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

Publicerad den oktober 30, 2016 av Bergborg

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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

Publicerad den oktober 20, 2016 av Bergborg

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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

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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

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].

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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].

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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– 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

Tsujimura Takashi: Interview in Sankei Weekly (1976)

Publicerad den maj 18, 2016 av Bergborg

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Tsujimura Takashi: Interview in Sankei Weekly (1976)

Tsujimura (1921–1987) was a very influential bakushi. Nawapedia writes: ”It would not be an exaggeration to say that Takashi Tsujimura established modern Kinbaku Art (…) Tsujimura acted as a kinbakushi for virtually the entire run of Kitan Club magazine…” (http://nawapedia.com/index.php?title=Takashi_Tsujimura)

See an earlier post here:

https://kinbakubooks.wordpress.com/category/tsujimura-takeshi/

Below are images from an issue of a weekly paper called Sankei, where Tsujimura was interviewed in 1976, along with a full translation.

Footnote: You can read more about the model Kawabata Tanako that Tsujimura mentions here:

https://kinbakubooks.wordpress.com/2015/04/06/kawabata-tanako-rope-bottom-roundtable-talk-from-kitan-club-1953/

Forbidden Eros: Tsujimura Takashi reaches for the limit

Interview with Shimokawa Koushi

in Sankei Weekly, April 15th, 1976

Translated by Shiba, commissioned and edited by Bergborg of the KinbakuBooks blog

Interviewer: We would like to hear about your thoughts about contemporary eroticism. To start with, could you tell us what made you interested in this ”world”?

Tsujimura: I actually believe that everyone has feelings like the ones I have. It is just a matter of their depth. And we probably become aware of them in quite early age. As I remember it, I realized that there were feelings like this when I was in the 3^rd or 4^th 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.

I: Weren’t you at all interested in being the one catching the others back then?

T: I have absolutely no memory of enjoying being the one catching the others.

I: When was the first time you got the urge of wanting to tie someone, like you do now?

T: It was the night before I moved to Manchuria. I was 16 years old [editors note: 1937]. I was having a relationship with a girl since I was 14 years old and we were having a reluctant farewell-meeting that night. The thought of ”I might not be able to see her ever again” gave me a feeling of exaltation. I felt strongly that I wanted to tie her. As there wasn’t any rope at home, I used her obijime, koshihimo, and even pajama-belt all tied up together. It is somewhat embarrassing to tell, as this girl is my current wife.

I: When did you start taking pictures of the people you tie, as part of your work?

T: It was during the postwar years, after 1945. There was a magazine called Kitan club, which used to be just a general erotic magazine but over summer one of those years changed into an SM-magazine. I was writing short stories and essays for them. The editor in chief at one point asked me if I wanted to pursue the world of shibari since they had changed to an SM-magazine.

I: So those years and the words of the editor in chief made a big change in your life.

T: There is one more person I can’t forget: the model Tanako Kawabata. She was ideal as a kinbaku model and an extremely masochistic woman. Once, I tied her up to a pillar at Kitan club’s office and I went out for about three hours, leaving her behind. I came back and touched her genitals, and found that she was very wet with excitement. I was used to just tying my wife when the feeling was right and arousal was already there. Meeting a woman like Tanako Kawabata and learning that there are people who have such a deep understanding of the feelings of shibari made me unbelievably happy. I have tried so many ways of kinbaku with her and taken photos.

Eroticism as ”scene”

I: So, we have the achievement of 25 years of your work, the photos from many photo-sessions here. There seem to be over a hundred of them.

T: I think there are photos from about 150 sessions here.

I: I’ve taken a look at them. They are very interesting. I understand there is also the same amount of photos that you haven’t organized yet. As I was looking trough the photos, I noticed that there are many married couples in them.

T: Certainly there are many photos of couples who have been married four or five years or so. Of course, there are also people who are keeping it a secret from their spouse. And unexpectedly, female university students and young female office workers has started coming to me too. Four or five years ago, a girl who claimed that she was a junior college student asked me to tie her. She was very passionate and had a supple body, so I became very interested. I did some quite cruel shibari, including a suspension with her. Then it turned out that the girl was a 2^nd grade high school student. I found it out that later somehow.

I: Do you think married couples tend to desire new and different kinds of stimulation after having been married a couple of years?

T: I don’t think so. I comprehend eroticism as a kind of ”scene” [演戯] – a game [遊び] we play [戯れ] when we act in a role [演じる] – and the world of S and M is a world which concentrate these positions. I think married couples understand the feelings they search for in a scene after the years they have spent together, but sometimes they can’t do the scene themselves, so they come to me. I would say that the couples that come to me, are couples that have a love which is one step ahead of themselves.

I: There is the expression muttsuri sukebe [むっつりスケベ], saying that people with solid occupations are more decadent when it comes to sexuality. Have you noticed any significant patterns when it comes to the occupations of these people?

T: I have solid occupation myself, I do businesses with schools, so I guess I am a good example of muttsuri sukebe (laugh), but in fact these two things are not related to each other. During the years I have devoted myself to this world, I have met people in many different job categories –mizu shobai like politicians, entertainers and hostesses, as well as more established people like monks, bank employees or teachers. The image of who a person is connects strongly with one’s occupation, so for some it might be a great surprise to find out that these people, with solid jobs, are doing this type of play.

