“I am a chef”: Shibari artist Hajime Kinoko on his rope bondage style
January 9, 2023
/ Tadashi Anahori
Following our recent interview with kinbaku rope master Steve Osada, we were interested to read this interview with a very different kind of rope artist, Hajime Kinoko, in Tokyo Weekender last month.
Kinoko notes that he prefers shibari to kinbaku to describe his style of rope bondage, regarding the latter as about emotional exchange with a model during a session, and the former as more general.
Kinoko is known for his high-profile collaborations and more artistic style, which may involve tying a model to an object like a motorcycle.
"I am actually closer to an artisan, like a chef," ...
Video report from Feti Fes 19, Japan’s biggest fetish and BDSM event
June 20, 2022
/ Tadashi Anahori
Feti Fes is Japan's top fetish festival. We have attended before and previously posted photo reports that readers seemed to like.
It's the kind of event where every little room, cubbyhole, or booth is dedicated to a whole other fetish. Participants include chika (underground) and gravure idols, ero-cosplayers, fetish service providers, and goods and merchandise retailers.
After postponement due to the pandemic -- obviously, given the nature of the event, it's hardly compatible with social distancing guidelines -- Feti Fes 19 was finally held in April. We were not able to attend but, as we ...
Hajime Kinoko ties models to outside of building for Harajuku shibari rope bondage installation
May 10, 2022
/ Tadashi Anahori
Shibari, the Japanese art of rope bondage, is a sexual subculture, something confined to certain clubs and establishments, right? Wrong.
As one event proved, shibari (also known as kinbaku) is also very visible in the streets of Tokyo.
On May 7, Hajime Kinoko, probably the most successful and well-known shibari rope artist in Japan, created an outdoor installation on the walls of a venue in Cat Street, a shopping street in Harajuku, central Tokyo.
The installation involved him and his team suspending five female models (one of whom was Lisa M, aka Lisa Mizuno) in shibari positions on the ...
Yu Maria teams up with Hajime Kinoko for shibari rope bondage photo shoot
August 31, 2021
/ Tadashi Anahori
We loved her when she was a braless Uber Eats cyclist, delivering alluring charm around the city. We loved her when she was a ring girl.
We really loved her when she was in sexy lingerie or semi-nude for gravure shoots.
We didn't think we could love Yu Maria (マリア友) anymore, but we were wrong.
The bronze-tanned, big-lipped haafu hottie has now teamed up with renowned shibari master Hajime Kinoko for a Japanese rope bondage photo shoot. And the results are as awesome as you'd expected from such a collaboration and concept.
The shots have a striking red or white theme. Maria's body ...
Shibari artist Hajime Kinoko to release rope bondage augmented reality art installation as NFT
May 14, 2021
/ Tadashi Anahori
Was this inevitable? Everything seems to be getting in on the non-fungible tokens boom, which has now reached the Japanese adult industry.
The legendary shibari (kinbaku) rope bondage artist Hajime Kinoko is going sell an NFT of the latest entry in his "red" series of bondage images -- his first NFTs release and his first all-digital addition to the series.
The project is organized in partnership with Zak Shibuya of Reality Production Management (RPM Tokyo), which is planning an Instagram launch event and charity event to accompany the NFT.
It's another first for renowned Hajime Kinoko: ...
Kyoto University symposium hosts live public shibari rope bondage demonstration
October 26, 2020
/ Tadashi Anahori
Sex education is notoriously inadequate in Japan, contributing to the relatively low usage of condoms by young people.
But it seems some pedagogues are determined to make up for this in other areas of teaching.
At least, that might appear to be the logic partially behind why an educational event at Kyoto University recently included a live demonstration of shibari Japanese rope bondage.
Pics and tweets about the incident went viral last week in Japan, not least because of the incongruous notion of a renowned institution hosting such a sexual subculture.
Kyoto University is one of the most ...
Beautiful driving school instructor in Kyoto is actually a gravure idol and shibari model
October 12, 2020
/ Tadashi Anahori
They say that television is fake and this story may not convince you otherwise.
Netizens have exposed the beautiful woman who is supposedly an instructor at the Uzumasa Driving School in Kyoto as a gravure model.
Featured on a Japanese TV show as Aimi Yoshikawa (吉川愛未, not to be confused with Aimi Yoshikawa 吉川あいみ, the retired porn star), ostensibly because the driving school is covered by the government incentives aimed at encouraging domestic trips, this Aimi was, in fact, none other than Aimi (あいみ), a mononymous gradol much-admired for her svelte ...
She's finally done it. Miyako Akane has answered our prayers by making the next logical step in her career and becoming a porn star this spring.
Miyako Akane is a gravure idol and chakuero idol -- i.e., a busty idol who keeps her clothes on but barely (as opposed to AV idols, who do fully nude photo shoots all the time).
After wowing the nation with her amazing H-cup bust in what may be the most incredible and revealing swimsuit in Japan as well as 360-degree virtual reality softcore porn, things must have been drying up for Miyako Akane... or she just wanted to take her career to the next ...
Shibari artist Hajime Kinoko invited to do rope bondage show in Tokyo fashion store
August 8, 2016
/ Tadashi Anahori
The overseas media's favorite bondage artist, Hajime Kinoko, continues his comeback.
After being arrested and his Ueno club shut down in 2014, Hajime Kinoko is now back for good. So much so that he can work with major fashion brands.
To celebrate the opening of the new Christian Dada store in Minami-Aoyama, Hajime Kinoko was invited to put on a unique shibari rope bondage performance inside the shop.
The ravishingly beautiful model in the show was Machiko. The photos, cast in crimson, really do justice to her classical looks.
With its bold red ropes, the interior of the ...
Rope bondage master Hajime Kinoko makes comeback with cute yet erotic shibari
June 8, 2016
/ Tadashi Anahori
Cute and kinky. Those two words sum up so much about the Japanese erotic.
Hajime Kinoko is one of Japan's most famous shibari (aka kinbaku) rope bondage artists.
We once visited his BDSM bar in Ueno, only for it later to be raided and shut down by police. Kinoko Hajime was himself arrested, though he has made a comeback, such as holding an exhibition called "Red".
He now offers lessons and does events like workshops and "cyber neo-shibari" shows.
He has opened a space again but this time it's not a bar. Instead it's branded as a "salon" for learning the ropes (sorry for the pun) of ...