Kanna: Collection of Kinbaku Poses

 

cover Kanna.JPG

bild 1-1.JPG

bild 2-1.JPG

bild 2.JPG

bild 4-1.JPG

bild 1.JPG

bild 3.JPGKanna: いますぐ描ける! 緊縛ポーズ集  (2018)

”Collection of Kinbaku Poses That You Can Draw Right Now – Let’s draw authentic shibari!”

This book made me happy!

I love Kannas rope, but there are – so far – very few publications. (We are all longing for that crowdfunded 10 years celebration-book to eventually get published…)

With this title, I was not sure what to expect. But I was happily surprised.

The book offers 160 pages, with very clear and detailed photos of Kanna’s ties from multiple angles for each tie. Four models – the ever beautiful Kagura being one of them. Neutral white background makes the images somewhat abstract – somehow like a catalogue of ties. (And of course also some drawings with hints on how to make sketches on this topic. But mainly a photo-book.)

Bonus: As far as I understand, the book has not been adult rated, and should thus be possible to order internationally without big problems.

Format: B5, 160 pages

Models: かさいあみ、神楽、蝶月真綾、牡丹

Publisher: Sanwa, Tokyo

ISBN: 978-4-7769-1874-5

See also an earlier post about Kanna here:

https://kinbakubooks.wordpress.com/2016/07/28/kanna-tutorials-in-mania-club-2003-2004/

Minomura Kou: Poems in SM Kitan (1979 and 1980)

bild 1-1.JPG

SM Kitan was an SM magazine published 1975–1980, with lots of high-quality materials. We will be returning to it here on the blog.

In this post, I want to share some poetic texts written by Minomura Kou, accompanied by an illustration (also by Minomura). This was a recurring feature in the magazine. The material I have chosen is from SM Kitan issues #9, #10, #12 (1979), and #1 (1980).

The translations are done by rish. THANK YOU again!

****************************************************************************

bild 4

Hey, one more time 
Terribly sweaty all over the body
Sticky and slimy wet
Never experienced such cruel things
Being pinched and hit…
Being tickled and hurt…
You played around with me mercilessly
You were great tonight
Manly and violent…
Ah, that’s why I was on fire
It was good, it made me go crazy
Hey, mess me up like that one more time

 

 

bild 2

Rope-love blues

Ah, the rope… the friction…

If I move my hips even a little

It presses hard on my embarrassing spot

It’s painful…

It’s very tight

”Getting wet, right?”

Please don’t say such embarrassing things

You know I’m very sensitive

You are mean, such a cruel person

Please remove the rope already

No, I want you

Please torment me more with your body!

 

bild 3-1

Sweet cry
Hey, forgive me… Be patient with me…
The arms hurts… and it stops the blood
The tips of the fingers are getting cold
Tops of the boobs too
You treated me so violently
I am throbbing, aching
Hey, it’s enough now, right
It’s hard… and painful…
No, it’s not that I dislike it
It’s not that I dislike it but now, now…
Hold me
Hey, please hold me…

 

bild 3

The cry frowned upon
Ah, don’t look
Don’t look at me so much
You do know that I’m shy
You are mean, looking at me from behind
The touch of your breath tickles me
Oh, don’t touch
No, no, no…
I’m too loud, you say, but it’s impossible not to
Because you are too good
Yes, there, harder
Ah, you may, you may look

 

– Translations by rish, commissioned and edited by Bergborg / KinbakuBooks

 

Akechi Denki: An illustrated lesson in tying (1997)

cover akechi tut.JPG

Akechi Denki: An illustrated lesson in tying, in  別冊宝島  変態さんがいく2  (1997)

This publication contains a lot of interesting material, including a report from one of Akechi Denki’s performances at Loft Plus One. For this blogpost, I have chosen to share a rare item: A tutorial by Akechi.

A great THANK YOU to rish for the translation, and to two Danish friends of the blog for their recent donations. To keep this blog going, I ask all readers to please consider making a donation, however small. Details here:

https://kinbakubooks.wordpress.com/2017/07/10/call-for-donations-4/

 

****************************

 Akechi Denki: An illustrated lesson in tying

It’s easy! One can do so much with only seven (?!) meters of rope

A lesson for this magazine by the great expert Akechi Denki

Teacher: Akechi Denki / Model: Shiroishi Yukimi /  Illustration: Sakurai Yukinori / Layout: The editorial department

We most often associate SM with candles and whips, but there is also the world of shibari and kinbaku. Tying [shibari] had many functions in ancient times. The technique of capture-rope [hobakujutsu, 捕縛術] is of course one of the famous capturing arts [torimonochou, 捕物帳]. But in addition to the techniques of tying for capture there is also a tying with the purpose of making the tied-up person beautiful. It may seem strange to call tying people up an art-form, but in recent years Japanese kinbaku-jutsu has even been acknowledged and praised in the West, and some bakushi have been invited to do performances.

The following is a short introduction to this Japanese rope art that has become world-famous. There are tutorials on how to tie [shibarikata] in SM magazines from time to time, but it is very hard to explain only through the pages of a magazine.

This time I will present some basic techniques for couples: the ”hands behind the back tie” [‘ushiro te shibari’, 後ろ手縛り], which can be combined with a ”sitting cross-legged tie” [‘agura shibari’, 胡座縛り], and the simplest one – the ”racoon tie” [‘tanuki shibari’ , 狸縛り]. Tanuki shibari also goes by another name, the ”beast tie” [‘kemono shibari’, 獣縛り], as it was developed by hunters carrying their prey home.

First, you need to get 7–8 meters of rope. You can buy rope at the craft shop. There are several colours to choose from such as red, white, and black and more. I recommend getting rope with a diameter of 6 or 7 mm. However, if you are planning on doing suspensions in the future, I would recommend getting rope with a diameter of 9 mm and with a reinforced core.

Make knots at the ends of the rope, and then fold it in half. These approximately three and a half meters of doubled-up rope is your tool. You should be able to do it if you practice enough.

Tie your girlfriend or boyfriend so that they cannot move their arms and legs, but take care to do it with empathy. Don’t tie the ropes tighter than necessary, because it can lead to blood congestion. If you have done it properly, the ropes will be loose but the tied-up person will not be able to release their limbs.

These ties can also be combined to create the ”prawn” torture-tie [‘ebizeme’]. Once you’ve gotten used to these ties, you can also try ”kikkou shibari”, ”udemakura shibari”, ”teppou shibari” etc, but the basics are what is most important. If you have your partner lie with their face on to the ground while bound in an ”agura shibari” or ”tanuki shibari” you can have doggy style sex. However, it is quite painful being tied up lying with your face down, so it is important to be able to quickly untie the ropes when needed. As the hands and feet are set free, a pleasurable feeling of relaxation sets in. This is a key to SM.

Some concluding words: I have chosen to present these basic techniques for beginner couples that want to experiment. Never use these techniques without your partner’s consent and don’t do anything that could be considered a crime. Do not do any of this if you can’t take responsibility for your own actions.

foto på rygg.JPG

Tanuki shibari

  1. Wrap the rope around the left ankle and wrist three times, leave around 20–30 cm of rope.
  2. Take the excess 20–30 cm rope and pass it over.
  3. Chinch the whole cuff.
  4. Gently pull at both rope ends and make sure that it isn’t too loose nor too tight.
  5. Make a knot, change direction and make a second knot.
  6. Pull the longer end of the rope and check that the knot is stable. Tie the other ankle and wrist the same way.

As you can see in the illustrations, ”tanuki shibari” is very simple. You don’t have to tie many knots. It won’t loosen and you will be able to do it very quickly once you have gotten used to it.

 

foto tk.JPG

Ushiro te shibari

  1. Put the arms behind the back and wrap the rope twice around the middle part of the arms.
  2. Let the long end of the rope hang vertically, and do the wrapping with the short end of the rope.
  3. Next, take the short end and wrap it around everything to make a knot
  4. Take the long rope end and wrap it twice above the breasts.
  5. In the back, pull the rope through like in the illustration and adjust the tightness.
  6. Put your finger between the rope and the upper arm and dress the ropes. Make sure you have not tied too tightly.
  7. Fixate the short end of the rope by pulling it up and wrapping the long end around it.
  8. Adjust the balance between the rope tied above the breasts and arms.
  9. Wind the excess rope so that there is equally much rope on each side (left and right).
  10. Tie off the rope so that the rope ends are of the same length.

”Ushiro te shibari” is a basic way to tie the arms. When well balanced in tension and symmetry, it is quite beautiful. Also, it is a very good exercise for learning how to tie with the right tension just above the breasts.

