Is Japan's naughty knotty BDSM scene too dangerous?
This was the question asked recently by Jake Adelstein, the Tokyo-based reporter who has made a career out of being the foreign media's go-to guy for yakuza stories and gossip.
Adelstein's article for the Daily Beast website is an interview with Golden-san, aka Golden Rule S.M. or Doctor Golden, who is calling for a "gentler, wiser, and kinder BDSM."
Doctor Golden, who is an S&M practitioner and also a chiropractor, has been taking care of people, mainly women, injured in the pursuit of their pleasure for over two decades. Next ...
Japan's favorite It Girl, Kiko Mizuhara, has teamed up with photographer Nobuyoshi Araki again for a series of shibari rope bondage-inspired photos.
Ostensibly the shoot is advertising the fall/winter 2016 collection of the fashion brand Supreme, but who cares about such details when Kiko is tied up and waiting for someone to whip her?
Araki and Mizuhara previously (and memorably) partnered for a nude photo shoot for Shiseido back in 2013.
There's also this promo behind-the-scenes video too, showing Kiko-chan roll over and reveal her panties. The aging Araki gets rather ...
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 ...
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 ...
Wow, this is big. We have been worried about police crackdowns for a while, especially with the upcoming Olympics likely to become an excuse for exerting state power.
Could this be the tip of the iceberg?
Police have raided one of Tokyo's top BDSM clubs, KUNKUN. The Ueno club is pretty big (we've been there) and also fairly new (it opened in mid-2012). It is the base of one of Japan's best-known shibari (kinbaku) rope bondage art masters, Hajime Kinoko (Hideto Hiramatsu).
Of course, there is a thin line between being bondage club where a show may take place and being a "happening" ...
Designer Jo Nagasaka (Schemata Architects) has made the kind of seats that we definitely want to have in the Tokyo Kinky office.
"Shibari" is a series of black and white foam seats inspired by the classic art of Japanese rope bondage.
Nagasaka is showing his creations at this year's Milano Salone. Note the rope keeping the bulging seat in shape. Design-wise, it's a nice contrast of smooth curving rubber and sharp jagged lines.
There seem to be four seats, each slightly different and in two colors.
The foam seats are covered in rubber coating, which is of course not ...
Keitai (cellphone) straps are HUGE here, almost everyone has some kind of cute thing dangling from their handset. Kinbaku (緊縛) -- traditional Japanese bondage -- is a bit more underground, but there's no reason why mainstream can't meet subculture for some fun.
And that's what the makers of Kinbaku Strap think too!
These are decorative phone straps for your cellphone in the guise of traditional Japanese bondage. As you can see from some of the range above, you get a naughty-looking figurine tightly bound in the customary way. Attach it to your keitai and you can advertise your ...
Recently I had the pleasure to meet the king of Tokyo's shibari scene myself, and the honour to watch during one of his sessions. A few days later then, since we share similar origins and got along well, he took me along on one of his tours with some of his admirers that came as far as from the US and Australia.
Both events were a first time experience for me. Not that I don't know the "dark side" of Tokyo well enough. I know the corners of Kabukicho and am quite familiar with all kind of adult goods of course, since the discerning product selectors at KanojoToys let me tag along.
I ...
Ever heard of Steve Osada?
If you're not a regular on the traditional Japanese bondage scene, you may not have, but within the shibari houses of Tokyo's seedy Kabukicho district, he's The Man.
Shibari, also known as kinbaku, is the Japanese art of erotic bondage, differentiated from Western bondage by its focus on ties that actively pleasure the bottom, as well as its minimalist, often asymmetric, aesthetic. While not the only culture to enjoy tying their lovers up, the Japanese may be more open about it than most.
Image by Max Hodges
Osada Steve is one of the few living ...