The feelings move between S and M

I: By the way, I have two questions I wanted to ask about the SM-world. The first one: There is a general stereotype that men are S and women are M. But there are male masochists, also tied in your photos. Shozo Numa [沼　正三], a famous author writing about masochistic themes, seems to have a different opinion – according to him ”there are only masochistic emotions in human beings. The sadistic feelings are illusions”. I wondered if that could be right since such an experienced person in the M’s world is saying so, but then as I explored my feelings, I found that I without doubt have both an S-side and an M-side.

T: That’s a very subtle problem. A building engineer I know of, has two large piercings, one through his nose and one through the glans of his penis. He enjoys being tied by his wife with electric cables with small bulbs all over the body, starting and ending in those two holes. When she lights him up, he says ”it is an illumination of the human”. He seems a typical masochist, but he isn’t just a masochist. He had his wife’s nose pierced too, and is having so much fun making suspensions with her, tying her quite intensely. People say that I am a sadist, for I tie and make suspensions – and I am conscious that the degree to which I am in this role is extremely high. But a person like me can sometimes also experience a very strong desire to be tied. So the feelings of S and M can be variable and switchable, I think. Then you might wonder if such a thing as a pure S even exists? But my answer would be that, yes, they actually do. There was a bartender who was such a complete S that even I couldn’t follow. He had a wife who was an M. I used to think that it was certain that the husband would eventually kill his wife if they kept going like they were doing, and I actually felt nervous about it. One day, the couple visited me and told me that they had decided to move to a mountain-area in Shikoku. I tried to stop them as hard as I could. Because it was easy to see that their purpose to moving there wasn’t to be farmers but to be able to soak themselves into the world of SM in the mountain-area where the eyes of others can’t reach. They returned from the mountain after a year and a half, because of the husband got Pott’s disease. The wife was very skinny and had scars all over the body. I fear she would have been dead if the husband had gotten the sickness half a year later than he did.

The question of Death

I: My second question: You said that SM is a kind of ”play”, a consensual play. I understand what you are saying, but doesn’t it get more and more dangerous when you love someone very deeply, since SM-play is basically about wanting dangerous things? I think the bartender you’ve just talked about would be a perfect example.

T: Absolutely. I myself have an experience of making a woman faint and for a moment appear to have died, when I got emotionally high with her. She had asked me to tie her tighter, and I did it too tight.

I: The woman would die in satisfaction since she would die in the peak of the senses, but the one who is left would be a murder. However we can’t avoid the risk of falling into the situations like that in SM-world, can we?

T: Oh, but yes, we can. As I said about switching earlier, since the roles of S and M are so different, I think we can keep our mental balance by switching into each other’s roles sometimes. So, S and M can be switchable and even though it is possible to have just one of the roles, I think they should be switchable in order to keep SM-play in a married couple healthy.

I: So you are saying that if you are able to switch between S and M, it’s a matter of eroticism, but if you stay with only one of the roles, it can turn into a matter of death? By the way, I’ve heard that you have distanced yourself from shibari lately?

T: If they ask, I can’t turn people down that I have been related to for like 5–10 years, but I’m trying not to accept any new people to tie.

I: How has this changed for you?

T: I have been pursuing the beauty of kinbaku for 30 years and I’ve accomplished almost everything I want to. The thing left, that I haven’t done, is to face death as I talked about earlier. But that avenue is closed, as it is really the end. So I have decided to move on, and explore something else.

The ultimate joy I’ve reached

I: So, you are saying….?

T: Nothing special triggered me to be interested in this activity, but all of the sudden I got an interest for urine, like it’s a revelation.

I: Urine…

T: I’ve tried it and have drunk it often.

I: The emperor Genso in China was famous for drinking urine – perhaps you have now reached his mental state? (laugh)

T: As the saying goes: ”Beneath that rough exterior beats a heart of gold” [ボロは着てても心は錦]. (laugh) People frown, saying ”that is filthy” when they hear about urine, but it is a big misunderstanding.

I: Speaking of urine, it’s said that there was a medicinal system called 童便軍 during the Joseon Dynasty. Special servants stepped out in front of the king and did their job whenever the king wanted to drink urine. In your case, you reached urine on your path to the extremes of eroticism.

T: Yes.

I: Drinking urine was considered to be a most delicious feast during the Joseon Dynasty. It seems the essence of eroticism and the peak of appetite meets there.

*****

Captions to the photos:

* When I was at a club in Osaka, a hostess showed interest and said: “I would like to be tied like that sometime”. I answered lightly: “Come to me tomorrow then”, because I thought that sort of talk was just part of the service (and that she didn’t mean it). But she really came to me. She had even prepared herself and shaved, as she thought she would look pleasant. She was a woman with a really supple body.

* This girl came to me and said that she was interested because she had gotten tired of the usual soft “play”. I normally don’t like it when people talk like this, since I see SM as a communication between hearts. But, I tied her hard a bit, then she gave up as I expected.