 

foto ebi zeme.JPG

Agura shibari

  1. Have your partner sit cross-legged and wrap the rope three times around the ankles.
  2. Go around and fixate the cuff. Make sure it is not too tight.
  3. Make a knot. Pull the rope and check that the knot is stable.
  4. Have the knot in front of you and pull upwards.
  5. Pull the rope from the front to back over the shoulder.
  6. Pull the rope through under the knot you made for the ”ushiro te shibari”. Pull the rope to the front of the body again via the other shoulder.
  7. Pull the rope through the cuff you tied for the ankles and use the rope adjust the distance between the legs and the upper body.
  8. Wind the excess rope around the vertical rope to make it pretty.

The combination of ‘ushiro te shibari’ and ‘agura shibari’ is often used in old pictures of ‘ebizeme’. With this technique, you are completely restricting the mobility of the tied-up person. If you up pull up both knees, you can easily make your partner lie on their back, and if he or she is made to lie face down, they are really completely immobilized.

 

foto ebi med akechi.JPG

foto face down doggy.JPG

******

Translated by rish, commissioned and edited by Bergborg / KinbakuBooks

Kinoko Hajime: 花札緊縛美人―写真集 (2017)

IMG_5251IMG_5241IMG_5244IMG_5246IMG_5247IMG_5248IMG_5249

Kinoko Hajime 花札緊縛美人―写真集 (2017)

Pine (January), Plum (February). Cherry Blossoms (March)… in Kinokos new photo-book, there is a deep resonance with older traditions of Japanese art. Twelve months, twelve plants, twelve models – tied and photographed by Kinoko, sometimes complemented with illustrations by the manga-artist Shintarou Kago. I love some of the details, as for example the tenugui wrapped around the branches of the tree, not to hurt it when using it for suspension…

Rope and photo: Kinoko Hajime

Illustrations: 駕籠 真太郎

Publisher: Sanwa Mook, 2017

ISBN: 978-4-7769-1669-7

PS Among the many references to art-books structured by the twelve months, this is one perhaps worth mentioning: https://kinbakubooks.wordpress.com/2013/11/22/itoh-seiu-twelve-months-of-punishments/

Tsujimura Takashi: The psychological background of the impulse to do Seme (1953)

 

cover-seme

Tsujimura: The psychological background of the impulse to do Seme (1953)

In the year 1953, the magazine Kitan Club published a series of ”roundtable” discussions with some invited readers. On the KinbakuBooks-blog, we have published a translation of one of them earlier, see here: Rope Bottoming Roundtable

The text that follows is from Kitan Club issue 1, 1953.

Translation by Emi Kinako (http://www.spiderandaubergine.com )

Thank you for your fine work!

Commissioned and edited by Bergborg / KinbakuBooks

*******************************************************

The psychological background of the impulse to do Seme

First Round-Table Discussion with Readers

led by Tsujimura Takashi

Kitan Club, issue 1, 1953

Date: 27th year of Showa (1952), October 16th

Place: Arai Ryotei (Restaurant), Sonezaki-Shinchi

Participants (in no particular order):

(A) Mr. Shozo Kawai (38 years old, Kyoto)

(B) Mr. Yoshikazu Nishizawa (42 years old, Osaka)

(C) Mrs. Netsuke Ueda (25 years old, Hyogo)

(D) Mrs. Yoshiko Mitani (36 years old, Kyoto)

MC: Mr. Takashi Tsujimura

Looking at photos of seme

Mr. Takashi Tsujimura (MC): Thank you for gathering from such far places on your day off. We actually had a lot of applicants to partake in our discussion, so we had to take a look at people’s resumes, and proceeded to host this first round table discussion. Fortunately we have two women attending, so we will see if we can focus on the ecstasy exchanged during seme during this talk.

Mr. Yoshikazu Nishizawa (B): I couldn’t muster the courage to come to this event sober, so I had a drink before this.

MC: Due to the nature of our discussion, I was worried that not all the people I contacted would actually come… Especially the ladies.

Mrs. Yoshiko Mitani (D): I got very nervous before entering the restaurant. If Mr.Tsujimura wasn’t here, I was wondering who I should ask my way through.

B: It’s the first time we were meeting, and all we could use as a sign is the purple handkerchief that he was wearing.

MC: I have to say I felt the same. I’ve ordered some beer and sake, so please feel free to have a drink while we talk. I know what we’re about to talk about is quite private, so it might be a little hard to initiate the conversation. But we’ve all read some stories in KK Tsushin [NOTE 1], as well as the Penpal-section of Kitan Club – so please, relax, and bring the strange stories that you have to share. I’m impressed by your submissions, Mr. Kawai, how about you start?

bild 1.JPG

Image: ”Mr. Kawai” (A)

Mr. Shozo Kawai (A): Uh, hello. Well it makes me more nervous, now that you’ve said that. Especially since there’s some ladies present.

MC: Well, well, don’t think about that, there are plenty of stories coming from the ladies as well.

(All laugh)

MC: How does it make you feel to look at photos of tied up women, or the illustrations by Mr. Kita? [NOTE 2]

A: Since no other magazine offers such content, it’s very appealing to us fans. How can I say it, it tightens us up…

MC: We’ve received some harsh critiques regarding our content.

A: Sometimes we see content that doesn’t reflect the reality of seme. In a way, Mr. Kita’s illustrations are a beautified version as well. Since it’s a tied up woman, that’s fine on it’s own, but we also want to see some sort of agony in her expression.

B: In that vein, I enjoy Mr. Seiu Itoh’s photos and illustrations, the agony expressed and the woman’s hair. Sometimes there’s old-fashioned stuff too, though.

A: His work was from the Taisho era to the beginning of Showa era, so that kind of traditional hair style was common. In this age of perms and cropped hair, it’s hard to see any one with that sort of hair style.

B: Well, I don’t have a strong interest in hair myself. But, I know that it can express more than any part of the body. There’s a recent publication called ”Reiko Gashu”, which shows seme in snow; I think you should put that in your magazine. [NOTE 3]

MC: We could. But if we put all images into the magazine, we won’t be able to sell the monographs… (Laughter) We need to save some of the good stuff…

B: The photos, they’re mostly nudes, but I don’t think the woman has to be naked in a seme scene. I much prefer a gag, or an obi [waist belt] that’s been messed around with…

A: Seme and exhibitionism are two different thing. For example, you might not be able to put this in your magazine, but I’d much rather see a woman in a long kimono undergarment and waist belt suspended upside down, than a naked woman in some simple rope.

MC: So you’d rather see some kinbaku, than just nude photos.

A: That’s true. If the rope is too soft, that destroys everything. I feel somewhat bad for the model, but what I really want to see is some rough rope digging into the model’s skin.

B: Itoh Seiu has his own wife model for his work, so he has been able to do some good stuff. The seme in snow can’t be done easily. Taking into consideration that many of the women modelling for your magazine are amateurs interested in seme, there are some great images. The October issue was great. [NOTE 4]

MC: You’ve finally complimented us. Truth be told, the bound nudes were curated by me. The issue with the models were that we couldn’t find good ones easily. Some of them would run off when we told them we were going to tie them, and the ones that were okay with being tied didn’t make for good models…

A: That all makes me jealous.

B: Yes, I’d love to see that process if I could.

MC: It’s not that easy. We shot various poses for 2–3 hours in a ryokan [a traditional Japanese hotel]… It was in the middle of summer, but we closed all the windows and doors, so we got dizzy after a while. I wrote about how difficult it was to shoot the images in the magazine, and that we only got a few good shots out of the many we took. Some are too obscene, and we couldn’t really edit the images; the genitals are way too ”out there”. The photo-section in our October issue, the eroticism you can see in the model’s hips, that’s something no-one has been able to visualize before.

A: That was very nice. Very artistic. The photograph of the naked back, at the beginning of the issue, was a masterpiece. [NOTE 5] The photos you sent me the other day – there were some amazing shots in there, too.

B: I was a little disappointed in the November issue, there was only one photo in the beginning. [NOTE 6]

A: About that photo, are you not allowed to publish uncensored photos?

MC: If we did that, we’d be in big trouble. But we keep the censoring at the minimum.

A: Then, I have a request. Rather than having multiple images I wish you had one big image, perhaps one that’s big enough to detach and put in a proper frame.

B: I saw a freakshow that used one of your photos for their advertising.

A: Where did you see that?

B: The other day, I was at Sennichimae, and saw it lined up with some other ”perverted material”. Next to the other photos, one could see that your images were quite good.

MC: I’ve heard about that. Hmm, I think somebody told me that magazine ”R” or ”S” had images of a woman suspended upside down, do you know anything about that?

A: Oh, that. That’s probably a fake. They probably turned the image upside down and edited so it looked like what it was supposed to be. You can prove it by looking at the rope on the model’s legs. They’re using such thin rope, but none of the model’s weight is going into her legs. Even if they used thicker rope, the rope should be pushing the meat out. If you’re using thin rope, you’d have to use some tenugui or cloth and wrap that around before using the rope. Otherwise the model wouldn’t be able to bear it. Don’t you think so, Mr.Tsujimura?

