen in the financial world with no obvious photographic skills and no mention of any cause for notoriety either, bar being involved in the financial world, of course 🙂 The shoot was, thankfully, by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott who both know a lot more about taking photos and probably a lot less about banking. However, I hear this minor error is being corrected.
It goes to show you can’t believe everything you read in the press but it’s great to see good articles with such a positive view. We need this sort of reporting as the internet seems to be becoming quite censorial, at least in the UK. First, we had acts like face-sitting and gushing designated as ‘extreme porn’ and the same legislation effectively created though crime. If you saved certain scenes from movies freely available and BBFC certified in a folder called Porn, for example, it would then become illegal because of the intent demonstrated. Now, we have an attempt to enforce age verification on sites that could be deeded as ‘porn’ which seems to have worryingly wide and woolly definition.