* This woman was all on her own, economically supporting her mother and two brothers, and she became a model for money in the beginning. She begged: “I will do this for you no matter how painful it will be, so give me a lot of money”. I still can’t forget her pitiful face. Therefore she came to me twice, three times… and it turned out to be a 5 years relation, ending only as she got married. The feeling seems not appearing in her much after the marriage.

* This woman came to me from Tokyo two or three days after I had appeared on TV for the first time. She told me that she was a university student. I usually do not investigate if what they say is true or not. I found out that everything she had told me was true after meeting her again seven or eight years later. This photo was taken in 1972, on her first summer vacation after she started working.

* There are many girls who ask me “please tie me”, but in this particular case, it was actually me who asked. I got an intuition that she was a pure masochist. The intuition was right and she fulfilled my desires when it comes to Shibari and suspensions. My world of Shibari has been helped very much by her cooperation. We were related for exactly fifteen years, since she was 17. Now she is a wife to a man who is a manager in a company.

* This girl was working in a company in Nagoya and dating the managing director. The boyfriend had sadistic interests and her feelings as masochist grew while she was serving him

Nureki Chimuo: Women Writhe in Rope

Publicerad den februari 10, 2016 av Bergborg

Svara

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Nureki Chimuo: Women Writhe in Rope

緊縛フォト集　縄に悶える女たち

This book, it took me four years to finally get my hands on. A special thanks goes out to the few individuals who responded to my call for economic donations in December. If you haven’t donated anything yet, please consider the possibility – even the smallest contributions keeps me going. The one’s received in December made it possible for me to pay a translator to help me with the text from this book, published below. Please enjoy.

No ISBN.

Photography: Kai Haruo

Publisher: 共和出版

Year unknown, my guess is sometime in the late 1980s.

****

The Joy of Being Allowed to Tie Women Freely

by Chimuo Nureki

Although I have been doing photo sessions for various kinds of SM-magazines and tied nearly a thousand young naked women over the last ten years, there weren’t many publishers who let me tie as I wanted. It is increasingly uninteresting for riggers [縛る方] to tie for publishers these days, since the poses and patterns they want are generally boring. I have often thought that I want to do something different.

Then one day, I got an offer from the photographer Haruro Kai, working for the publisher Kyowa. He said: ”You can tie how you like. We will not decide for you how or what you do. I will just take pictures of everything you do and make a deluxe photo-book out of it.” It was such a great offer so I gladly took it.

What made me most engaged and what I liked the most in creating this book is the section called ”18 patterns of Nureki-ryu kinbaku-jutsu” [濡木流緊縛術十八種]. I had not done anything like this for any other SM-magazine, and I don’t think anyone else would have agreed to include it. As the photographer Kai was taking the photos in the studio in Shinjuku, he was astonished and said: ”You tie in such a beautiful way [綺麗に]. I didn’t know that there are so many different ways of Shibari”.

I tied the model Yuko Izumi in so many different patterns and as the photoshoot took a long time, her arms and chest even got a bit swollen. She was tied and released repeatedly 18 times, sitting in Seiza the most of the time. As it wasn’t just a modeling but more like having real sessions, she was nearly crying. The location was in such an intense atmosphere.

In later books, if the readers have interest, I would like to show also 18 patterns of hashira shibari [柱縛り十八種, tying to a pole], 18 patterns of tachi shibari [立ち縛り十八種, standing positions], 18 patterns of tsuri shibari [吊り十八種, suspensions], 18 patterns of aotake shibari [青竹十八種, tying to bamboo], and 18 patterns of ebi-seme [海老責め十八種, torment ties sitting crossed-legged and the upper body folded over].

My intention for this publication is to cater to the desires of the pure SM-enthusiasts [”maniacs”], rather than aiming for the usual, popular eroticism. How do you readers like the book? There are so many types of SM-manias. The most common are kinbaku mania and topping-play mania. And the less common include kancho-play [enema], seppuku [ritual cutting of the abdomen], and josou [crossdressing] manias. The less common maniacs have quite strict and specific needs and their expectations are on a higher level than the more widespread forms. I’m thinking about trying to fulfill the needs and expectations of these minorities if I get the chance to publish a second or third photobook.

One more thing that other SM-magazines never do, but that we could do in this book was that we could take snapshots of practice scenes for an SM-show [ＳＭショ－のけいこ場面]. With the cooperation of Yuri Izumi and Akira Sakamoto (Nikkatsu porn stars), and the cooperation of the theater Kawaguchi DX, we were allowed to take photos the practice scenes for the show ”Chikandensha no majo” [痴漢電車の魔女]. I was the producer of the show, so that’s why the photoshoot was possible. Backstage photos of shibari-scenes are very rare, and I think it will be a valuable collection of photos for you, maniac people. The photos show a very raw, unique atmosphere compared to photos taken in a studio, a hotel, or an inn.

I was planning to write details about models and how the photo-shoots were, but I have decided to postpone it to the next book because of editorial considerations. I would like to include it in a second book, since I believe that the reactions of models and the atmosphere of the scenes are somethings maniac people are very curious to know about.