MC: That’s definitely true. Five or six days ago, I saw a model being photographed while she was suspended upside-down. She was in great pain, and they couldn’t get any shots of her to use for publication.

A: I’m impressed that one person suspended her.

MC: I used a table. I brought the table to the beam, and had the model stand on it. I tied the legs to the beam, then her arms, then I removed the table. The model was about 53 kg, so the beam started to squeak, and the rope began press hard on her ankles. By the way – Mrs. Ueda, in your letter, you said that your husband had suspended you upside down. How did you manage that… [NOTE 7]

Mrs. Netsuke Ueda (C): Uh, ummm……

B: So you get punished by your husband, Mrs. Ueda?

C: Um, yes……

A: Do you enjoy that, or do you not?

bild 3.JPG

Image: Mrs. Ueda (C)

C: Well, well, please, don’t start pushing all those questions at me (laughs) It happened naturally, without me enticing it. Of course my husband is the one who punishes me, if it were someone else, I’d be in trouble… (laughs) I lied about coming here to my husband; I told him I was off to do some shopping. I’m sure he’d punish me even more if he found out that I were at such gathering. (laughter)

MC: According to your letter, he seems to take it pretty far… It said that you can’t go to sleep unless you get tied.

C: Oh, no, that was a lie. I didn’t think things would come to this, so I just blathered… (laughs)

MC: But it is not all lies, is it?

C: My husband has a lot of books that are like your magazine in his collection. I started to take a look at them, and then began to have some funny feelings… Half of it was true, and half of it is my fantasy.

A: I would love to read that letter some time.

C: Now I’m regretting that I wrote such filthy things.

MC: I’m sure you never thought you would be sitting here talking about it…. Well, lets have a listen to some true stories. Our introduction got long, but let’s get to the point. Mr. Kawai, how about you tell us how you got interested in the world of seme…

Torture play inspired by the Special Higher Police

A: I’m sure you’re all aware how awful the special higher police are overseas, so I’ll cut to the chase, but I worked for the railway system and was stationed in Harbin. I went to visit a friend of mine who was in the special higher police force, and he happened to be torturing a local woman, who was a suspect for a case.

MC: How old were you at that point?

A: That was right before the Great East Asia War, and Japan was in full force then, so I suppose it was around the 15th year of Showa [1940]. I married my current wife in Mukden, and got transferred to Harbin, I was probably around 26 years old…

MC: Was your marriage a result of a romance?

A: Well, something like that. We got married before my father knew, and before I got permission… But to stay on topic, the way the special higher police tortured their suspects… they usually tied their arms behind, threw them to the ground, stomped on them, suspended them, tied them onto a chair, burned their pubic hair with cigarettes, shoved broom sticks or walking sticks up their gentitals… Things like that. But what I observed was way worse than that. I had seen women being tortured twice or three times before that, but that was all about tying them up and beating them…

B: I’ve heard there were some innocent people as well, who got harmed during such proceedings by the police.

MC: How should I put it, it’s basically the strong beating up the weak.

A: Most of it was something like that. It was April back then, so still cold, but they had a 25 year old Chinese woman naked, her arms and legs tied onto the steam pipes running along the ceiling. I was told that they were doing something fun, and to come take a look. They pulled out an electric cord that was about 1 or 2 meters long, ripped it apart so that the circuits were out, plugged the cord in, and used it while it was connected to the electricity. The woman was screaming and crying, and the officer held onto her buttocks so she wouldn’t move. Any woman would’ve jumped in agony if that was done to them.

bild 2.JPG

Image caption: ”Aaah”

B: I wonder how it feels.

D: What a horrible thing to do.

(D and C look at each other, theirs brows knotted)

MC: I’ve heard that’s used on men, too.

A: I heard they insert the cord into the urethra, but I’ve never seen it being done.

MC: Is that how you got into the scene, Mr. Kawai…?

A: It’d be strange if I were to say that I got inspired by that incident, but I did get introduced to the world of seme by watching the special higher police torture that woman. I was telling my wife what I had seen that day before bed time. I was trying to reenact the incident, and while I was doing so with my wife, I really got into it. Since we had no children, we began calling it ”torture play”, and on some drunken nights I’d tell her ”Hey, I’m gonna torture you tonight”… Thanks to that, I got saved from a lot of boredom.

MC: ”Torture play”, I see… Let’s save our conversation about the painless, charming torture of love for later. Mr. Nishizawa, how did you get into the scene…?

Tying the victim to a tree and dissecting them

B: Let’s see. By the time I was in elementary school, I was a little bully. I was tying people, and beating them up. So my history is quite deep. When I was a child, there were a lot of plays and stories about police officers carrying their sabers, fighting away burglars, catching thieves with rope, and tales of them losing their lives while in service. It wasn’t like the way it is today- not about officers shooting their guns; it was about hand-cuffs, rope, sabers. So cops and robbers became a very popular activity among us children. We would gather, and some of us had rope and sticks in our hands, while others played the burglars.

bild 4.JPG

Image caption:  ”I’m gonna dissect you!” ”No!”

A: I used to do that a lot, too…

MC: It brings back memories. When we were young we got thrilled from stuff like that. I used to play the burglar and got tied up. I forget when it was, one time I was tied onto a tree, and the other children ran away as soon as our teacher showed up. The teacher untied me and told me ”Stop being tied up all the time, you should be a cop some time and tie others.” [NOTE 8]

B: I see, so you’re listening to your teacher, now tying up models and practicing revenge. (laughs)

MC: It’s better to tie than to be tied. It doesn’t hurt, at least.

B: Back to the story, and you see, by the time were playing such games in the mountains, I caught the kid that was playing the robber, and tied him to a tree. Then I started saying things like ”I’m going to dissect you” and ”I’m going to torture you”; I pulled down his pants, pinched his genitals, picked at it, tied the end of it with some string, put some dirt on it… We were having crazy fun as kids, you know.

MC: I still see some young kids going at it like that in the back streets.

A: The grown-ups look at the tied up kid, and have a good laugh…

B: Now that I try to remember, I think that the kid playing the robber was feeling ecstatic by being tied and picked on. As if he was masturbating.

MC: That’s quite possible. I’ve heard that there are a few people that experience masturbating by the time they’re in elementary school.

B: And when I reflect about it, I think by experiencing such things as a child, we begin to lean towards sadism or masochism.

A: When we’re playing doctor, girls experience a masochistic sense of ecstasy by being touched, and boys find their sadistic side by being mean to the girls.

MC: An example I know is when a child did something bad, so as punishment, they were tied to a tree. And by being tied repeatedly, they get a sense of loneliness as well as ecstasy, and start misbehaving simply to be tied to a tree again. Obviously this child deserves the masochist’s stamp of approval.

B: I used to live in a dormitory during my grade school years. For three years, I was in a homosexual relationship with my roommate. One day, we were fooling around; wrestling each other or playing sumo, something like that – and I tied him up with a judo belt. After that, everything went as I wanted it to. That’s when I started to think about masochism. After we graduated, I’d tie him up at night, and play with his body. We mutually masturbated, but he also serviced me with his mouth. In this case, I’m obviously the sadist and he’s the masochist.

A: So, now you have your wife as a partner?

B: Since I live with my four children, I can’t tie my wife up. And my wife seems to feel more pain than pleasure from seme.

MC: So have you been practicing seme after your marriage?

B: I don’t really practice seme with my wife. Instead, I have a woman that I can tie freely. She lives quite close to here.

bild 5.JPG

Image:  Mr. Nishizawa (B)

MC: She’s your number two?

B: Not quite… Some magazine explained it well, a ”mistress on contract” or ”light mistress”; I don’t take care of her fully. I give her a few thousand yen every month, and I get to do as I please when I see her. I tie her, take out my sexual needs on her; I basically pay a salary. It’s fun for me, and cheaper to do so than hire a professional.

MC: I heard that there are a lot of widows that do that. Though the younger generation seems to be getting into it as well.

A: It’s almost like a part-time job for them. I suppose the concept of chastity is starting to change.

MC: They’re a perfect existence for men who have time and money. The ads I see in tabloids about women looking for marriage and live-in maids are also examples of this. By the way, Mrs. Ueda, you get tied by your husband. Would you share a story of one of your experiences with us? I’m sure you’re here to share with us.

An earthquake during kinbaku

 C: It’s quite embarrassing for a woman like me to talk about this in front of all of you… But I suppose I can’t hide anything in front of you all, so here I go. It was about an year after our marriage when we started the activities…

MC: It must’ve shocked you at first.

C: Yes, but I was already obsessed at that point. (laughter) And when my husband tells me ”I’ll tie you up tonight”, I’m often in the mood for it, too.

B: I understand your husband’s feelings very well.

MC: Unless you’re both in the mood, tying and being tied up doesn’t really work out.

