Itoh Seiu: ”Die Bilder über die Strafe und abnormer Geschlechtstrieb” (1930)

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Itoh Seiu: ”Die Bilder über die Strafe und abnormer Geschlechtstrieb” (Pictures of punishment and abnormal sexual drive)
Japanese title: 世界の刑罰・性犯・変態の研究
The book contains 296 numbered images, divided in different sections. Each section has a commentary text.
Original edition 1930, this is a reprint from 1977.

This thick, hardbound volume comes in a silver-printed slipcase. It contains what in my perception is a quite heterogeneous collection of images of punishment, torture and execution, from different epochs and geographical locations. Thus, about half of the material is European (for example the execution of Damiens, unforgettable for anyone who has read the first pages of Foucault’s ”Discipline and Punish”). Most relevant for this blog, the book contains many historical images of hojojutsu, and the last section has several images by Itoh Seiu – including some photographs of tying in a snowy landscape. The section ends with a commentary-text by Itoh Seiu on kinbaku and seme/cruelty in theatre and in crime.

Roppongi Kaoru: Objets du désir (1984)

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Roppongi Kaoru: Objets du désir (1984)

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Master ”K” writes on his blog about the collaboration between the photographer Akira Ishigaki and the bakushi Roppongi Kaoru, resulting in the book ”Strange Fruits”:

”‘Strange Fruit’ was released in a limited, ‘deluxe’ edition in 1982 to only modest success in Japan. However, it did get Ishigaki (and by extension the kinbaku of Roppongi) an exhibition in 1983 at the East Bridge Gallery in New York City which then resulted in a small selection of Ishigaki’s kinbaku images being printed in the March, 1984 issue of the prestigious French photography magazine ‘Photo’, thus making the works of photographer Ishigaki and bakushi Roppongi Kaoru some of the first true Japanese kinbaku images ever presented in a Western general audience magazine.” (http://www.thebeautyofkinbaku.com/kinbakuandartchap1.html )

Rope: Roppongi Kaoru
Photo: Akira Ishigaki
French magazine ”Photo”, no 198, March 1984, p. 86–95
(Only a few of these images were published in the book ”Strange Fruits”.)

Kinbiken communications (1991, no. 8)

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Kinbiken communications (1991, no. 8)

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Kinbiken communications
別冊緊美研通信
1991, nr 8
Rope: Nureki Chimuo

Photo: Akio Fuji, Youri Sunohara, and others

Collaboration: Masami Akita

Mainly a catalogue over Kinbiken-video clips, low quality print, but some high quality kinbaku-photos
(Very different from this entry:
https://kinbakubooks.wordpress.com/2013/11/08/nureki-chimou-and-naka-akira-kinbiken-communications/ )

Roppongi Kaoru: Memoirs of a Nawashi

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Roppongi Kaoru: Memoirs of a Nawashi

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Roppongi Kaoru: Memoirs of a Nawashi
縄師の回想

Paperback textbook with low quality paper, and very few photos.
Publisher: Sun & Moon, 1986
ISBN-13: 978-4915567520

(For a contrast, see an earlier post about a very ambitious photo-book, featuring the rope-art of Roppongi Kaoru:
https://kinbakubooks.wordpress.com/2013/07/02/strange-fruits/ )

Itoh Seiu: ”Pictures from Hell”

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Itoh Seiu: ”Pictures from Hell”

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Itoh Seiu: ”Pictures from Hell”

Ten cards, colour print on one side, commentary text by Itoh Seiu on the backside of each card. Carefully wrapped in two layers of paper.

Osada Steve is in the process of publishing these images, with translations of Itoh Seius commmentaries on his blog: http://tokyobound.com/blog/?p=365

Itoh Seiu as a figurine

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Itoh Seiu as a figurine

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Kinbaku-paraphernalia… This makes me wonder just how well-known Itoh Seiu is in Japan. A series of eight plastic figurines, depicting Itoh Seiu and some of the scenes he created.

These are not bodies in random poses wrapped haphazardly in rope. The same company also made a series of eight figurines based on the work of Muku Youji – they do seem to have some insight into the history of kinbaku…

”The Beauty of Kinbaku” – now in Japanese

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MasterK

I will not try to capture what I owe to this author in this blog-post, just give the details to his books so far.

Master K
”Shibari”
Publisher: Glitter / Secret, 2004
ISBN: 978-908770620
Preface by Matthias Grimme
Kinbaku, text and images by Master K

Master K
”The Beauty of Kinbaku”
Publisher: King Cat Ink, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-615-24876-9

Master K
”A Social History of Japanese Erotic Bondage – The Beauty of Kinbaku”
緊縛の文化史
Publisher: Suirensha, Tokyo 2013
ISBN 978-4-86369-299-2