Japanese bondage
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Shibari[1] is a Japanese word that literally means "to tie" or "to bind". It is used in Japan to describe the artful use of twine to tie objects or packages. Kinbaku is the word for "bondage" or Kinbaku-bi which means "beautiful bondage". Kinbaku (also Sokubaku) is a Japanese style of sexual bondage or BDSM which involves tying up the bottom using simple yet visually intricate patterns, usually with several pieces of thin rope (generally 6mm or 8mm). The word Shibari came in to common use in the west at some point in the 1990s to describe the bondage art Kinbaku. Nobuyoshi Araki has introduced Japanese bondage to the artistic mainstream.
History
Although some of the techniques of Japanese sexual bondage originated with the military restraint technique of Hojojutsu, sexual bondage techniques are far gentler, and great care is taken to avoid injury.
Many rope artists have derived their own flavor of Japanese-inspired bondage which often mixes some Shibari techniques with other forms of bondage, often referred to as Fusion. Kinbaku/shibari is greatly influenced by the Sengoku period of Japan. One of Japan's darkest historical eras of torture and execution, it is still remembered for cruel means and methods that include the use of fire, knives, tattoos, boiling water, divining blocks and rocking horses, etc. Eventually (in 1742) the Tokugawa government created a foundation of criminal laws, which included the seven different types of punishment (Labour, slavery, exile, death, etc.) and the four kinds of torture (whipping, pressing with stones, constriction by rope, a position known as ebi-shibari (shrimp tie), and rope suspension).
According to several sources, bondage as a sexual activity first came to notice in Japan in the late Edo period. Generally recognized as "father of Kinbaku" is Seiu Ito, who started studying and researching Hojojutsu in 1908 and turned it into an art form. Kinbaku became widely popular in Japan in the 1950s through magazines such as Kitan Club, which published the first naked bondage photographs. In the 1960s, Eikechi Osada brought performance bondage to the public eye.
In recent years, shibari has become popular in the Western BDSM scene in its own right and has also profoundly influenced bondage, combining to produce many 'fusion' styles.