C: Yes. But I’ve had one horrifying incident. I’ll never forget about that. It was about the end of autumn, before I had children… That night, my husband had me all tied up in a complicated way. He removed our cabinet door, and tied me onto the door. He made me basically stand on my head, when we suddenly felt a strong tremor. I can’t believe how terrified I was of that earthquake…

A: Your husband must’ve been in great shock…

bild 6.JPG

Image caption: ”Crap…”

C: He was in such a panic. I was completely naked and couldn’t move, and blood was flowing into my brain. I couldn’t make a noise because I was gagged. I have no idea how my husband had the strength to do so, but he pulled the door – with me attached to it – out to our garden. My mother-in-law was out in the garden too, and witnessed the state I was in… (laughter) We really wished we could hide in that moment, but we couldn’t. For a period of time after, I couldn’t look my mother-in-law in her eye. I was terribly embarrassed. She passed away last year, and this is a horrible thing to say, but I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders… (All roaring in laughter)

MC: That’s a situation that nobody would want to be seen in. Especially by your parents. But your mother-in-law must’ve been in greater shock than yourself. She must’ve thought – what horrible things are my son doing to his wife… (laughs)

C: Oh, I wonder… Mr. Tsujimura, there was an article you wrote titled ”A couple’s love and kinbaku, a survey” in the October issue. My husband really relates to that article. So he enjoys shibari as a form of foreplay, rather than seme. [NOTE 9]

A: Most married couples are like that.

C: Yes, so when we tie, I get sometimes get cranky – it can get quite painful if my flesh gets pinched between the ropes. But other than that, I let him do anything he wants – for example, an upside-down suspension isn’t too painful.

B: What a great wife… I’m truly jealous.

C: Oh my, but my husband and I are both happy about our situation, so it’s great…

B: Which means, you enjoy being tied, don’t you?

C: It might be weird to say that I like it, but I probably do because it is with my husband. If it were some random young ruffian that barged into my house and tied me up, I wouldn’t have the same feelings. (laughter)

MC: And if that keeps you happy as a couple, there’s nothing else to say. I feel like you’ve made me listen to you boast about your relationship. Well why don’t we have you share some stories too, Mrs. Mitani…

D: …… (Mrs. Mitani laughs, but does not respond)

MC: It’s unfair, you’ve only been listening to others’ stories.

D: Oh, I’m horrible at telling stories.

MC: It didn’t seem so when you wrote to KK Tsushin. You told your stories in great detail. You’ve said you wanted to meet Mr. Kita. You’re just like Mr. Kita, and you’re not on the receiving end, you get controlled by your desires. Go on, spit it out. If not, I might make the confession for you.

D: I felt like I’ve lost my opportunity to speak, I guess I got a little scared.

MC: You should’ve spoken earlier… You made Mrs. Ueda, who’s younger than yourself, speak, and you’ve kept to yourself. Go on now, tell us the story about the maid…

Tormenting a woman by hanging her by her black hair

D: My sexual urges were planted in me when I was seven or eight years old. My mother and I were at a freak show after paying our respects to a shrine in Gion. There was a Chinese man performing – a boy was tied up from head to toe with some thick rope, thrown into a bag, and the bag was closed tightly.

bild 7.JPG

Image: Mrs. Mitani (D)

B: I’ve seen that a few times myself. After they collect all the money, the audience calls for the boy, and he reappears, having escaped from the rope. I’ve heard that the Chinese man makes him drink a lot of vinegar so his joints become flexible, and he can escape from anything.

MC: They would probably arrest the man for child-abuse in today’s time…

A: All circuses are just about the same.

D: Just like Mr. Nishizawa just mentioned, the way they collected the money was terrible. The boy’s arms were tied to his back, all the way up, and he was taken around for everyone to see. Just when he was right by me, the man placed a rod between his wrists, and twisted the rope even further. I heard something crack, and before I knew it, the arms came out to the front of his body, and the man kept tugging on the rope, dragging the boy around the audience. The boy looked like a stray dog with his arms all messed up, with tears in his eyes, looking down.

A: How horrible.

D: I was looking at him, in shock. My body was shaking. But I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. I had this feeling of wanting to torture him, so I must’ve been a little strange already when I was a child…

B: All children have an interest in the bizarre.

D: And on top of that, you know how criminals were dragged out in public while being hand-cuffed with rope?

MC: When they’re getting transferred?

D: Probably something like that. I used to chase after them and just stare at the situation.

MC: Let’s talk about the maid.

D: I suppose… I, well I’m sure you’re all aware, but my husband passed away four years ago. I live alone with my maid, with nothing to do…

B: What do you do for work?

D: I live off of what my husband left me. I also have some stock in my name, so I’m waiting for that to come through…

A: It’s normal to want something a little different when you have money and extra time on your hands.

D: My maid has been around for two years – she’s very energetic and helpful, so I’ve taken good care of her. But one time, I made her go run an errand… I was waiting for her, but she stayed out without my permission, telling me she was staying with a family member, or something like that. I wasn’t so serious, but I really scolded her. She didn’t stop crying, and begged me to do whatever I pleased.

B: Was that the start of your misadventures?

D: Something like that. Since she spent the night out, I figured she stayed out with a man. I later found out that she really did stay with a family member. But then, I told her that I would do as I pleased…

A: You were being hysterical, huh… (laughter)

D: Well now you’ve said something we were all struggling to say out loud. Well, that’s the truth, so I can’t argue… (laughter) I was irritated, and I really wanted to punish her. So I made her undress to her underwear, tied her arms in the back using a kimono sash, grabbed her by the hair, and dragged her to the closet door. I divided her hair in two parts and tied them onto the beam, suspended her, questioned her what she did the night before, and began torturing her with a ruler.

A: There was a scene just like that in the Reiko Gashu

MC: (Flipping through pages of the book) Ah, here it is. It’s titled ”Shigure”. The mood is very similar, and…

D: She tells me: ”I didn’t do anything with a man”. I told her I will look into that, and she tells me: ”Yes, please go ahead, do that.”

A: And you undressed her… Well this is becoming interesting.

D: When you’re a virgin, you’re so pure, unlike me… (laughs) But it’s not like that would’ve calmed me down, and I wanted to take my torture to the next level. I got out some acupuncture needles that my late husband used to use, and began stabbing them into her breasts, thigh, and her private areas. I began to feel very excited, and at the same time, my maid’s face began to fluster, and panting. She seemed like she was in pain, but her eyes were closed gently, as if she was enjoying everything. From that incident on, we started playing like that.

A: Seems like she’s a bit on the masochistic side.

D: Probably so. She’s held herself together when I tie and torture her quite strongly, and I’ve used tools on her as well, but it seems like she’s enjoying herself…

B: Tools as in, something like dildos?

D: Things like that. Like kokeshi dolls and vegetables……

MC: Now that Mrs. Mitani’s gotten talkative, why don’t we have the others share their stories?

Tying two women as if they were on a scale

A: I’ve tied two women at once, well, my wife and her sister. Truth be told, my wife’s sister came downstairs to use the restroom, and saw what my wife and I were doing. I was tying her up, and doing all sorts of things to her. At first I didn’t notice anything, but around her second and third time, I felt a presence. I felt a little demonic, and opened up the screen door to show her my wife – who was all tied up and gagged and in nothing but her undergarment. I dragged her sister into the room, warning her that I couldn’t let her be after she had seen what we were doing. I pushed her onto the floor and tied her up in front of my wife. That was the start of it all.

MC: I’m surprised your wife didn’t say anything.

A: At first she wasn’t happy about it, but we made a pact. Since she saw what we were doing, why not enjoy it amongst the three of us… But I promised her that I wouldn’t rape her sister.

B: I’m impressed that her sister agreed. I don’t understand what was going on in her head.

C: Is that true… seriously?

A: It’s true. But obviously the sister was all embarrassed, wiggling in the rope as she was tied onto the floor beam.

B: That’s still going on?

A: No, we only did it about four or five times…

B: She must be troubled, having a strange brother-in-law like you.

D: Perhaps your sister-in-law enjoys being tied, no? Otherwise she wouldn’t be sneaking around to get a peek. I would get it if it were a one-time thing, but…

bild 8.JPG

Image caption: Dragged my sister-in-law into this

A: I don’t know, maybe she’s a masochist. We did something very fun, once. I tied a pulley onto a beam, and tied my wife and her sister with the rope from the pulley. I left my wife tied up, and had her sister climb up to the beam using a ladder, tied her, and removed the ladder. They were both suspended in the air, and when I pulled on my wife’s leg, her sister would go up. I didn’t go any further, but I took a good look at them suspended in the air.

B: And your sister-in-law, you didn’t do anything further with her?

A: As I promised, no, nothing.

B: I’m impressed that you held yourself together. I don’t know what I would’ve done. But perhaps your sister-in-law wanted something more. If she did, that’s such a cruel way of teasing her.

A: She has a prospective husband. She’s going to get married soon. I’m glad I didn’t go any further.

B: She’ll probably serve her husband very well. She got educated so much before her marriage.

