shibari hajime kinoko — Models Alex & Lily│© Hajime Kinoko & Heavensake

No longer behind closed doors, Shibari— Japanese rope bondage— has captivated a global audience. Derived from the verb Shibaru, meaning “to tie,” the practice involves consensual and meticulous binding of the body. It is also referred to as Kinbaku, meaning “tight binding,” emphasizing the more intricate and aesthetic elements of the practice.

Widely recognised as a kink activity in the SM world, rope can accommodate all bodies, ages, and intentions, as a tool to fulfill parts of our lives that are suppressed and challenge the roles we want to play in them. Many describe the feeling of being bound as paradoxically liberating, likening it to a tight embrace; while the rigger who binds often experiences a deep concentration, a sense of control and self-confidence.

For both participants, it can be a means to build intimacy when communicating nebulous needs and limits, as well as a way to explore our innermost selves when our desires don’t neatly follow our own sense of it. Today, Shibari has been reimagined as cathartic meditation and artistic expression, enjoying representation in mainstream culture as seen in FKA Twigs’ music video for “Pendulum” and Hajime Kinoko’s public installation in Harajuku.

Origins of Shibari - Ancient Tradition Or Adult Entertainment?

Rope has long been woven into Japanese cultural imagination, from adorning Shinto shrines to sumo circles, symbolising a threshold between sacred and secular. Japan’s isolationist policies would limit access to metal for two centuries, reinforcing its affiliation to natural materials like rope, bamboo, and string. Rope on the body can be traced to a samurai martial art called Hojojutsu, used to restrain opponents during the Sengoku period (1467-1615).

Intricate tying techniques signified the rank and criminal status of captives, echoing how even now, Japanese police carry rope and are trained in restraint techniques without handcuffs. While modern Shibari has evolved drastically in safety and intention, parallels remain in certain immobilising and suspension ties.

But the inception of Shibari as an erotic practice emerged in the pleasure quarters of Edo-period Japan (1603-1868). Amid rapid urbanisation and the rise of a wealthy merchant class, legally-sanctioned red-light districts flourished as dynamic cultural hubs. They offered theatre, music, tea houses, and brothels catered for samurai, aristocrats, and wealthy merchants.

hajime kinoko shibari — Model Isami│© Hajime Kinoko

Highly-trained courtesans played a vital role in attracting clients, selling drinks, performing, and cultivating an atmosphere of seduction. Within these hedonistic districts, rope bondage first gained erotic appeal in Kabuki theatre and Shunga (erotic woodblock prints), laying the foundation for its modern form.

Pleasure quarters have served as the blueprint for Japan’s urban sexuality today, filled with hostess bars, love hotels, and SM clubs. Post WWII reforms informed by the US would later criminalise prostitution, to drive sex industry underground, while the economic boom of the bubble era fueled Kabukicho’s rise as Tokyo’s infamous red-light district.

Despite ebbs and flows, like shrinking expense accounts and government efforts to curb underground activities, the desire for these spaces have proven timeless. From geishas to bondage mistresses, female sex workers have served as vital pillars for the industry. Throughout time, Shibari has been passed down domestically through apprenticeship, emphasizing its safety and aesthetics like calculated symmetry, designs on the body, and graceful suspension.

To its discredit, Shibari is often dismissed domestically as lowbrow entertainment, while overseas, it is romanticised as an ancient art that overlooks its ties to Japan’s adult industry. This romanticised narrative gives onlookers a sense of cultural competence, whilst erasing human factors like sex work, economic survival, and shifting social structures.

As Shibari’s spread globally, it’s important to enjoy the practice and imagery without keeping uncomfortable aspects of its history at an oriental distance. It’s one thing to be idolised and quite another to be accepted.

Visual Representation in Pulp Magazines and Photography

Shibari’s global fascination owes much to visual representation in print media and photography. Publications like Kintan Club and S&M Sniper were bibles for BDSM enthusiasts and circulated Shibari’s imagery throughout the 20th century. Meanwhile, increased censorship and pornography laws meant that black-market media profited from uncensored magazines and early bondage films, further stigmatizing Shibari’s public image as taboo. So when Nobuyoshi Araki, a maverick of post-war Japanese photography, made Shibari a central subject of his work, it sent shockwaves. By bringing the practice from walled-in private rooms to the walls of galleries, he would blur the line between art and soft porn.

Araki’s fascination with Shibari may stem from his childhood near Yoshiwara, one of Edo’s historic red-light districts. He often recalled playing near a graveyard for courtesans, reflecting, “That place left its mark on my life. The mud of that humble district is still on me. Life and death were larger there.” Araki’s unabashed lust for life animates the world around him and bleeds into his photography. When asked why Shibari recurs in his work, he explained, “I tie women’s bodies up because I know their souls can’t be tied. Only the physical self can be tied. Putting a rope round a woman is like putting an arm round her.”

