Some while back, I wrote an article concerning the provenance of the ‘Osada’ element of Steve’s name and I have been promising a translation of a meeting where this is mentioned in SM Sniper. After many months and much hassling, I finally have the long awaited translation of the SM Sniper article featuring a conversation between Saotome Hiromi, Osada Kazumi, Osada Steve and Mori Miki. I confess it has only been fairly recently that I have appreciated that Japanese/English translation is not as easy as one might assume. I made my assumptions based on my limited knowledge of Roman languages but Japanese is a different story. It seems some things are almost untranslatable.
This article gives a bio of Eikichi Osada by NuitdeTokyo, who is an excellent source of reference as he has a fanatical interest in Japanese SM history, excellent contacts and extremely good Japanese having lived there many years.
I trust this will set the record straight after the libellous allegations made by Jimi Tatu that Steve had somehow ‘stolen’ the Osada name (see ‘Kiss Me Slander‘, Tokyobound blog). Unfortunately, as Steve says, Tatu had the quoted extracts of his emails deleted with a DMCA take-down notice. However, I saw the exchange before this happened. Maybe it is as well that Tatu’s odious comments were removed as they included , for example, “have a nice life, what’s left of it” at a time when the rest of us were deeply concerned for Steve’s health. Although, it is a shame that is not recorded publicly any longer as it gives the lie to Tatu’s pious postings and hypocritical signature ‘Harmony, Purity, Respect, Tranquility’.
The first bit of evidence is the final paragraph from an article in SM Sniper from 2001 where Eikichi’s intimate friends gathered for a round table talk.
Speakers:
Hiromi Saotome =H
Kazumi Osada =K
Steve Osada =S
Miki Mori =M
K: In time, when it’s agreed, we will announce his first successor. Lol. Steve likes Osada sensei.
H: Cool, Steve becomes Osada Eikichi’s successor. Lol. I think you should go for it if you want to.
K: If someone can technically get close to sensei, you know… The most important thing is to do it with his spirit, sincerely from the heart. If somebody has that, it’s OK by me.
H: In fact, I have seen many type of shows of many people but nothing else like the way Osada Seminar did it.
K: When Sensei was alive, he said “I don’t think someone else like me will be coming up”. Lol.
M: Good luck, you have my support, Steve.
S: I’ll do my best!
H: Good to hear. Lol.
Due to the nature of written Japanese, it is vital to not only fully know the context but also the subject. As this section is extremely important, the text has been translated by Aizen Kaguya, a professional translator with 10 years’ experience in consultation with Ren Yagami. She has worked on many important projects including the Fukushima disaster and medical translations whilst also having an excellent knowledge of kinbaku. Thus, you can be assured that the rendition is as close to the original as possible.
Yagami-san has promised to provide more concrete evidence but just during our chat pulled up another article on Web Sniper which he read out. I’ll post a transcript but, in essence, it said the Eikeichi Osada had said many times that Steve would be his successor.
If you want an instant ban on Adult Rope Art or Shibari Kinbaku Rope Art, just re-post this there 😀
You can read the full article here.