shinobi73
Posts: 18
Joined: 12/12/2008
From: Manila
Status: offline
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I was in high school when I discovered my uncle’s stash of porn magazines coming from Japan. He had recently come from working there and was temporarily staying at our place. I came across one with exquisite images of Japanese women bound in different positions! I immediately fell in love with the forms! Not understanding them at first, the images stayed with me till I got to college where the internet gave me the power of research and information.
I took everything in, all the information that I can get about the craft… I focused mainly on the safety and the techniques knowing full well that if it were done improperly I am liable to seriously hurt a sub.
College also gave me a cornucopia of willing subjects. What with the liberated atmosphere of the College of Fine Arts I openly claimed Shibari as my craft and there were more than enough “bodies” to work on . Photography class was no less interesting as more people saw what I did more questions arose ergo… more subjects.
Ever since then I’ve endeavored to refine my craft… but I have to admit even with the abundance of active participants there are still a lot that I still need to learn… the learning process never stops there…
And here I am now…
I am a “Nawashi” or a rope artist. And I make everything from gags, cuffs to body harnesses out of lengths of rope. I never use those clunky, clumsy, barbaric looking leather thingies as western bondage people use.
Although their easier to use since you just snap, lock or clamp them all in place it would be difficult to explain if your bag was inspected in a mall with a bunch of BDSM gear. I also have issues with chains and metal locks… ever heard of the story of the guy who lost the keys to a pair of handcuffs?
I never had problems with rope… in case of emergencies a good pair of scissors can free a bound captive quite easily. The material is also very economical. If it becomes dirty you can just throw it away and buy a new one… some cords can be easily washed. And most if done right can be aesthetically worn as fashion and clothing accents or accessories
But it takes a particular level of skill to handle rope. If done without the proper know how you are liable to injure your partner. The only recognition I ever received, as a person who has studied Shibari ever since, was the “PERVERT” tag.
1990, during this time, the word S&M or BDSM was not even in the public usage - it was all swept under the carpet and the purveyors were called perverts, "manyak", WEIRDO .
The subtle differences existing in the Shibari art, and the differences in S&M or BDSM, are hard to explain. To the eyes of many they all look the same; victimization of women. There are roughly two distinctly separate streams. The first depicting the aesthetics of roping and “bondage” while the other, much more on the pornographic.
So-called soft core / hard core S&M and BDSM clubs today are the products of the “second stream”. It is obsessed with vagina, cunt and anus, women's private parts which were not regarded important in the traditional Shibari art. In this new and popular form, Shibari is just foreplay, downgraded to a mere entree to the main act of sexual intercourse. It is certainly not seen as pursuit of aesthetics. Don’t get me wrong though there is nothing wrong with physical intercourse however, but Nawa-Shibari is not a part of it.
In my personal opinion “popularized rope bondage” is not the real thing because it does not thrive in the pursuit of the art.
Traditionaly Shibari is based on fairly specific rope patterns, most of them derived from Hojojutsu ties. Of particular importance are the Ushiro Takatekote (a type of arm box tie), which forms the basis of most Kinbaku ties, and the Ebi, or "Shrimp", which was originally designed as a torture tie but today makes the bottom vulnerable for more pleasant forms of play.
Generally, traditional Kinbaku is practiced with ropes of 7 meters (23 feet) in length. The rope material is usually hemp or jute (neither sisal nor manila hemp are usually useful), prepared according to specific techniques to achieve a pleasantly soft yet sturdy rope. Other materials are also sometimes used, although most synthetic ropes tend to be too slippery for Shibari techniques.
For historic reasons, Kinbaku uses very few knots, sometimes none at all, or only a lark's head or an overhand knot. This requires rope with high friction. According to Sensei Nawa Yumio in his 1964 classic book on Torinawa, knots on a person was regarded as extremely disgraceful, something some would regard as worse than death. Restraints with no knots were not considered "bondage" and there was no shame in such; therefore, "wrappings" were used.
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There are those who choose to follow a path... I go where there is no path and lead the way
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http://shinobidojo.weebly.com
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RE: Shibari - The Way of The Rope - 
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. With this in mind... I really DO like some of this 'softer' rope work. It's quite lovely.
. You can do a test on the rope by draping it over your arm and try tightening it with your hand. if you twist the rope and it's too uncomfortable on your skin then i think its safe to assume that it may not be good for extended rope play.
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