Japanese bondage art is a subset of BDSM that, for the untrained eye, doesn’t appear all that different from Western bondage. If you still don’t know what BDSM means, it stands for Bondage and Discipline, Sadism and Masochism. Japanese bondage obviously falls under the B in BDSM.
Bondage has gotten a lot of attention in recent years thanks to movies like Fifty Shades of Grey which alerted even the most vanilla of suburban moms to the concept of kink. Usually, it’s just the “slap on a pair of handcuffs and call it a day” kind of BDSM, but it wouldn’t be surprising if more than a few people have gone down the BDSM rabbit hole.
Heck, maybe that’s you and you’ve already tried all that Western bondage has to offer. Maybe you’d like a more sensual experience that can put you in the zone. If that’s the case, maybe Japanese bondage is what you need in your bedroom right now.
What Makes Japanese Bondage Art Different?
If you’ve ever found yourself entangled for an evening, you may have experienced something that bondage enthusiasts call rope space. If you haven’t, it’s described as a meditative state that the subject (or rope bunny, if you want to get technical) enters during the time they’re tied up.
You’d think being tied up would be a distressing experience, but done right, a few feet of rope can send endorphins rushing through your head and body as the feel of rope on your skin grounds you in the moment. Stripped of the stigma that often comes with kink-related practices, bondage and the rope space it inspires aren’t too different from mindfulness activities.
While rope space can be achieved through Western-style BDSM, Japanese bondage has a stronger association with the meditative uses of BDSM.
Japanese bondage comes in two different packages: shibari and kinbaku. The question of whether a certain Japanese bondage practice is called shibari or kinbaku comes down to how individual practitioners and their communities want to describe the practice.
Let’s start with shibari which comes from the Japanese shibaru meaning “to tie.” Some people believe shibari to be an ancient Japanese bondage art form and they might be right because the linguistic origins of shibaru appear to predate the importation of Chinese characters into Japanese.
On the other hand, you have kinbaku, written as 緊縛, which roughly means “to tie securely in a tight way.” Based on this, we can infer that kinbaku’s goal is to eliminate the possibility of movement while shibari doesn’t preclude the possibility of moving.
For simplicity’s sake, we’ll be talking about shibari which I hope minimizes the risk of angry Japanese bondage practitioners showing up at my door to tie me up in an unfun way.
Because of the differences in how Japanese bondage is conceptualized, some practitioners have tried to provide three pillars for what shibari is. Shibari to these practitioners consists of three main characteristics: beautiful, effective, and of a Japanese aesthetic.
Unlike Western bondage, which is more akin to kinbaku, shibari can be and often is divorced from sexual acts. Indeed, some exhibitionists treat shibari as a performance. Naturally, this is where beauty comes in as the practice of shibari takes a keen focus on the aesthetics of tying someone up or being tied up.
Compare this to Western bondage, which is often associated with degradation kinks, and you can see how stark of a contrast that focus on beauty can be.
Next, shibari is intended to be effective. While this form of Japanese bondage puts an emphasis on beauty, the bindings are never solely decorative. Unlike kinbaku and Western bondage, which eliminate even the idea of escape, the art of shibari calls for tying the rope in a way that the model feels as if they could escape even though they really can’t.
It’s an exercise in effective mental and physical restraint as both the mind and body relax into the rope, accepting that there’s no getting out of the bindings so you may as well just relax and enjoy the ride.
Lastly, you have the requisite that shibari should have a uniquely Japanese aesthetic. What exactly is meant by this? It’s hard to be exact as aesthetics naturally tend to overlap and it’s one of those “you’ll know it when you see it” things after you get used to seeing it.
That said, the Japanese aesthetic, even when separated from shibari, is centered on principles of wabi-sabi, which emphasizes the beauty of things that are simple, flawed, and impermanent. wabi-sabi, and by extension, shibari’s, beauty lies in its simplicity.
At the risk of sounding pretentious, Japanese bondage performances take a step-by-step approach to showing off the process of binding, undressing or dressing, and unbinding. The model is firmly yet gently wrapped in a rope cocoon and sheds her ornaments and clothing.
She spends a few brief moments suspended in mid-air and we get a chance to admire the rigger’s handiwork and the dream-like lack of tension in the model’s body before he gently lowers her in a gradual process that gives the impression that the model is descending back into the real world. Out of rope space.
But it would be misleading to pretend that Japanese bondage is this mystical Japanese art that totally has nothing to do with sex because, let’s not kid ourselves, it totally does.