MC: Perhaps she will become like Mrs. Ueda and truly enjoy being tied. But Mr. Kawai, your story sounds a bit mischievous too.

C: These days, my husband uses a ladder quite often. He ties me to the ladder. Ties my ankles onto the edges of the ladder, and flips it upside down.

A: There’s so many ways to use a ladder. I tried using one with my wife as well, and it’s great since you can handle it on your own. I made her spread her legs, tied her legs down on the edges, and flipped the ladder upside down. You can easily do an upside down suspension that way. I also use a shortened candle. I’ll light it up and fix it to one of the steps, and the wax will drip onto her body. The flame goes out just in time.

B: Isn’t that hot?

A: The wax is only hot up at the top, so there’s no worries. I mean, the wax is quite hot, but it’s nothing she can’t handle. Once the wax hardens, it’s quite a sight. I’ve done this twice or thrice, but I always get a different outcome.

B: I’ll give it a try. For me, my woman, she lives in an apartment, so we can’t make too much noise. So I’ll tie her, bite her and suck on her. But the other day, both of us got so drunk, and she begged me to be extra mean to her. I decided the time was now, and though I was drunk and dizzy, I placed her on top of the sewing machine table, and tied down her breasts, arms, stomach, hips, and legs onto the steam pipes that went up to the ceiling. Then I moved away the sewing machine-table… Her body was floating in air, and I began to paint obscure drawings on her body using black ink. I drew a penis on her breast, a vagina on her cheek, and so on.

MC: Did you whip her, like they do overseas?

bild 10.JPG

Image caption: Drew obscure illustrations in black ink

B: That’s painful. (laughter) I don’t want to put the woman in pain for my own pleasure.

A: You make it sound like kinbaku involves no pain. It’s quite painful, you know.

B: Yes, but there’s only one thing you can do with whipping. With kinbaku, there are so many options. And using a whip in an apartment… All that noise – there would be rumors piping up everywhere.

C: My husband never beats me. He hit me once with a band, but I told him to stop because it was painful. He never did it again. I’m sure he was just copying illustrations and photos from overseas that he had seen.

A: In foreign countries, when children get mischievous, they get a beating on their bottoms. Those people must be accustomed to being threatened by a whip.

B: There’s another weird play that they do, covering each other in oil and chasing after each other until they get all tired.

A: I sometimes practice rape fantasies. I ask my wife to fight back as much as she can. And then I force her down, tie her up, undress her, and fight again and push myself in. It can be pretty fun.

C: This has got nothing to do with tying, but… we sometimes pull a lotto, and the winner gets to pretend that they’re a baby. Feeding, urinating, bathing, dressing, all of that… You pretend that you’re a child and have the other person take care of you.

A: The wife holding onto the husband, have her legs pulled up, and made to pee… How funny.

MC: All of your stories sound so fun, and kinbaku and seme have become a great addition to your marriage and sex life. The acts themselves are like foreplay. I guess you’re an exception, Mrs. Mitani……

bild 9.JPG

Image: Reporter Tsujimura  (MC)

D: Oh, I adore that girl. That’s why I want to torture her. I wonder if you can understand…

A: I understand you, really I do.

MC: And there’s nothing sexual?

D: If I remove her freedom, things naturally go that way…

MC: I’m sure things will becoming interesting if we have someone like Reiko Kita or Tsuruko Matsui write about those stories.

A: Next time, I’d love to have a discussion with them as well.

B: I agree.

MC: I shall let them know. We’ve spent an awful long time talking, so I’d like to call it quits now. Thank you so much for sharing your stories.

**************************************************

Notes by Bergborg / KinbakuBooks

  1. The KK通信 was a small publication only for the subscribers of Kitan Club that existed 1952–1954. Often, it consisted of just a few pages.

There is some information on SMpedia: http://smpedia.com/index.php?title=KK通信

And there is a scan here: http://nawa-art.com/backnumber/kktsushin/kktushin.htm

  1. ”Mr. Kita” is of course the masterful artist Kita Reiko, also known as Minomura Kou and Suma Toshiyuki.
  1. The Reiko Gashu was a book collecting artwork by Kita Reiko, published in 1952. You get a peek here: http://www.kinbakutoday.com/kita-reikos-1952-album-玲子画帖/
  1. When this readers’ roundtable-talk was held, in October 1952, it was still quite new for Kitan Club to publish photos of rope-bondage. The photo-section in the October-issue consisted of four pages:

http://nawa-art.com/backnumber/1950/195210/106.html

http://nawa-art.com/backnumber/1950/195210/107.html

http://nawa-art.com/backnumber/1950/195210/108.html

http://nawa-art.com/backnumber/1950/195210/109.html

The issue also featured rather fine illustrations of rope-scenes by Kita Reiko.

  1. The naked back at the beginning of the 1952 October issue of Kitan Club can be viewed here:

http://nawa-art.com/backnumber/1950/195210/002.html

  1. The single photo published in the 1952 November issue can be viewed here:

http://nawa-art.com/backnumber/1950/195211/002.html

  1. I am note sure, but I suspect that Mrs. Ueda’s husband is Ueda Seishiro. See some earlier posts about Ueda Seishiro on KinbakuBooks here: https://kinbakubooks.wordpress.com/?s=ueda&submit=Sök
  1. Tsujimura tells a version of this childhood story also in a much later interview:

”As I remember it, I realized that there were feelings like this when I was in the 3rd or 4th grade of elementary school. I was playing ‘police and thief’. In this game, you divide into two groups, the police and the thieves. When the police catches a thief, they tie him to a tree. I remember I was having a strange ecstasy when being tied to a tree. So, in my case, it didn’t start with tying but with being tied. I started as an M, not an S.”

Published in full translation here: https://kinbakubooks.wordpress.com/2016/05/18/tsujimura-takashi-interview-in-sankei-weekly-1976/

  1. You can read Tsujimuras article here:

http://nawa-art.com/backnumber/1950/195210/104.html

http://nawa-art.com/backnumber/1950/195210/105.html

Kazami Ranki & Bingo Shigonawa: ”Now I can do it! Illustrated Shibari tutorial 2”

bild-1bild-2-1bild-2bild-3bild-2bild-1

Kazami Ranki and Bingo Shigonawa: Now I can do it! Illustrated Shibari tutorial 2

いますぐデキる! 図説縛り方マニュアル (2015) and いますぐデキる! 図説縛り方マニュアル2 (2016)

These tutorial books, without photos but with detailed pencil illustrations and text instructions, are quite interesting. I have no information about who were involved in part 1, but part 2 was produced under the supervision of no less than Kazami Ranki and Bingo Shigonawa. All images above are from part 2.

And it is rich in content! Some basics, a gote and some leg ties from Bingo Shigonawa, and from Kazami a full three rope gote, a sturdy hip-harness, as well as several instructions for suspensions. As I recently attended a four-day intensive workshop with Kazami-san in London, it was a delight to find that the ties included here were fully up to date.

Probably due to the lack of photos, this book has not been adult rated and so is easy to get hold of also outside of Japan.

(No 1) ISBN-13: 978-4776913269

(No 2) ISBN-13: 978-4776916048

Publisher: Sanwa

Itoh Keijirō: ”A selection of representative seme scenes that appear in novels” (1953)

cover-chikusui 

Itoh Keijirō: 小説に現れた責の代表作選

(”A selection of representative seme scenes that appear in novels”) (Suikōdo 粹古堂1953)

I have always been fascinated by the poetic and fantasy aspects of Kinbaku, and recently obtained a book that opened a door onto some of the Edo-era literature that may well have inspired some of the pioneers in the development of Kinbaku. The book was written by a man named Itoh Keijirō. He is not a relative of Seiu, despite having the same last name, yet he and Seiu were very closely connected.

I had previously seen the following statement by Seiu (in a preface to a book with his photos [LINK]):

”It would seem that I’ve felt beautiful feelings looking at scenes of women in torment since June of 1891, when, as a ten-year-old boy, I listened to the Chiyohime snow-torment stories my mother told me. I imagined them vividly, and I now realize that I continued to fantasize about scenes of women’s torment every time it snowed. I would say that these things are a great joy for me.”

So you can imagine that it was very interesting for me to find a reference to Chiyohime in this new-to-me book (See Text #4 below). I am very curious about such literary stories of ”torment,” and how they have influenced our imagination when doing Kinbaku.

