The knowledge of the ancient art of is very incomplete. Research and knowledge development continue every day. There are many different styles, such as Fumo Ryu (the spiritual style) or Iki (the essential style of Zen) and the individual styles of various string artists.

Imagine a room lit by candlelight. The shadows will dance on the walls and create the atmosphere in the room. That is exactly what you want to achieve in Japanese bondage: the battle between contrasts: beauty and fear, love and resistance, desire and despair, mental growth and humiliation, pain and lust.

It is an intriguing art that involves different levels: physical, mental and metaphysical. For the Kizõshà (giver, giver, dominant, active partner) it is a balancing act, juggling several different impulses. To the Ukétorinìn (receiving, submissive, passive partner – in Japan sometimes also called M-jo – “maso woman” – who can be anything from a professional bondage female model to a woman who loves to be tied up The male catcher is sometimes known as Mo – “maso man”) is the ultimate trip to paradise.

weave or wrap

“Japanese slavery” is an inadequate and superficial translation. While most people only know about bindings, lifestyle and technique encompasses much more, both in techniques and background. Shibari Do, as the lifestyle is called, has roots in Japanese courtship and love, the manipulation of Ki energy, traditional Japanese rope torture techniques, martial arts, theater, even ancient fashion and aspects of Zen Buddhism. The erotic use of restraints is only one aspect of the lifestyle. The technique today is also used as a performance art, has healing aspects, and is generally also a way of training the body and mind.

Shibari is best translated as “weaving” or “wrapping in ropes.” Both translations refer to the interaction between the cords, the mind and the Ki energy meridians in the human body. Ki (or Chi in Chinese) is the energy of life; the meridians are the channels through which this energy flows. And since Ki, in Eastern philosophy, controls life within the body, as well as the interaction between the body and its environment, Japanese slavery has a direct influence on life. Ki can only flow and create a healthy situation through the eternal pattern of changes between Yin and Yang. The techniques strive to influence this pattern by magnifying both the Yin and Yang position on many different levels.

Source

There are many myths and very few facts about the origin of Japanese bondage. As a result, to date its origin remains unclear. A few references to what might be early forms of Japanese slavery provide some insight.

In the first half of the 17th century, during the Tokugawa Shogunate (Edo period), the dominant Japanese religion was not Shinto (which arose after the decline of the Togukawa dynasty), but a Shogun-endorsed form of Neo-Confusianism. One of the most important Buddhist schools was the Nichiren Shu Komon School in Kyoto. He had eight temples in Kyoto (the capital of Japan in the 17th century) and was financed by members of the highest classes, including the Shogun himself.

The school’s 17th High Priest, Nissei, was a decadent, power-hungry man, only interested in money, power, and women. Under his reign, members of the upper social classes would gather at this school, tie up naked women in tense and humiliating positions and leave them tied up long enough to enjoy and draw pictures of them while in captivity, thus producing images pornographic. These meetings were called “komon sarashi shibari”. Very rare examples of such drawings have appeared in Ukiyo-e (17th century erotic woodblock print) collections.

While this is one of the few documented ancient uses of slavery as an erotic technique, the fact that such gatherings existed in Kyoto supports undocumented rumors about samurai in rural areas tying up women and exposing them for erotic amusement. . Bondage techniques borrowed from Hojo Jitsu (the art of tying up and transporting prisoners), Japanese rope torture techniques (Kinbaku), and Sarashi (the public display of criminals) were apparently used in these gatherings. That is where the martial arts roots (if any) of Japanese bondage are believed to originate. Although often presented as such, there is no evidence of a direct, linear connection between Shibari and what are known as “soft weapon techniques” in most martial arts, of which Hojo Jitsu is one.

Komon Sarashi Shibari itself caused another misinterpretation. Japanese words can mean many different things, depending on their context. Komon can be translated as “anus”, leading to the misconception that Japanese bondage began as a means of displaying women with their behinds exposed. In this case, however, Komon means “adviser” or “consultant” (read: part of the temple staff and “follower of confusius”), which is a reference to the school where these meetings and the participants occurred.

Another intriguing source for the origin and history of Japanese slavery is old Japanese police records. In the 17th century, at least one traditional slavery was used by doomed loving couples in ritual suicides. “Forbidden lovers” (usually lovers from different social classes) would sometimes use the “shinju” tether (a torso harness) to tie themselves to each other and then, firmly connected to each other, they would plunge into a river, lake, or the sea. to drown together. For quite some time, these ritual suicides were known as the “shinju suicides.”

This is what Washington State University notes about “shinju suicides”: “the most popular theme of both kabuki and joruri (theater forms – ed.) was the theme of double suicide, shinju, as frustrated lovers, unable to due to the social restrictions of living a life together, they desperately chose to commit suicide in a mutual suicide in the hope of reuniting in the pure land of bliss promised by Amida Buddha.Many of these double suicide works involved ukiyo themes, such as the love between an upper class or noble man and a prostitute. This is the subject of the most famous of shinju plays (Sonezaki Shinju), by Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1725). Such shinju plays often inspired a wave of suicides actual doubles, so the Tokugawa regime in 1723 intervened and banned shinju not only on the kabuki and joruri stage, but also in real life.”

In Japanese psychology, the word “shinju” (meaning “pearl” or “unit of hearts,” depending on the context) is still used for multiple suicides involving people with a strong bond.

In Japanese bondage terms, “shinju” is a torso harness, tied to highlight and erotically stimulate the female breasts (the “pearls”). Surprisingly, the word “shinju” in Japan is also used for off-the-shoulder type sleeveless tops for women.

Is there some kind of inheritance?

The answer to that question is currently impossible to provide with certainty. It may be, but due to the lack of any historical reference it is unlikely. Yes, there are references to art dating back to the 17th century. However, that is also where any attempt to track it stops. As an erotic art form, it apparently existed in the very mundane upper classes of Japan. But it does not have, as many claim, linear roots in any martial art.

In fact, the following assumption is much more likely. Most ancient cultures have seen combinations of power, sometimes spirituality and mysticism, and eroticism. Courtley Love and the much older Celtic and Saxon rituals in Europe and the Kama Sutra are just a few examples of this. And yes, in most such rituals, weapons and warrior culture were woven into rituals of courtship, love, and sexuality. Power eroticizes! always has. There is no reason to assume that it was different in Japan.

shibari today

Contemporary “Japanese bondage” images usually have a completely different background which, unfortunately, is pornography. Most originated between 1950 and 1980 and produced Japanese pornographic videos. Its only “raison d’être” is found in the fact that the combination of naked women and strings sells. These Japanese films can be seen as the Japanese response to the emerging popularity of bondage in the American pornographic industry since the 1930s (John Willie, Betty Page, and others).

The vast majority of Japanese string artists of this period actually made their money rigging the strings for these films and some still do. Some, like the late Osada Eikichi (also known as “mr. flying strings”) and Denki Akechi, created their own style and performances.