This photo-book was made possible through the photographer Haruro Kai’s passion, and the editor Toru Souda’s great efforts. What you readers can see in the pictures in the book is the result also of their hands- and leg-work.

Please look forward to the next book.

– Translation by Shiba, commissioned and edited by Bergborg.

PS These are the ties presented:

濡木流縛術十八種

-肩かけ縄　Katakake nawa

-本菱縄 Honshishi nawa

-前首縄 Maekubi nawa

-乳つぶし縄 Chichitsubushi nawa

-鎖縄 Kusari nawa

-斜め掛け Nanamegake

-後ろ亀甲 Ushirokikkou

-股菱縄 Matahishi nawa

-片腕吊り縄 Kataudetsuri nawa

-首早縄 Kubihaya nawa

-腕縄 Ude nawa

-背中十文字縛り Senakajuumonji shibari

-胴縄 Dou nawa

-首縄細段縛り Kubi nawa saidan shibari

-高手小手 Takatekote

-後ろ菱縄 Ushirohishi nawa

-股縄（前） Mata nawa (front)

-股縄（後） Mata nawa (back)

-股本鎖 Matahonkusari

Kawabata Tanako: Rope-bottom Roundtable-talk, from Kitan Club 1953

Publicerad den april 6, 2015 av Bergborg

Kawabata Tanako: Rope-bottom Roundtable-talk, from Kitan Club 1953

This blog is devoted to Japanese Kinbaku-related photo-books, art-books and magazines. Sometimes I make exceptions and include other material.

In an earlier post, I offered all of the content of the ”first” Kinbaku-photo-book, Beautifully bound, both pictures and a translation of the text by Nana (London). In my presentation, I mentioned that one of the models in the book is Kawabata Tanako. (Download the Powerpoint here: https://kinbakubooks.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/beautifully-bound-pp1.pptx )

Kawabata Tanako also tied herself, and had her ropework published in the magazine Kitan Club in 1953. Interestingly, the same issue of the magazine contains a roundtable discussion amongst kinbaku models, also led by Kawabata Tanako. I offer here a translation of the text, again by Nana (London), edited and commissioned by Bergborg. It is a long text, but, in my opinion, very interesting. As an option, you can download it here: BOTTOMING ROUNDTABLE 1953

A big THANK YOU to Nana for her efforts!

***

Kitan Club, September Issue, 1953

‘A Round-Table Talk With Only Women Who Are Tied’

‘The 3rd Readers’ discussion’

Moderator– Kawabata Tanako (21)

Attendees –

Asa Harue (20)

Sakaguchi Toshiko (22)

Murata Namiko (19)

Kumoi Hisako (23)

Takase Shinobu (18)

Editor (stenographer) – Iehara Fumiko

Date/time – 1:00pm, Sunday 14th June, 1953

Place – Meiyou Ken in Abeno, Osaka

[Picture – Kawabata Tanako]

Kawabata : Thank you for taking the trouble to attend this meeting, even though it is Sunday. I am not the type of person who is suitable for a taking on a moderator’s role, but I accepted this with courage because I was told that there was going to be only women attending. I don’t know what to talk to start with, but why don’t we just approach it as chatting with each other while eating our favourite sweets.

Sakaguchi : I makes me feel comfortable that there are only women here. I was thinking that I would not like it if there were men attending, so I was glad the invitation said it’s women-only.

Kumoi : I agree. Ms Kawabata, isn’t Ms Minami coming?

Kawabata : No, she said that the time is not good for her…

Kumoi : Too bad, I thought we could make our way home together if she came.

Kawabata : Do you live close to each other?

Kumoi : Just using the same train line…

Kawabata : I have been tied for quite a while, but it seems that all of you have started it recently.

Murata : Yes, in my case, since about a month ago.

Takase : Likewise.

Kumoi : It has been about half a year for me, since last autumn.

Kawabata : How about you, Ms Sakaguchi?

Sakaguchi : I haven’t done much, I was tied for the first time this winter. It has been 3 times so far.

Murata : Ms Kawabata is like our senior who is much more experienced. I have often seen you on the magazines, but I wonder what it was like when you first started…

Kawabata : When I was tied for the first time, the tie was like a bit of a joke when I look back at it now. But I was tied anyway, with my hands like this…

Murata : Can you show again?

Kawabata : Yes, I was tied in a Gote [hands behind one’s back], and I held the end of the rope by myself like this…

Sakaguchi : You were treated kindly at that time then. During my first time, I was cold, although I wasn’t totally naked. I remember that I was tied tightly and saying “it hurts, it hurts”.

Kawabata : How about you, Ms Asa. When did you begin?

Asa : Most of the time I wasn’t able to make it when I was called due to my work. I did it only twice so far, I think my first time was in March.

Kawabata : I was so surprised when I saw rope for the first time because I thought I only had to pose nude…

Kumoi : I have posed nude for a year and half without rope. I wouldn’t agree to have rope on me for a long time, but I finally did it for the first time last October…

Sakaguchi : Can you tell us more about it?

