This is VERY powerful material, a meeting between kinbaku-masters, seeking beauty in suffering, honouring the late Itoh.
This is a limited edition publication. I was happy to get it directly from Hourai Kasumi during her workshop in Paris this Spring with her signature on the cover.
Kazami Ranki: 極限マゾ折檻 [Hard Chastisement of a Masochist] (2017)
This is number one in a new ”True Sadist”-series by Sanwa. The photos, while often involving rope, also show whipping, kicking, strangulation through hanging, needle play, humiliation play etc. The included DVD has more of the same, but also some rather rope-centric scenes.
This book is a kind of repackaging of vintage material. It offers stills from sixteen videos that Naka Akira did in collaboration with the director 夢流ZOU, from 2002 to 2008, most of them from the original ”Nawa Etsu”-series (”Rope Joy”), all earlier published by Art Video. In addition to the photo-book, there is included a DVD with two and a half hours of material, cut from eleven of the films. Master ‘K’ once included this series of ”The 10 best Kinbaku films and Videos ever produced” – In my view, there is no doubt that they belong there. Link: http://www.thebeautyofkinbaku.com/kinbakuandartchap8pt2.html
Ueda Seishiro was a (younger) friend of Itoh Seiu.
Ueda was responsible for the tying in a special issue of Yomikiri Romance in the summer of 1952, something Master ‘K’, in The Beauty of Kinbaku, calls this ”the first commercial publication completely dedicated to shibari/kinbaku photography (…) a groundbreaking event in SM publishing”. See my earlier post here: Yomikiri Romance
According to SMpedia, Ueda attended Itohs funeral in 1961.
In the early 1970s, Ueda published a series of photo-book anthologies called ”Kinbaku Photo Senshu” (緊縛フォト選集). In many of the photos, a table is tilted on the side or upside-down and put to good use. I also recognize some of the photos from another publication from the same time-period: Kinbaku-bi. See my earlier posts here: Kinbaku-bi
Here are some examples from three ”Kinbaku Photo Senshu”-books:
エロスの狂宴 (January 1971)
恍惚の美学 (March 1971)
薔薇聖女 (April 1971)
PS
Ueda was also responsible for the bondage in the movie ”Daydreams” (白日夢), directed by Tetsuji Takechi, based on a script by Tanizaki Yunichiro. Please note that there are four versions of ”Daydreams”, from 1964, 1981, 1987 and 2009, Ueda only did the bondage for the 1981-version. It is available (as are many other movies) with English subtitles here: http://japaneiga.free.fr/pinku.html
Now, I have been able to find the missing issues: 4, 5, 9 and 10. The example posted here is from issue 5.
I take the opportunity to mention here also a very rare tutorial DVD by Osada Kazumi (長田一美) from 2004, entitled M女が語る 女性に好かれる縛り方, published by ”Osada Seminar”, that I was able to procure from her personally at a brief meeting during a recent visit in Tokyo.
Also, if you havent already, please listen to the Kinbakunomicon podcast with a reading of a roundtable conversation after Osada Eikichi’s passing, published in SM Sniper. Participants in the conversation: Osada Kazumi, Osada Steve, Saotome Hiromi and Miki Mori:
This series of glossy-print Photo-books in A4-format feature Sugiura Norio’s masterful photography of Kinbaku scenes. Rope-work is generally by Naka Akira. Each book comes with a full length DVD from the photo-shoots, sometimes documenting both the process of tying and the process of photography and posing.
Nao Nagasawa, Hajime Kinoko and Norio Sugiura: 極私的緊縛野史 nao
Gokushiteki Kinbaku yashi nao
This beautiful publication is a collaboration between master photographer Sugiura Norio (born 1942), the outstanding model Nao Nagasawa (born 1967), and multitalented nawashi Kinoko Hajime (born 1977).
In addition to the B5-size booklet with high quality photos, it contains a full DVD where you can see the interaction of the whole team (including Hourai Kasumi). The first 50 copies comes with an additional ”behind the scenes” DVD with comments.
S&M Sniper Spring 2016: Naka, Yukimura, Kinoko, Kai and Marai tying Kawakami Yuu
The magazine S&Mスナイパー has been around, in different forms, since 1979. It ceased publication in 2009, returning for a while as ”Web Sniper”, a site still worth visiting (it also has a search-funtion): http://sniper.jp
This spring, the magazine was resurrected in printed form, with the nawashi Marai Masato as its editor. The first issue is focussed on the famous model Kawakami Yuu, mainly containing images from a recent series of DVDs (also released by SM-Sniper). It is really a high quality collection, showing the same person being tied in the different styles of Naka Akira, Yukimura Haruki, Kinoko Hajime, Kai and Marai Masato. The issue comes with an accompanying DVD, with shorter clips from this series.
So, while the issue might be viewed as mainly a ”re-packaging” of material already released it would be equally true to say that it is an antology of the most interesting kinbaku-material handled by the publisher SM Sniper.
The DVD ends with a comprehensive list of movies with Kawakami Yuu that is so long, it leaves me in shock – literally hundreds of titles.