This statement hovers between a tender embrace and a sexual conquest, much like Edgar Allen Poe’s concept that “the death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world.” Araki's lens does not merely capture the bound yet defiant women, but allows their spirit to shape the image and put his subjects on a pedestal. While his photography remains polarising, they play with the tension between restraint and liberation, beauty and vulgarity, life and death. These undiluted Shibari images have left an enduring impact on its visual representation and cemented his status as a cult figure in the global art world.

s&m sniper magazine — S&M Sniper Magazine

The Problematic Culture Surrounding Shibari

But when does artistic devotion become exploitation? Although Araki’s photography has been the object of censorship and controversy, less attention has been given to the potential power imbalances between him and his muses. Kaori, one of Araki’s long-term models, accused him of failing to pay her, neglecting to inform when or where her images were published, ignoring her requests for privacy, refusing to formalise their arrangement with a contract— claims echoed by other models.

Moving forward, it’s crucial that women have greater economic and legal ownership over their work and image, and to ensure that female voices don’t get silenced in public or in courtrooms. Araki’s work remains divisive, both as a celebration of female sexuality and a reflection of Japan’s entrenched gender dynamics.

The wider Shibari industry was also bred in a staunchly patriarchal culture where disempowerment is deeply internalised, and consent is not always standard practice. Japan’s deep resistance to change has led to staggering societal policies, ranking low among developed countries on gender equality.

In photo studios, bondage bars, and private SM gatherings, fundamental safety practices—like negotiations, boundary setting, safe words, and sobriety— are often not established. It’s not surprising that while most staff tying or being tied are women, male professionals are elevated in the industry, receiving greater recognition, opportunity, and dignity.

Shibari’s Global Reception and Contemporary Reimaginings

Outside of Japan, Shibari has taken on new meanings without its cultural baggage. The internet has proliferated the practice worldwide, and it has found an increasing cult-following in Europe and America through workshops, festivals, and online classes. Sexual advocate and educator Midori suggests its acceptance in the West owes itself to the social backdrop of liberation movements, the advent of reproduction technologies. Beyond its sexual roots, Shibari is increasingly reframed as a grounding form of meditation. Without involving sex, Shibari can evoke a unique form of ecstasy, where the pressure of the rope and the pull of gravity create a flood of endorphins likened to a hypnotic state.

Pioneers like Hajime Kinoko breathe fresh air into the Shibari tradition, reframing it as artistic expression. Trained by the great masters like Akechi Denki, Mistress Kanna, and Haruki Yukimura, he has continued the legacy of Japanese craftsmanship and pushed it to new directions. Rather than bondage, he approaches Shibari as bonds of interconnection, be it the DNA between ancestors or fate between one another’s hearts. By tying objects, buildings, and nature, he destabilises the archetype of restraining female bodies. He also innovates how rope is used beyond restraint, by mimicking the lines found in nature with his ties. It’s refreshing that there’s often no distinction between the dominant and submissive in his rope dynamics.

With a craftsmanship that is over 20 years in the making, Kinoko has brought Shibari into the limelight, conducting international workshops, live performances, and large-scale public installations. One of his most iconic projects was in May 2024, which tied the entire StandBy Gallery in Harajuku in a web-like pattern using red rope. As part of the installation, clothed models tied to the building with their hands free, avoiding immobilisation or sexualisation. Through these projects, Kinoko is changing the perceptions of Shibari in the public eye as an artistry to be reclaimed without prejudice.

Marie Sauvage’s public performances also subvert the image of a male rigger binding the female body, reimagining the practice not as something done to women, but for, with, and by them. As an apprentice of Hajime Kinoko, she resonates with the concept of Shibari not as an act of submission or dominance but a celebration of intimacy. Rather than control, she pays homage to the trust involved in putting someone in physical and psychological risk, and communicating to make them feel heard and safe at their most vulnerable. For the voyeur audience members, what unfolds is a powerful intimacy akin to oneness, where sensuality has no correlation to control or power.

Notably, Marie Sauvage’s performances are never rehearsed, allowing each moment to unravel spontaneously. Rather than preparing patterns on a body impersonally, the elegant lines on each model are done organically by surrendering to the moment. Through her work, she ceremonialises the body as a living sculpture elevated in the air crafted into a beautiful shape. She takes pride in the increasing female following drawn to her work, proving how she is opening the door for Shibari and leaves it open for everyone to follow.