Kumoi : Last autumn, it was when chrysanthemum flowers were in full bloom, we met up at Abeno train station around lunch time then went to a cafe nearby. I was finally persuaded and seduced by Mr Tsujimura and Mr Tsukamoto there because they were so passionate about it.

Takase : It’s not long since I begun, but I have been a nude model before. I didn’t dislike the idea at all when they suggested to tie me up. Actually, I thought I would rather do that than pose nude in strange postures.

Kawabata : How about the others?

Murata : It was like Ms Takase’s case for me. I thought it was just only going to pose nude as a part time work, but when I was tied and had my photo taken, it felt right and it fitted me better…

Kumoi : I live an idle life at home, and applied to be a model just because I was seeking a little thrill. If those men had not asked me so humbly, sitting knee to knee, I don’t think I would have agreed to do it.

Takase : Didn’t you expect a monetary reward?

Kumoi : Well, I want pocket money, but I often stay at home and do sewing or something, as it is quite a hassle for me to go out in Osaka, so I hardly have an opportunity to spend money.

Takase : How nice life is for you! I have to support my mother and two brothers. My salary as an office worker is not enough at all, so I took on working as a model as a side job. But it became my main work before I knew it.

Kawabata : But you haven’t done this for a long time, have you?

Takase : No, it has been just almost two months.

Kawabata : You felt very embarrassed when you were stripped naked at the very beginning, didn’t you?

Takase : When it was the very first time, I didn’t know what to do since I felt as if the light went out of my eyes when I stood on the modelling podium – I was so embarrassed. But I remember the feeling of relief I had when it was finished and it turned out that it was not so bad. Nowadays, I don’t have any complaints.

[Picture – Takase Shinobu]

Sakaguchi : I was modelling for some artists working in the field of sculpture for a week last summer. Actually, it was for some workshop. I felt so embarrassed as the students stared at me from every direction and angle.

Kawabata : Did you stand on a podium?

Sakaguchi : Yes, well, I probably made a pose like this, lacing my hands behind my head. But it became so painful to keeping still with the same posture for a long time, so I thought I would never do it again.

Murata : Did you have work at that time?

Sakaguchi : No, I was helping with the housework at home then. The sculptor who lived near my house unexpectedly asked me if I wanted to be a model, and I felt like doing it. Since then, until this winter, I stood on the modelling podium a couple of times, but for a photo shoot I have done it only once.

Asa : Since I am a dance instructor, I didn’t feel much embarrassed. Probably it’s also because I may not be that innocent towards men though…

Murata : With rope around me, it helps my vulnerable feeling of being exposed even though I am stark-naked. I feel that my body is squeezed in together somehow, rather than having everything left open. I feel ashamed and insecure, but then the feeling of resignation comes and puts me at ease.

Kawabata : I guess it is painful to be tied by rope. I have gotten used to it though.

Sakaguchi : Of course it’s painful. My skin has been pinched between ropes, and the rope has bitten deeply into my wrists when my hands were tied behind my back. I said it hurts it hurts, and had to ask them to slacken off the rope many times.

Kumoi : For me, it was so painful once when the upper arm was wrapped in rope, and they threw me out onto the floor with the upper arm being the bottom side. My arm was like becoming numb. I may feel like that specifically because I am skinny. How about you? Everyone here has a well-curved body…

Asa : I have done rope only twice so I can not clearly say anything for sure, but I remember it was never so painful that I couldn’t stand it. The rope left visible marks afterwards though.

Takase : I would rather be tied much tighter. I thought I was able to bear being tied like this for any length of time. The person who tied me asked so many times if I was OK, so I felt sorry for them. I thought they could tie me as tight as they liked in any way.

Murata : If it is just simply being tied without suspension by the arms or something, I assume people can bear that sort of pain. Once I was tied and then thrown onto the floor, I scraped my elbow so it even started bleeding. But it didn’t feel painful at all, maybe it was because my nerves were making me numb at the time. The person in charge was deeply sorry and I was comforted in various ways after the incident. My skin was pink, and I was feeling a tickling sensation.

Kawabata : Sometimes my skin also was chafed and bleeding, or the roughness of the rope itself skratched my skin. Unexpectedly, it didn’t hurt at the time. I think that the sensibility to pain is the same for everyone, but I am confident that I can endure pain and discomfort to some extent.

Murata : I guess it depends on your mindset. I feel that I will be able to enjoy more being tied in future.

Kumoi : I will do anything but pain.

Kawabata : The photo of you with a gag in the June issue of the magazine was quite good, wasn’t it?

Kumoi : I was photographed reluctantly then. The photo was taken while I was thinking that I would want to finish the photo shoot early and go to the cinema…

Murata : Ms Kawabata, how do you feel when you are tied? You have written about this in your text ‘A Torn Diary’.

Kawabata : Well, the way I feel, really my true feeling, is something I think I would be embarrassed to say out loud, because it is my real feeling deep within.

Murata : But well done of you to write such things. I am thinking of attempting to write that kind of confession one day.