I owe this post to a friend in Tokyo, Alice Liddell, who not only brought this book to my attention but also helped me obtain a copy and did some translation of it. Thank you, Alice! She explains that Itoh Keijirō  (伊藤敬次郎, 1884–1965) was the real name of Itoh Chikusui (伊藤竹酔), the publisher of many of Itoh Seiu’s works released by his publishing house Suikōdo. Under a different company name (Chikusui Shobo), he also published works by important figures in the ”Ero Guro”-movement of the 1920s and 30s, including works on sexual perversion. He was jailed at least once for publishing improper material, and seems to have been traumatized by the experience, because after that he chose to avoid publishing illegal material. He is mentioned in Nureki Chimuo’s book Nihon Kinbaku Shashin-shi [LINK], for having sold a very large collection of photographs (taken at a satsuei-kai, or private meetings organized for the purpose of taking photographs) to Nureki and Minomura Kou, which were later published in Uramado magazine. He is also mentioned in Nureki’s bunko book, Kitan Kurabu to Sono Shuhen [LINK]. Nureki donated many of these photographs to the SM Library in Tokyo, which held a small exhibition of them in 2009 [LINK].

Here follows a summary of Itoh Keijirō’s foreword in the book, translated for us into English:

”In the early years of the Showa period, when [novelist and playwright] Tamura Nishio was running a restaurant in the Kanda area, there was a gathering one day, which I attended. It was there that I first met Seiu Sensei, and perhaps we hit it off, because I later published [Itoh Seiu’s books] 美人乱舞 (Bijin Ranmai) and  女三十六景  (Josanjū roku kei) and other of his works. After that, because of the war, I was not in contact with him for a long period, but recently I came to publish some more of his works, and as a result, everyone now seems to think of me a publisher of seme material. Subsequently, many people asked me to collect seme scenes from literature. Starting two or three years ago, without telling anyone, I collected various novels together, and woke early in the morning to read before work. I had to read the works from start to finish, which is no simple task when you are talking about old literature. I was incredibly happy when I was finally able to get a copy of 千代嚢媛七変化物語 (Chiyō-hime shichihengen monogatari) which I had searched for unsuccessfully for many years. This anthology of mine contains excerpts mostly from Edo-era novels from the Bunka years [January 1804 to April 1818], but when I had a little extra time, I extended my effort to include works of later times as well. In my research, I relied heavily on the E-iri bunko絵入文庫 [illustrated anthology series] published in Taisho 6 (1924). Some of the illustrations I’ve used are from different years, but I added them for reference.”

The book has printed inside 非買品 (not for sale), meaning it was not offered for sale as a commercial product. Perhaps the author only shared copies with interested friends? Or wished to avoid problems with the authorities?

To conclude this post, I share basic information for the thirteen texts and the eight illustrations chosen by the author, Itoh Keijirō. In general, he only states the book title and the author’s name, and sometimes the illustrator. In most cases, he did not provide more bibliographical information – all this has been added by Alice Liddell.

*

img_3775

Text #1: 優雲華物語, Udonge Monogatari, ”Tale of the Three-Thousand Year Flower” (1804), translated into English 1986 by Donald M. Richardson

Summary of scene described in the text: On Kurokami-yama (Black Hair Mountain), a female demon kills a pregnant woman and steals the unborn baby from her womb.

Author: 山東京博 (Santō Kyōden, late Edo novelist and ukiyo-e printmaker, 1761–1816)

Illustrator: 喜多武清 (Kita Busei, late Edo period painter, 1776–1858)

Description of illustration:

Two figures, a man and a woman (demon), near the body of a woman who has been stabbed with a sword and had her belly cut open.

img_3776

Text #2: 椿説弓張月, Chinsetsu yumi hari zuki (1807–11), ”The Crescent Moon”. This novel was adapted for the ”new” Kabuki as Chinzei Yumiharizuki by Mishima Yukio, and first performed in 1969. There are ukiyo-e prints based on this story, including versions by Utagawa Kuniyoshi and Tsukioka Yoshitoshi

Summary of scene described in the text: The character Butota is tortured and killed with bamboo needles by Princess Shiranui, or a demon who has occupied her body.

Author: 曲亭 馬琴(Kyokutei Bakin, real name Takizawa Okikuni, 1767–1848)

Illustrator: 葛飾 北斎 (Katsushika Hokusai, 1760–1849)

Description of illustration: A bleeding figure seated and tied to a post, being beaten by three women while four other women watch. The heads of two men are on a table in front of the watching women.

Text#3: 桜姫全伝曙草紙 , Sakura-hime zenden akebono sōshi (1805),”Complete Tales of the Cherry Blossom Princess: The Akebono Books”

Summary of scene described in the text: Sakura-hime (Cherry Blossom Princess) is killed and her body is taken away to a place called Toribeya. There, her corpse is cut open by a man named Seigen. (This story has been the basis for kabuki plays.)

Author: 山東京博 (Santō Kyōden, late Edo novelist and ukiyo-e printmaker, 1761–1816)

No illustration.

img_3777

img_3778

Text #4: 千代嚢媛七変化物語, Chiyonōhime shichihenge monogatari (1809), ”Tales of Princess Chiyo”

Several different scenes are described, including one involving torture by fire and another in which someone is burned to death. This seems to be a revenge story involving the Satomi family.

Author: 振鷺亭 (Shinrotei, real name 猪狩貞居, Ikari Teikyo, date of birth unknown, died 1815)

Illustrator: 蹄斎北馬 Teisai Hokuba (Edo period illustrator, 1777–1844.)

Two illustrations: The first one is hard to see what is happening – possibly a man raping a woman? The second one: A woman tied up inside a temple, with a rope attached to a stone post. A man stands over her with two swords. Nearby, a man, perhaps her servant, is tied up with rope around his neck attached to a stone post.

Text #5: 浮牡丹全伝 Ukibotan zenden, ”Tales of the Floating Peony” (1809)

Summary of scene described in the text: A woman is starved by being denied food. This seme gets a note by Itoh Keijirō indicating that it is okite-seme 掟て責 , a legally sanctioned punishment.

Author: 山東京博 (Santō Kyōden, late Edo novelist and ukiyoe printmaker, 1761–1816)

No illustration.

Text #6: 本朝酔菩提, Honchō suibotai (1809)

Summary of scene described in the text: The sisters Kurenai and Midori are tortured by a bad woman.

Author: 山東京博 (Santō Kyōden, late Edo novelist and ukiyo-e printmaker, 1761–1816)

No illustration.

img_3779img_3780

Text #7: 長柄長者黄鳥墳, Nagarachōjya uguisuzuka

Summary of scene described in the text: A man named named Kanpudaijin (?) kills a woman named Umegaeda (?).

Author: 栗杖亭 鬼卵 (Ritsujotei Kiran, 1744–1823)

Illustrator one: 石田玉山 Ishida Gyousan.

Illustrator two: 大蘓芳年Taiso Yoshitoshi.

Two illustrations:

The first, by Ishida, shows a woman held roughly by the hair by a man as a woman with a pipe watches on.

The second, by Yoshitoshi, shows a woman pinned down by a man with a knife at her throat.

img_3781

Text #8: 絲桜春蝶奇談, Itozakura shūnchō kien (1809?)

Summary of scene described in the text: A character is captured and tortured by being bound and suspended.

Author: 曲亭 馬琴(Kyokutei Bakin, real name Takizawa Okikuni, 1767-1848)

Illustrator: 歌川 豊清 (Utagawa Toyokiyo, 1799–1820)

Description of illustration: A woman bound and suspended from a pine tree. Inside the house, a man fights with four other men.

Text #9: 血血郷談 , Beibei Kyōdan, ”Talk in Rural Dialect” (1813)

Author: 曲亭 馬琴(Kyokutei Bakin, real name Takizawa Okikuni, 1767–1848)

Summary of scene described in the text: A rape scene.

No illustration.

Text #10: 南総里見八犬伝, Minami Sōrimi Hakken-den, ”The Legend of the Eight Dog Samurai” (1814–1842) The tragic romance of a princess and the adventure of eight heroic samurai. Probably the most famous novel of the late Edo period.

Summary of scene described in the text: An adulteress is tortured.

Author: 曲亭 馬琴(Kyokutei Bakin, real name Takizawa Okikuni, 1767–1848)

No illustration.

img_3783

Text #11: 片輪車, Katawa-guruma, ”The Broken Wheel”

Summary of scene described in the text: A jealous woman tortures another woman by starving her and denying her food.

Author: 洛陽山人 Rakuyo ? (At the end of this section, Chikusui explains that he found this story in a story-book published in Meiji 22 (1889) but he could not establish who the author was.)

Illustrator: 梅蝶楼国(貞) = 歌川 国貞 (Utagawa Kunisada, 1823–1880 or 三代豊国 third Toyokuni)

Description of illustration: A starving woman is placed tied up in front of food she cannot eat.

Text #12: 山椒大夫, Sanshō Dayū, ”Sansho the Bailiff” (1915). A historical novel set in the Heian period. It follows two aristocratic children who are sold into slavery after their father, a virtuous governor, is banished and their mother sold to a brothel.

Summary of scene described in the text: Slaves are branded with an iron.

Author: 森鴎外 (Mori Ōgai, 1862–1922)

No illustration.

Text #13: 風流線 , Furyusen (?), ”Elegant Line”(?), (1902?)