Again, I try to keep printed material as the focus of the blog, but at times I sneak some information in about DVDs in my collection, as they are related to the book or magazine in question.
Naka Akira x Yuu Kawakami: Kinbaku 1: 川上ゆう×奈加あきら～緊縛～1 (TNH-03)
Yukimura Haruki x Yuu Kawakami: Kinbaku 2: 川上ゆうｘ雪村春樹 ～緊縛～2 (TNH-04)
Kinoko Hajime x Yuu Kawakami: Kinbaku 3: 川上ゆう×一鬼のこ～緊縛～3 (TNH-05)
Kai x Yuu Kawakami: Kinbaku 4: 川上ゆう×魁～緊縛～4 (TNH-06)
Marai Masato x Yuu Kawakami: Kinbaku 7: 川上ゆう×麻来雅人～ 緊縛～7 (TNH-10)
(The DVDs number 5 and 6 features Naka tying two other models, so I don’t include them in this post focussed on the Yuu Kawakami-issue of S&M Sniper. )
The book has four sections – Red, Black, Yellow, Green – all with different atmospheres and settings. It also has dense poetic texts on the different colours and scenes.
Large format, high quality paper.
*
Every now and again, I can’t help myself including some references to DVDs, although this somewhat breaks the self-imposed limitations for the format of this blog (and limitations are surely necessary to keep some kind of quality, as well as limiting the time and effort put down on it). Anyway, this time I include some quick notes on Kinoko’s video-output, as this is a field where it seems he is currently expanding. Of course, I can in no way do them justice with my scribblings, but mainly want to catalogue them here for future reference (and as usual, to make them easier to search for).
For a long time, the only DVD I knew of with Kinoko’s rope-work was the documentary ”Nawa-shi” (縄師) from 2008 (top left on the first image above). It is a quite generous movie with interviews with Kinoko and some of the models, clips from shows, tutorials of some ties, and scenes from the club and other social contexts. (Directed by 広瀬陽, ASIN: B001EXGYJ8)
Since this DVD, there has of course also been made some more recent documentaries, such as the widely seen one by VICE, still available on the Internet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNSXNCaTYl0
In the Fall of 2014, Kinoko released the luxuriously set ”Kinbaku3” (緊縛3), where he ties the famous model Kawakami Yuu. The number 3 indicates that the DVD is part of a series (in ”Kinbaku 1”, Kawakami Yuu is tied by Naka Akira, and in ”Kinbaku 2”, she is tied by Yukimura Haruki). This DVD has been said to represent a public welcoming of sorts of Kinoko to the Kinbaku adult video-scene by putting him side by side with two older masters. I found it very interesting to observe how Kinoko’s tying here contains some clear influences of Yukimura’s and Naka’s (and indirectly Nureki’s, one could argue) styles, but at the same time keeps a very distinct identity in his subjectivity as a bakushi, with his dance-like awareness of his own movements, and the grace of his hands. (Sometimes the power and clarity of his touch makes me remember I read somewhere that Kinoko has training as a chiropractor). (Code: TNH-05)
In Spring 2015, the DVD ”Bakushi-Den 2” (縛師伝 2) was released, with Kinoko tying the model Kumire. This was part of an other high-profile series, this time with Yukimura acting as Director of the movies. Yukimura has a clear presence as an influence on the style of tying (this is, in my view, a VERY sexy movie). Yukimura is also stepping into the movie frame in the last scene, as a kind of a ”making-of”. (The first in this series, ”Bakushi-Den 1” (縛師伝 1), also directed by Yukimura, featured Osada Steve as the bakushi, Iroha Shizuki as the model.) (Code: AKHO-112)
Now, the latest DVD-release by Kinoko, late sumer 2015, is called ”Insomnia” (インソムニア), and features the model Nananano (the same as in the new book mentioned above). Again in a somewhat luxurious and costumey-style, the different scenes use different dramatic locations, sometimes with clear nudges to scenes done on film by earlier masters, while in every case staying distinctly original. (Code: VAN-001)
In a recent interview with Osada Steve, Wykd Dave posed the question ”Are there important figures in the history of Japanese bondage that you feel we should know about in the West but that we aren’t aware of?”
After going through some of the history of Kinbaku, Steve-san answered: ”Regarding Japanese rope artists that so far have evaded the radar in the West, I’d say that Miura Takumi (神浦匠) is perhaps the most underrated nawashi outside of Japan.” (Read the whole interview with Osada Steve here: http://rope-topia.com/osada-steve-interview/ )
Again breaking my own rules for the blog, I include also a reference to some DVDs with Miura. While all excellent, I especially want to give my highest recommendations to the DVD series Miura did together with Akechi Denki – I have learned very much from them: 緊縛技形宝典 (1-4), 2005–2006
The DVD緊縛-緋影神縛円舞 documents a live performance from 2006.
The photo-CD-rom お母さんの秘密(with the small cover, from 2005) is with the model Camelia Tsubaki and shows rope and SM-play, including some waterbondage…
Kinbaku Books 