Kawabata : I have been asked various things about being in rope, by many people. I ended up feeling like I don’t know which one of my attempts of describing it represent my feelings best. Even when rope is just wrapped once or twice around my body – not necessarily very elaborate – and I am then left alone, it happened that, even if my hands behind my back starts to be numb, I can’t express it very well, but… it still happens that I can concentrate on only one thing at the time and forget everything which bothers me in my daily life, I think there is a joy in this for me.

Takase : A miserable face when being tied and my state of being feeble – I close my eyes so I don’t have to face such a scene directly, but I guess it is still enjoyable to imagine things like that by myself while being tied…

Kawabata : When I am tied and left on the floor, I often indulge in fantasies. I was sometimes shocked when being woken up, as I had gotten absorbed in day-dreams. I think it was the best when I was being tied my hands on my back, rope on my neck, and a gag.

Sakaguchi : Maybe because I have done this only for a short time, I don’t really understand feelings like that. All I could think of is, I hoped to be tied without much pain, and hoped they would finish it as soon as possible.

Murata : There is one perspective that would say that as long as we get paid, we are fine. But even if you aim only to do some kind of play-acting, you may get drawn into the mood, just by trying your best to create the expressions of feelings of a woman who is tied.

Takase : That’s also right.

Kawabata : I always wonder why men take such a huge interest in tying women.

Kumoi : But for some women, for example, like Ms Kawabata, Ms Takase and Ms Murata… I assume some women wants to be tied by men.

Murata : Sure, it does happen that some gradually start liking it as they are being tied repeatedly.

Kawabata : But there are men who have never tied a woman, still they already know that they would like to tie women. I feel that’s somehow strange.

Ase : I don’t really know about men’s perspectives in general, but there is a man who comes to my lessons, he always says that he wants to marry a young woman – like whoever it is. Taking a woman’s freedom away and restricting her is his fantasy. It might be fun for him to do it to a living human.

[picture – Kumoi Hisako]

Takase : From our women’s perspective, I think we’d be pleased with men who have a proper spirit to be able tie women. I don’t know the feelings of men, but as a woman, I guess that the temperament like submissiveness and meekness are our nature. I also think that being submissive would bring a kind of pleasure for women.

Sakaguchi : Let them tie if they want to tie. No matter what, if you want to be tied or not…

Kumoi : It seems that some men like to tie women by force even if she says no. That’s scary.

Kawabata : Being scared and the thrill that you don’t know what the man is going to do, I guess it’s exciting for some women. In my case, it’s enough if I am just tied naked and left alone…

Murata : Let us hear your experience, Ms Kawabata. For our reference…

Sakaguchi : Agreed, agreed.

Kawabata : I thought I would be asking you various things as a moderator, but this is becoming a mess. You also must speak in return, promise.

Asa : Well, I will talk about anything, maybe offer a hell of a story, like a train going off the rails…

Kawabata : But I wonder what to say first. Things just presenting themselves to my mind are, for example, the my first time I was hung upside down. It was in a solitary house in the suburbs. I could perhaps say something about the thrill I felt. It was only maybe my 4th or 5th time of being photographed in rope since I became a model.

Murata : It was last year, wasn’t it?

Kawabata : Yes, I guess it was around June, maybe my third time. It was the rainy season and it drizzled, I remember that I was covered in sweat and feeling sticky, as I was wearing a rain coat and a pair of rain shoes. During my first and second time, I had felt nothing but shocked and I could not even open my eyes at those times. I had become calmer when my third time came, but I was anxious if I was going to be molested or something. Still, I went there filled with some kind of excitement when I was called. There were two rooms adjacent to each other, a 6 Tatami-mat room and a 8 Tatami-mat room – traditional Japanese style rooms. I could see a red futon bedding in the next room through a papered sliding door which was open only a few centimetres.

Sakaguchi : Were there two of you, only you and a man?

Kawabata : Yes, that’s right. I was really worried what would await me after I had been tied. I determined that I would run away if I was about to be abused or something. I was made to create difficult poses I had never done before, using an alcove pillar, a table, the futon bedding and so on. It was really nothing really challenging about being tied tightly, but the anxiety I had was still staying with me throughout, until the end.

Kumoi : You might have been having a sort of bad expectations, don’t you think?

Kawabata : Looking back at it, seriously, I think anxiety is a better word than expectation. Things might have felt very different if I had a more of breathing room in my heart.

Kumoi : Isn’t it boring if nothing happens? Just kidding… I was asked if I wanted to try a suspension with full inversion, and I became curious about it. But we didn’t do it in the end, as I started to feel cold after a while and so on. I guess it is only Ms Kawabata who has been suspended…

Takase : Us others have just started this, so we haven’t reached that stage yet, but I might want to be suspended at some point. According to Ms Kawabata, it sounded like it wasn’t harder than you expected anyway?

Kawabata : Yes, well, it is maybe not as you think. Still, there are much harder ways to be tied than being suspended.

Takase : I guess that being suspended flamboyantly is better than making a difficult pose which looks easy at first glance.

Kawabata : Being suspended is tough, of course. I wasn’t able to bear it once, when only my ankles were tied by a rough rope, then suspended hanging straight like a stick. The time I liked was when my hands and legs were tied separately, then suspended.