Author: 泉鏡花 (Izumi Kyōka, 1873–1939)

Summary of scene described in the text: Someone is put into a prison room in the bottom of a place called the Floating Castle.

No illustration.

Itoh Seiu: ”Fifteen Ways To Tie a Woman’s Body” (1953)

itoh-fifteen-cover

Itoh Seiu: ”Fifteen Ways To Tie a Woman’s Body”, in Fuzoku soshi (風俗草紙), September 1953

Itoh was a prolific writer. Making private experiments with torment or ”seme” already in the 1910s, he started publishing texts on this topic in the late 1920s and early 1930s. I have posted earlier on the blog for example about a book from 1930 that contains both photos by Itoh, and a rather long text about seme (still untranslated, see: http://tinyurl.com/jd3fowy).

The magazine Fuzoku soshi (風俗草紙) existed only for two years (offering something like seventeen issues), and featured contributions among others by Itoh Seiu, Ueda Seishiro and Minomura Kou.

I find Itohs text and drawings in this issue from September 1953 especially interesting, as it connects his early experiments with the post-war expansion of Kinbaku. It also gives an indication about Itohs views on earlier, non-erotic forms of rope used for capture, transport and torture of criminals.

Please note that the text was written for publication in an erotic magazine, geared toward the pleasure and phantasies of the reader. Be advised that many of the things mentioned are quite dangerous, and do not treat it as a tutorial for Kinbaku.

The translation from Japanese to English is by Nana (London), commissioned and edited by Bergborg.

This is a non-profit endeavour. You are invited to support Kinbaku Books with a small donation through PayPal to: bergamott@live.se

**********************************************************************

Fifteen Ways To Tie a Woman’s Body

By Seiu Itoh

————————————————————————

This is a precious article by a great painter who devoted his whole life to researching torment [責め, seme], based on his own experiences.

 Exclusive to our magazine!

*

When tying up a woman, there is surely some further purpose for it, more than just simply taking her freedom.

I assume that everyone would agree that the primary purpose of tying someone is to restrict them. In addition to this, you may want to achieve other things, like the extraction of a confession, the enjoyment of looking at their face full of pain by harming a part of their body, a disciplinary punishment – or some other purpose when specifically dealing with a woman’s body.

The martial artists [武術家, bujutsuka] in the old days invented ways to use rope for capturing an enemy alive and for tying men who surrendered in battle. As a part of ninja methods [忍術, ninjutsu], how to tie a person and the way to place rope were dependent on the person’s class, official rank and status. There were different styles, with each style having a different way to tie. At first it was just a method to remove a person’s freedom, but many styles and ‘Ryu’ cropped up later.

However, these schools were mainly for tying men. Tying women came second – while ways to tie women were established, these made up only a very small proportion of the entirety of possible styles. Seeing this, I have no doubt that there were only a small number of female criminals compared to the large numbers of male ones. It must have been rare to see a murder or a robbery committed by a woman in the pre-Restoration days [= before 1867], unlike in the post-war period.

Women have a troublingly tender spot: the breasts. There is a risk that putting rope on the chest or tightly binding the chest might lead to death, so tying the breasts would have been avoided for the ordinary (?) woman whose guilt was likely still uncertain. When tying a woman, we avoid the breasts. It’s understandable that we have seen only a few methods for tying women, as they had to be developed specifically for the small number of female criminals at the time. [The question-mark is in the original text.]

There was an illustration of a girl whose breasts were tied with a cord and suspended from a beam in a bondage magazine (?) of the current style [被縛雑誌, hibaku zasshi], accompanied by a composition claiming to be ‘a real story’. But this is complete rubbish, as it would be impossible to do things like that. [The question-mark is in the original text.]

I am going to describe how to tie up a woman, something I have learnt from my past experience, in the order in which I recall it.

There is no particular style like Houen Ryu, something-Ryu. If I must name it, I would say Seiu Ryu.

itoh-1-kopia

  1. How to do Hayanawa [= fast rope]

Quickly bring both hands to the back. Tie both thumbs with a thin but strong cord, like the string of a Shamisen, as it will dig into her thumbs. Bring the leftover string to her throat, then tie her pinky fingers tightly so that the string digs into them. Or tie her wrists instead of the pinky fingers.

The thumbs will lose their feeling, and the tips of the fingers will turn purple and lose sensation.

However, it’s not safe to use this method. When using it for rope bondage play [hibaku no yuugi, 被縛の遊戯] over a long period, there is a risk it would lead to an injury such as necrosis in the fingers. Do not use it for over an hour.

It’s important to control the strength of this tie as it’s just for immobilising a woman’s hands. If this method is used for a long time, the string will dig into her flesh and become inescapable, making injury to the fingers unavoidable. This method was also used by the unofficial policemen, or Okappiki, of the Tokugawa period [1603–1868].

itoh-2-kopia

  1. Guruguru Maki [= wrapping around and around]

This has to be done quickly. In reality, one’s physical strength is important when tying a woman who is trying to run away. You must not take pity on the woman when putting rope on her. Tie her up roughly without considering the pain she is receiving, remembering that the skin’s sensitivity of some women is low compared the typical man’s. She could cry – this might often interfere with your focus, but it’s unnecessary to take her tears into consideration and it is no reason to go easy on her. When you are tying a woman, if you don’t divest yourself of your humanity, you can not use full strength, and you can not truly tie her – you must keep thinking like that.

This is however not the case if both parties conduct this activity as play. But people like me, who make personal research about bondage (?), must abstain from sympathy. For me, there is no other way than tying her using my strength to the limit. [The question-mark is in the original text.]

There are no other mysteries of this form apart from wrapping the rope around and around, tying both wrists rapidly. As a result, there isn’t really any more to learning the tie than just to practice until you fully acquire the skill.

itoh-3-kopia

  1. Hayanawa [= fast rope]

First of all, the primary focus should be tying up both wrists. In this case, twisting both arms up quickly is a point which requires some tact.

After tying up both wrists, bring the remaining rope from the woman’s upper arms around her back and repeat it a couple of times, then tie a knot with all your strength. Her breasts will quickly be firmly tied, and the rope will bite into her flesh. Without a pause, take aim at the abdomen next; swiftly bring rope around it a couple of times and attach it to the wrists. There’s always an impending risk that she might get away. Except when it’s bondage play [yuugi, 遊戯], some resistance by the woman you’re tying should be expected, especially if it’s a serious situation. Special care must be taken when capturing a female criminal. You must avoid putting rope across the breasts, even if you forgo being careful. Needless to say, the woman’s wrists of course should be on her back.

itoh-4-kopia

  1. Kataashi Kake [= hooking one leg]

At first, hold the woman down and make her lie face down. Twist the right arm towards the back (you’d usually deal with the right arm first), put rope around the wrist, then quickly take it down to the left ankle. It’s necessary that ‘the snake’s mouth’ of the rope (see the illustration) is pulled out near the wrist. The woman’s body will become a Z-shape when you bring the rope from the ankle to the loop by the wrist, then tighten it. Wrap one of her legs with the excess rope, or use another rope and bring it from her leg to the crotch, then wrap it strongly above the groin. It’s more effective if a new, thin rope is used if possible. Once you finish doing this, use your full strength to twist and tie the leg and the crotch.

Towards the end, you should always reel in the rope sequentially, then tighten the rope up from time to time as you tie. There won’t be enough rope left if the crotch part is tied loosely so it’s better to bind as tight as possible, considering that you’ll be bringing the rope to her neck later on.

After placing this rope on her neck and tying the left arm up, you can hold the woman’s right leg and torment her by dragging her body around. This will instantly bring a good result.

itoh-5-kopia

  1. Same as…

There is a method which can be done in the opposite manner to the one mentioned above; placing a pole between the knees and crotch in order to torment a woman after tying her up. In addition to tormenting her, the woman’s body can be suspended from it, if this amuses you.

However, there are no practitioners using this technique at present. It was probably one of the methods for torturing suspects used by Okappiki at police stations in the pre-Restoration days [= before 1867]. When a criminal didn’t confess, they were confined with Hoda for any number of days. Hoda means fetters.

itoh-6-kopia

  1. Irekubi [= neck putting]

I have created a fictitious name, which will suffice for this explanation.

Place her right wrist behind her bended knee, then tie it with rope tightly, placing the excess rope around her neck. Bring the rope to her back, tie her left wrist as it’s brought to her back, bring the rope end around her waist and tie up there. This is to keep the woman’s neck leaning towards the left. The pain this position causes becomes intense from the rope as the wrist gets caught on in the crotch area. The shoulders start to hurt after an hour.

If weight is added to the crotch, the pain on the wrist will reach the upper right arm and the shoulder begins to hurt. The aim of torture shall easily be achieved if you place a stick in the left elbow and twist it, which will undoubtedly cause the woman to scream in agony.

Furthermore, to add harsher torment, bind the body more tightly by putting more rope on, but this is said to cause fainting in some cases.

itoh-7-kopia

  1. A type of Ebi Zeme [= shrimp torture]

This is almost the same tying method as was used in torture chambers during the Edo period.

