Knowledge of the ancient art of is very incomplete. Research and knowledge development continue every day. There are many different styles, such as Fumo Ryu (the spiritual style) or Iki (the essential style of Zen) and the individual styles of various string artists.
Imagine a room lit by candles. The shadows will dance on the walls and create the atmosphere in the room. That is exactly what you want to achieve in Japanese bondage: the battle between contrasts: beauty and fear, love and resistance, desire and despair, mental growth and humiliation, pain and lust.
It is an intriguing art that involves different levels: physical, mental and metaphysical. For the Kizõshà (giver, donor, dominant, active partner) it is a balancing act, juggling several different impulses. To the Ukétorinìn (receiver, submissive, passive partner – in Japan sometimes also called M-jo – “maso woman” – who can be anything from a professional female bondage model to a woman who loves being tied down The male receiver is sometimes known as Mo – “maso man”) is the last trip to paradise.
weave or wrap
“Japanese slavery” is an inadequate and superficial translation. While most people only know bindings, lifestyle and technique encompass much more, both in technique and background. Shibari Do, as the lifestyle is called, has roots in Japanese courtship and love, Ki energy manipulation, traditional Japanese rope torture techniques, martial arts, theater, even old fashion and traditional aspects. of Zen Buddhism. The erotic use of bondage is just one aspect of the lifestyle. The technique today is also used as a performing art, it has healing aspects and, in general, it is also a way of training the body and mind.
Shibari is best translated as “weaving” or “wrapping in ropes”. Both translations refer to the interaction between the strings, the mind, and the Ki energy meridians in the human body. Ki (or Chi in Chinese) is the energy of life; the meridians are the channels through which this energy flows. And since Ki, in Eastern philosophy, controls life within the body, as well as the interaction between the body and its environment, Japanese slavery has a direct influence on life. Ki can only flow and create a healthy situation through the eternal pattern of changes between Yin and Yang. The techniques strive to influence this pattern by magnifying both the Yin and Yang position on many different levels.
Source
There are many myths and very few facts about the origin of Japanese bondage. As a result, to date its origin remains unclear. Some references to what might be early forms of Japanese slavery provide some insight.
In the first half of the 17th century, during the Tokugawa Shogunate (Edo period), the dominant Japanese religion was not Shintoism (which emerged after the decline of the Togukawa dynasty), but a Shogun-backed form of Neo-Confusianism. One of the most important Buddhist schools was the Nichiren Shu Komon School in Kyoto. It had eight temples in Kyoto (Japan’s capital in the 17th century) and was financed by members of the higher classes, including the Shogun himself.
The seventeenth High Priest of the school, Nissei, was a decadent, power-hungry man, only interested in money, power, and women. Under his reign, members of the upper social classes would gather at this school, bind naked women in humiliating and tense positions, and leave them bound long enough to enjoy and draw pictures of them while in captivity, thus producing images pornographic These meetings were called “komon sarashi shibari”. Very rare examples of such drawings have appeared in Ukiyo-e (17th century erotic woodcut) collections.
While this is one of the few documented ancient uses of slavery as an erotic technique, the fact that such gatherings existed in Kyoto supports undocumented rumors of samurai in rural areas tying women up and exposing them for erotic amusement. . These gatherings apparently used bondage techniques, borrowed from Hojo Jitsu (the art of tying up and transporting prisoners), Japanese techniques of rope torture (Kinbaku), and Sarashi (the public display of criminals). That is where the roots of the martial arts (if any) of Japanese bondage are believed to originate. Although often presented as such, there is no evidence of a direct, linear connection between Shibari and what are known as “soft weapon techniques” in most martial arts, of which Hojo Jitsu is one.
Komon Sarashi Shibari itself caused another misunderstanding. Japanese words can mean many different things, depending on their context. Komon can be translated as “anus”, leading to the misconception that Japanese bondage began as a means of displaying women with their bottoms exposed. In this case, however, Komon means “counselor” or “consultant” (read: part of the temple staff and “follower of confusius”), which is a reference to the school where these meetings took place and the participants.
Another intriguing source on the origin and history of Japanese slavery is ancient Japanese police records. In the 17th century, at least one traditional bondage was used by doomed loving couples in ritual suicides. “Forbidden lovers” (usually lovers from different social classes) would sometimes use “shinju” bondage (a torso harness) to tie each other, and then, firmly connected to each other, they would dive into a river, lake, or sea. to drown together. For quite some time, these ritual suicides were known as the “shinju suicides”.
Here is what Washington State University notes about “shinju suicides”: “The most popular theme of both kabuki and joruri (theater forms – ed.) was the theme of double suicide, shinju, as frustrated lovers, unable to due to the social restrictions of living a life together, they desperately chose to kill themselves in a mutual suicide in the hope of reuniting in the pure land of bliss promised by Amida Buddha Many of these double suicide works involved ukiyo themes, such as the love between an upper class or noble man and a prostitute. This is the subject of the most famous of shinju plays (Sonezaki Shinju), by Chikamatsu Monzaemon (1653-1725). Such shinju plays often inspired a wave of suicides real doubles, so the Tokugawa regime in 1723 stepped in and banned shinju not only in the kabuki and joruri stage, but also in real life.”
In Japanese psychology, the word “shinju” (meaning “pearl” or “unity of hearts,” depending on the context) is still used for multiple suicides involving people with a strong bond.
In Japanese bondage terms, “shinju” is a torso harness, tied to highlight and erotically stimulate the female breasts (the “pearls”). Surprisingly, the word “shinju” in Japan is also used for off-the-shoulder type sleeveless tops for women.
Is there some kind of inheritance?
The answer to that question is currently impossible to provide with certainty. It could be, but due to the lack of any historical reference it is unlikely. Yes, there are references to art dating back to the 17th century. However, that’s also where any attempt to trace it stops. As an erotic art form, it apparently existed in the very worldly upper classes of Japan. But it does not have, as many claim, linear roots in any martial art.
In fact, the following assumption is much more likely. Most ancient cultures have seen combinations of power, sometimes spirituality and mysticism, and eroticism. Courtley Love and the much older Celtic and Saxon rituals in Europe and the Kama Sutra are just a few examples of this. And yes, in most such rituals, weapons and warrior culture were woven into rituals of courtship, love, and sexuality. The power eroticizes! It always has. There is no reason to suppose that it was any different in Japan.
shibari today
Contemporary “Japanese bondage” images usually have a completely different background which, unfortunately, is porn. Most originated between 1950 and 1980 and produced Japanese pornographic videos. Its only “raison d’être” lies in the fact that the combination of naked women and ropes sells. These Japanese films can be seen as the Japanese response to the emerging popularity of bondage in the American pornographic industry since the 1930s (John Willie, Betty Page and others).
The vast majority of Japanese string artists of this period actually made their money rigging ties for these movies and some still do. Some, like the late Osada Eikichi (also known as “Mr. Flying Strings”) and Denki Akechi, created their own style and performances.