Murata : Saying you liked, what specifically was it that you…

Kawabata : Well, I can’t clearly state what it was, but I just liked it somehow… My favourite style of being tied is, as I said previously, the Gote [hands behind one’s back] with Takate Kote [hands high], and putting rope on my neck to the point where I have a difficulty to breathe, adding a gag over my mouth… But I would rather not have my feet tied…

Murata : How about your hands being tied in front your body?

Kawabata : I think it is boring if my hands are tied in the front. It’s incomparable to when they are behind my back. Also, it is better being tied to a degree of just taking my freedom away rather than tying me tight with a lot of ropes. In the July edition of this magazine [Kitan Club], there are five photos of different poses using a gag. Could you tell your story when it was shot? Ms Murata is quite large, so I guess it was hard for you to put your hands behind your back?

Murata : My weight is 14 Kan 500 Monme [approx. 54 kg], heavy for my height. Especially I have a trouble when I sit down because my legs are thick. Deep rope marks were clearly visible after having been tied. I guess I am just fat, but my legs look thick in those photos in that album. It concerns me.

Takase : I am tall, and lacking flesh yet. I was often told that I look immature somehow. I am still 18 years old so I expect to be more plump in future. People say that a skipping rope is one of the best ways to improve the shape of the legs.

Murata : I try to do walking and skipping rope whenever I can, but I guess this is my natural physique. Ms Asa is also quite plump, but well-balanced…

Asa : My legs are thick, too. I think I don’t have flab because I do dance, but they are thick anyway. Recently I have put on weight around the abdomen and the waist, I feel that it repels the muscle when I walk. When I was tied for the first time, I looked out of the corner of my eyes at myself, I noticed that the rope sank deep into my skin. But I didn’t really feel it.

Kawabata : How you receive an impact and its effect might be different depending on if you are plump or skinny. I am just an average built so it is not really an issue for me, but Ms Kumoi is skinny, so you may feel it is hard?

[picture – Asa Harue]

Kumoi : I was actually quite fat, weighing nearly 15 Kan [approx=56 kg] when I was in school. I have lost weight since I had a problem with my stomach last spring. I put on weight again a little in the autumn, but became thin again in the winter. Now I just have some flesh on me. I don’t like my arms bind tightly, also not a gag as it makes breathing difficult.

Kawabata : Speaking about gags, it becomes very uneasy when both the nose and the mouth are covered by a thick cloth. Like Ms Furukawa, there are people who can’t be into it when not gagged. In my case, at first I just had difficult times and hoped to be released as soon as possible. But I have started to find a joy in the middle of the difficult state nowadays and I even feel dissatisfied at times as it is taken off. How about others?

Asa : I didn’t feel anything much at the time. But it did made me imagine that a burglar was attacking me when I was given a gag. But I wasn’t very keen on it. It doesn’t do anything for me now, as I have gotten used to it and can think of it like a sort of accessory.

Takase : I preferred my mouth and nose being covered as tight as possible. I think it was good that only my eyes were visible, showing my pitiful expression.

Sakaguchi : The heat can become oppressive, I remember that the cloth touched my nostrils every time I breathed and it became wet, that was gross. I wished to be untied sooner.

Murata : It troubled me when the cloth on my nose almost slipped down and I tried hard to prevent it. I didn’t feel anything else about it as difficult. A handkerchief inserted in my mouth became moist by saliva, and I tried to keep it as dry as possible… If I had any difficulty, that was it. I actually thought they could treat me rougher than they did. On the last occasion, they shot me with poses I wanted to do using a table and a pole. I haven’t been called since then.

Kawabata : Don’t you feel pain when your hands are tied behind your back and high up?

Takase : If I am left like that for a long time, the elbow-joints become stiff and painful. My hands become numb and I feel that they are not mine for a while even after being untied.

Sakaguchi : So, we are almost always in the Gote.

Kawabata : I have been tied with my hands in front of my body, but I am more interested in the Gote, as it exposes the defenceless naked body. It might be different matter if you talk about the beauty of a pose though…

Takase : Indeed, there is nothing like the Gote, even if it is painful. I was once tied in a Gote, then a rope was attached to my neck and made me keep facing upwards. I was left alone for a while in the pose like that, I could not able to look down or anything.

Kawabata : Isn’t it the ‘Takate Kote’-picture which is shown in the album [Beautifully Bound]?

Takase : Yes, it is. I love that kind of pose. At that time they probably took more than ten photos from every angle and direction when I was keeping the same pose.

Asa : The poses such as lying on one’s back are tough since both wrists go under the body, especially if lying on the Tatami mat or wooden floor…

Kawabata : I assume that it may differ depending on where you place your hands. Ms Murata, you looked pretty in the picture of ‘Giseidai’ [An altar, in Beautifully Bound]. It looks rather good, without a gag.

Murata : My thighs look huge in the picture. I always wish I could loose weight.

Kawabata : I also wanted to be slim before, but I don’t want to be now as it’d be better to be reasonably plump… Ms Murata, you are not as fat as you think though… Ms Takase is also in one picture, which shows the pose of putting both wrists behind the lower back.