Make a woman sit cross-legged, tie her legs in a couple of places, run rope from her shoulder to her crotch and pull it tight, leaving the neck as close to the legs as possible. Her back should form a curve, bent like a shrimp.

It is said that Ebi Zeme was named as it is because the colour of the body changes and turns red. It is a matter of life or death when the colour of the body then changes to white after having become red; then it must be untied, as failure to do so is fatal. This writer has never conducted an experiment on this matter so cannot comment from personal experience.

Regardless, this method of torment includes inclining the woman’s body forward and exposing a certain part of her, so it is difficult to conduct such an experiment without being on intimate terms with the woman.

If this test were to be done for research purposes, it is suggested that this position should be maintained for no longer than ten minutes. As a result of an experiment conducted by this writer, a woman was physically disabled for a couple of days after the experiment finished.

itoh-8-kopia

  1. Bou Shibari [= pole tying]

This is a good practice tie, as it shouldn’t cause any harm. This torment can also be bearable for a long time, to a certain extent.

When using this method in a playful manner [yuugiteki, 遊戯的], the time can be extended longer and the mosquito torture can be done to a woman if it’s summer.

This can be a most effective and harmless tie, know to be used for example on a homosexual woman by her jealous female partner, because it won’t leave a scar even if she’s tortured to the edge of breaking the skin. Therefore, this torment method is widely and deeply applicable.

When using this method, you could throw a woman into the garden and make her shiver with cold if it’s winter, give her the mosquito torture if it’s summer (as mentioned above), or torment her with smoke. When using this pole tying method, all sorts of torment methods can be thought up to follow. Its applications are limitless.

The method for this tie depends on personal preference, but historically, the most common way is to open a person’s arms straight and place a pole along the arms over the back. The pole is then tied to the arms in a couple of places with short ropes. You can then tie the woman’s ankles and throw her down, or attach her to a tree.

It is said that this tie was a type of arrest which was usually used on Noarashi [= poachers and rustlers, persons who steal crops from a farm].

itoh-9-kopia

  1. Mata Nozoki [= peeping through the crotch]

This is similar to a variety of a method called Hyoutan Zeme [= gourd torture], which is said to have been used at a government office at the Sado gold mine.

This is an unbearable tie unless the person has a great deal of endurance. At first, bring both hands to the back and tie them up, then bring the rope end to the shoulder and tie up in the same way as in the Ebi Zeme. You should then bring the rope through between the thighs. Pull it tightly until the woman’s head meets her own anus. Bring the rope to the back and attach it to the wrists, then throw the rope over a beam and lift her up. It is both ridiculously laborious and quite dangerous, so it’s a bit tricky to try out this tie. There is a legend that Dakki no Ohyaku [”Ohyaku the villainess”] was tortured with this tie twice, but even such a wicked woman couldn’t bear it.

itoh-10-kopia

  1. Sagi [= Heron]

I’ve made up my own name for this one, as its shape is similar to a heron.

Start by tying a woman’s hands behind the back as usual. It is important to fixate the wrists as high as possible. Extend this rope end, bend either the right or left ankle towards her front and wrap the rope in a spiral around her leg. Use the remaining rope to tie a pole to the leg the woman’s standing on, putting the pole between both arms as in the illustration.

The woman’s body makes a ┓-shape as it is folded to the front, making it look similar to a shape of a heron.

To inflict more pain on her, you can put things like a heavy stone on her back for some time. It is said that the person would faint if this continues for a long period of time. However, this writer hasn’t yet tested it to that point.

itoh-11-kopia

  1. Ryoute Age [= arms up]

This is also a name I’ve made up, of course. Tie both the right and left wrists while holding them up and prevent the hands slipping down by putting a pole by the wrists to hold her up. That’s all you need to do for the tie, but other people might take turns in tickling the woman’s armpits. She will writhe in agony as the pain increases, so you might want to tie both legs to a log to deprive her legs of their freedom.

This method is used when you want to cause the greatest pain without damaging the body. It is said that a person will make a confession as their consciousness clouds after this torture continues without allowing them sleep or rest. This tie can be used for a ‘torture’ called Utsutsu Zeme [severe sleep deprivation] later on.

The tie is quite simple, but the torture requires time and patience.

itoh-12-kopia

  1. Mata Biraki [= crotch opening]

First place both hands behind the back and tie them up, then spread both legs as wide as possible and tie the ankles to a pole. Then tie the rest of the legs to it with the excess rope.

This can be used for wicked play if it is done with a woman lying down, but these details shall not be mentioned here.

It must be noted that it is a blasphemy to the art of bondage if you demand poses which are beyond the limit of range of motion for the human body, just because you’re too eager to see a change in a woman’s body. Once you’ve learned the tie, try it with your partner, and learn the limits of their body.

itoh-13-kopia

  1. Kukuri Zaru [= bound monkey]

This is another for which I’ve coined a name, referring to the shape it produces. This tie is a bit tougher than it appears to be. You’re trying to create a shape like a monkey by bringing both wrists and ankles together, with the neck leaning downward.

If you use this tie for a suspension, the shape becomes what the title of this paragraph says. However, in reality, there is a risk that the wrists can be damaged if this is applied to a suspension without great care. Here I’d emphasise that this method should not be used on or by an inexperienced person.

itoh-14-kopia

  1. Gyaku Tsurushi [= Inverted suspension]

This can rarely be done in reality, and even if it’s done, it can cause a life or death situation. As it’s so risky, this tie should be done only in very special cases.

It’s safer to use a Nuno Renjaku, especially when it’s for a photo shoot or for a film. Nuno Renjaku is made by wrapping a cloth around the waist many times, putting jute rope over it and making a loop, then attaching the main rope to it in order to suspend the body. This is also used in provincial theatres when they want to hang an actor in mid-air for short periods. It is a quite useful thing, but amateurs are quite often unable to do it properly. With this taken into account when you suspend a woman, you should first tie both legs. Then lay her body on her back on a board which is set up in a raised position (tie her hands behind the back before doing so). When you suddenly remove the board then the woman’s body will hang down.

This also looks easy, but it’s one of the most difficult things in bondage. A full understanding of this suspension can be gained only by practice or by in-person teaching from someone else.

itoh-15-kopia

  1. Suspension

It’s impossible to suspend a woman with her hands behind the back like in all the illustrations for popular novels.

If you think the hem of a kimono flutters conveniently and the long sleeves of the kimono will move into an attractive shape, you are totally wrong. The shape of a woman suspended like this really doesn’t look good. As I mentioned before, there absolutely must not be rope placed on a woman’s breasts at all. As a result, the shape of the tie becomes bad, the legs hang down and the body will just keep spinning around.

Even if you tie rope to the Obi, the woman’s posture will become like a post, not a very attractive sight. To tie this, begin by tying both her hands as in the Takate Kote, then wrapping the waist with rope before hanging her from a beam. However, great care must be taken with this tie, and you must not forget that there is always a risk of injury.

***

– Translation by Nana (London), commissioned and edited by Bergborg // http://www.kinbakubooks.wordpress.com //

This is a non-profit endeavour. Please support ”Kinbaku Books” with a small donation through PayPal to: bergamott@live.se

Oki Shoji: That’s Wonderful Eros Japan!

bild 1 kopia 2bild 1bild 4bild 4 kopia 2bild 3 kopiabild 2bild 3bild 3 kopia 2bild 2 kopiabild 2 kopia 2

Oki Shoji: That’s Wonderful Eros Japan!

Exotica Eros Baraccuda

Publisher: マガジン・ファイブ (Magazine Five), 2004

ISBN: 4-434-05275-6

 

Here is a hardbound book with drawings by Oki Shoji (born in 1922, currently 94 years of age).

Some in black-and-white, some in colours, this is a fine collection of sometimes crude pictures.

Kyodo Miyabi: Gorgeous book of paintings 3

bild 1bild 4bild 3bild 1bild 2

Kyodo Miyabi: Gorgeous book of paintings 3

鏡堂みやび豪華画集 第三集

Publisher: Tokyo: Sanwa, 2016

A blue slipcase with a hardbound book of utmost quality, supplemented with two glossy colour-prints in an envelope. This is the third publication from Sanwa collecting the work of the artist Kyodo Miyabi. Partly a retrospective of earlier works, it also contains a large section with very strong new material.

As a collector of Kinbaku books, I am exposed to a lot of images – but I must say that Kyodo Miyabi’s works are unique in their power, sometimes quite demanding to watch.

The book opens with a Foreword by Master K, printed in both English and Japanese. You can read the full text on Master K:s website, here:

http://www.masterkclasses.com/MyabiKyodoAlbum3.html

See also two earlier posts on Kyodo Miyabi’s works here:

https://kinbakubooks.wordpress.com/category/miyabi-kyodo/