The art of restraint redefined in rope studios

IN TOKYO, a man watches a woman slowly bind another with ropes attached to chains hanging from the ceiling.

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But this is no S&M bar, it’s a workshop led by “shibari” master Hajime Kinoko.

Kinoko teaches the knot-tying techniques of Japanese bondage, untangling the practice from its associations with kink and emphasising instead art and aesthetics.

“I see attaching not only people, but also objects or spaces... as a form of painting on canvas,” the 48-year-old said at his studio in central Tokyo.

“It is simply another type of expression.”

Kinoko discovered shibari - the art of ropes - in the 2000s while managing an S&M joint in Roppongi, an area of Tokyo known for its nightclubs and bars.

“I wasn’t particularly drawn to fetishism at first,” he said.

“At the time, the focus of BDSM was often on the dirty or degrading side, but I didn’t see that part of it as necessary,” he said.

Kinoko learned how to tie a woman’s body by watching others before establishing his own style “based on beauty”.

He started staging performances with a more artistic perspective, and attracted a growing audience.