Takase : Yes, I was wondering how I could make an expression of the whole body – it was not just because I felt pain in the wrists that I stuck out my chest and bent backward.

Kawabata : Ms Takase is pretty good at striking a pose. In that respect, I also end up having fun just for myself.

Takase : I think ‘Aranawa’ [Straw Rope] is quite good. [A picture with this title is also included in Beautifully Bound.]

Sakaguchi : As long as it’s just posing for a photo shoot, it can be OK. But it must be tough if you are being tied with Aranawa for real.

Asa : You mean like if a burglar breaks into your house?

Sakaguchi : Some novels contain typical scenes like that. For example in the weekly stories, suddenly being surrounded by a gang of outlaws…and so on.

(Ms Kumoi went home for an urgent matter at this point)

Kawabata : If I can’t resist or do anything, I guess I would have to just give up all and let them do whatever they want… It might be good if I am tied very tightly then, without being able to move the slightest, so I don’t have to flounce up and down… I have heard that some women have a secret fantasy about being raped. I think I’d rather just be looked at when tied…

Takase : Some women may have that kind of fantasy deep down.

Sakaguchi : Ms Takase, you have it, don’t you?

Murata : I think you also have that tendency, Ms Sakaguchi.

Sakaguchi : I think I don’t have it. It is fact that I willingly went to the week long workshop to be a model, and that I enjoyed being looked at when I stood on the modelling podium though. But I have done it only once.

Asa : It is just because you don’t have to worry about the difficulty in making a living. I love dance and I work as a dancing instructor, however I have a feeling that being a nude model is not really a bad thing. It’s not just for money, I have confidence in my body and I want to be proud of it, especially in front of men… It doesn’t really matter to me if I am tied or not. I would not mind being tied though…

Sakaguchi : Same for me. If they want to tie me, then I will let them tie. But I don’t like it when it’s too painful.

Kawabata : I think that many people would start liking it gradually even if they say that they don’t like pain in the beginning.

Sakaguchi : Is that so?

Takase : Being hit or pinched I dislike, but being tied can be alright. At least I think so. I was told at first that I could either be clothed or naked whichever I liked, but I chose to be nude. Although there was also the matter of the monetary reward…

Murata : I told them that I would not mind either.

Kawabata : They did propose that you would be tied from the beginning, didn’t they?

[picture – Sakaguchi Toshiko]

Murata : Yes, they told me so. I was asked if I preferred to be tied naked or in a costume, but I thought it would just be more simple if I was tied naked…

Kawabata : How about you all – we are different from the ordinary models, allowing rope on our bodies. Men’s hands often touch our skin directly while they are tying us. Let me hear what you think about this.

Takase : Well, I wonder. Even just becoming nude brings some sort of expectation or a stimulus. Don’t you think so, everyone?

Murata : Of course. When they twine rope round my body many times, it clings to my skin directly. It is not the ordinary feel.

Asa : Isn’t it a similar feeling to when you are dancing with a man?

Sakaguchi : Not sure. I can’t dance so I don’t know anything about dance. Being tied brought me a real excitement, which I had never ever experienced.

Kawabata : I also like dancing and went dancing quite a lot last year, but I haven’t done it for a while since then.

Murata : You just prefer being tied, don’t you? (laugh)

Kawabata : No, it’s not like that… Ms Takase, you are the youngest one here, do you have a male friend?

Takase : I had been working since I graduated from a junior high school until March this year, so no… As I got stuck in the daily grind, I don’t even get to think about such matters.

Kawabata : I guess that Ms Asa must have a colourful life in that department. You are a dance instructor after all.

Asa : It’s not like what you are thinking. I come in contact with many men on a daily basis, so I get used to men. I take no notice of ordinary men as I have a connoisseur’s eye for men.

Kawabata : Ms Asa is a person with firm opinions. How about you, Ms Murray?

Murata : Where I live is one of the famous industrial areas in Japan. There, everyone is quite active, especially when an event like a traditional Bon dance festival happens. I am quite hopeless when it comes to dance though…

Asa : You don’t have to be so modest. We are all shameless women with no reputation to loose, so tell us the truth, hey.

Murata : But that’s true. I am shy. But I sometimes dream of being with a famous person.

Sakaguchi : I want to hear your story of love and romance, Ms Kawabata.

Kawabata : No, no. Everyone, that’s not fair. You make it my turn whenever you can. It has been a while, so let’s call it a day. Thank you very much.

[end]

Beautifully Bound (1953) – a presentation

Publicerad den januari 21, 2015 av Bergborg

The book ”Beautifully bound” is one of the treasures of my collection of Japanese Kinbaku material. Some time ago, I initiated a project with this book at its focus, and in the process I commissioned the texts it contains to be translated. As the intended project has somehow stalled, I decided to at least share the images and the translated texts with the readers of this blog in the form of a short Powerpoint-presentation. The translation is a somewhat rough draft. I hope you still find it useful.

To download the presentation (30 MB), click here: Beautifully Bound PP

My previous post on this book is here: https://kinbakubooks.wordpress.com/2013/07/15/beautifully-bound/