Yes, Japanese Bondage Can Still Be Sexual
Just so we don’t end up assigning mystical aspects to shibari, here’s what an actual Japanese shibari master born and raised in Japan, who we can thus assume has a better grasp of the cultural context and significance of shibari, has to say about this Japanese bondage art.
YouTube content creator Akidearest, who’s known for her interesting, strange, and interestingly strange content related to Japanese culture, visited Arcadia Tokyo, a popular rope bar located in Shinjuku, to have a chat with Doyama Tessin — also to get tied up because why else would you go to a rope bar?
Doyama Tessin has practiced shibari for over 20 years with half of that in the professional Japanese bondage scene.
Yes, professional. There’s a thriving professional shibari scene in Japan that has helped in the success of both Arcadia Tokyo and Arcadia Osaka. With his experience, Doyama has become a shibari superstar and has performed for audiences worldwide along with giving seminars on how to get into shibari.
One of his experiences in shibari involved a woman coming up to him after an event in Moscow. The lady then asked him to tie up her daughter.
“They were both just perverted,” Doyama casually remarked.
Doyama tries to reconcile the artistic and sexual aspects of shibari in a way that makes sense to people who aren’t part of the scene.
“Shibari is a lot like painting a picture or making a plastic model,” he explained. “When we first started shibari, it was conceived as just being a type of foreplay before intercourse. But once we got more into it, we realized that shibari is the entire play, and that made it exciting.”
So, does Doyama practice Japanese bondage for the art or the sex?
In his own words, “I’m just kinky.”
Finding Your Way in the Japanese Bondage Community
Subay, a Hong Kong-based shibari artist, sees shibari’s restraints as a way of uncovering the model’s desires and emotions. Even within Japan, where the practice of Japanese bondage originated, shibari and kinbaku are taboo practices. Doyama Tessin himself has experienced this since both his wife and father have practically begged him to stop practicing shibari.
Likely aware of the perceptions people have about BDSM as a whole, Subay believes that the Japanese bondage subculture shouldn’t go mainstream as a lot of people still think of it as violent and perverted.
But is shibari really destined to stay an obscure subculture? Probably not. The topic has been gaining popularity since BDSM became more popular. A 2005 survey conducted by Durex, way before the Fifty Shades boom, found that 36% of adults in the United States had introduced BDSM tools into their bedroom.
Common items included masks, blindfolds, rope, and handcuffs. These days, especially if the increased presence of BDSM in pop culture is to go by, that number has likely grown. Still, many people feel the need to hide their kinks which can make it hard to find reliable information and connect with experienced Japanese bondage practitioners.
Japanese Bondage Done the Safe Way
As with any BDSM-related practice, Japanese bondage is never 100% safe. Common concerns in both shibari, kinbaku, and Western bondage range from muscle pain to cutting off circulation to nerve damage.
Anyone looking to join the Japanese bondage scene needs to do their due diligence by finding accurate information and a good community that can help them pick up proper rope tying and safety practices.
If you’re the one looking to get tied up, it also won’t hurt to learn a bit of rope binding yourself as many Japanese bondage practitioners warn of fake artists and riggers who just want to haphazardly tie someone up. A little knowledge of the craft can help you separate the real deal from frauds who might end up killing you with their negligence.
For all the bad rep that Fifty Shades of Grey gets, it did get people used to the idea of having a safeword. A safeword is a way to show that you’re no longer comfortable or that you feel unsafe during play. No, a simple “no” or “don’t” doesn’t do as certain kinks, especially consensual non-consent kinks, involve pretend non-consent.
Speaking of consent, that’s also something you need to establish with a shibari partner before you get started. While you might be more than comfortable with being put into near-contortionist poses, a less experienced rigger might not be because duh, who wants to end up responsible for an accident? Before you get started on a Japanese bondage scene, make sure everyone involved is completely on board with it every step of the way.
Preparation isn’t the only thing important for a safe and enjoyable Japanese bondage session. What happens after rope play matters, too. BDSM practitioners call this aftercare and the idea is to provide for the rope bunny’s emotional and physical needs after play.
Play can get a little (or very) emotionally humiliating so reassurance goes a long way. Providing physical comfort like hugs or blankets and snacks or drinks are also part of typical aftercare practices.
If you do end up trying Japanese bondage, be safe, have fun, and maybe tell us what it was like in the comments!