It’s always good to learn and for me it’s one of the great things about shibari rope bondage that the learning will never be finished.

Tokyo Shibari Osada Steve, Otonawa, Kinoko & Naka Akira, Iroha Shizuki, Shigonawa Bingo, Yoi Yoshida March 2016

By |2018-06-02T18:08:09+01:00August 3rd, 2017|Categories: Learning, Travel|Tags: |

Tokyo Japan in March 2016. The weather find, the cherry blossoms beginning to bloom. My memory of these events is at one and the same time vivid but probably incomplete due to the time elapsed since the trip and the killer jet lag that plagued me on the trip. If one thing all our travelling has taught me it's new strategies for dealing with jet lag and the importance of scheduling to account for it. I can't even begin to say how excited we were for this trip. We were going to see Yukimura Sensei and learn his style of kinbaku a little more. It was therefore with great sadness we learned of his passing the week before we were due to arrive. Yukimura Haruki is irreplaceable. So we didn't even think of getting time with an alternative teacher. Fortunately for us Osada Steve who's been a student of Yukimura Haruki for many years offered to teach Yukimura Ryu in the time we had booked with Yukimura Sensei himself. In spite of the obvious sadness this caused we had a remarkable trip. As we left from our home in the UK we had mixed feelings about this trip. We had been looking forward to going for a long time. We were going to have a good time and yet it was overlayed with sadness that lent a melancholic feeling to the trip. It was going to be great, but we would miss seeing Yukimura Haruki, he was a tremendous old gentleman when he wasn't tying and we were looking forward to seeing him. It was not pleasant to know that we would in fact never see him again. The flight to Tokyo was a mixed one. [...]

Self awareness luck and responsibility in rope bondage injuries.

By |2018-10-16T19:28:51+01:00November 30th, 2013|Categories: Learning, Random, Teaching|Tags: , , , , , |

Rope isn’t safe, especially not suspension. However having said that there are degrees of risk so it doesn’t mean that we should accept injuries as a matter of course, they should be few and far between. I'm always worried when people shrug off injuries to models with an ‘oh well, these things happen’. As above this depends on context, yes you're taking a risk so once in a while maybe but... When there are repeated injuries which shouldn't be occurring it’s time to ask yourself some serious questions.

Shibaricon 2012 Favourite moments.

By |2018-08-09T00:55:47+01:00June 2nd, 2013|Categories: Events, Festivals, Learning, Performance, Teaching, Workshops|Tags: , , , , , |

Anticipation Well there was a bunch of things to look forward to. Number one was learning that a photographic hero and inspiration, Norio Sugiura would be there! Getting nervous about meeting him. Being so pleased to meet him and having the chance to get a print in person. (It's strange looking back on this years later and thinking how much more we've seen him, what an extraordinary person he is and what a great artist he is. What we've learned over the years only makes us appreciate him more!) Takeshi Nagaike san's good humour, charm and old school tying style. It was very much a pleasure to meet him. If you see his work it's not like the shibari you might imagine it to be. Getting to go to the Andersen Japanese gardens for the first time was a great treat, our thanks to Jimmy Tato for taking us. We picked up some nice hashi before leaving. Also visiting the Asian market on the way back to the hotel I got an Agatsuma CD I didn't have. Saki Kamijoo And Wykd Dave In Nekomimi Ears In The Bar At Shibaricon 2012 Saki Kamijoo san was just so infectiously fun and instantly fitting into the mind as one of those people that you're just always glad to see. We've seen her many times since and I well remember getting drunk in the bar with her late one night. We had some time with Milla Reika and discovering the sweet, un-egotistical, enthusiastic and grounded person behind the mistress image. People are often not what you might imagine. Iambic9 is one of the most unassumingly nice and generous people I can think of, we've been glad [...]

Newness and getting out into the kink community

By |2018-08-27T15:36:42+01:00November 3rd, 2012|Categories: Learning|Tags: , , |

For many people it's a nerve-wracking step going out into the community especially to the myriad of events, workshops, munches and parties. This is especially because of uncertainty about what to expect and how to behave. Also how should they react to how other people behave? Here are a few things you should always be able to expect no matter what the event.

Ichinawa, Ippon me no nawa and One rope

By |2018-10-28T01:31:59+00:00October 14th, 2012|Categories: Learning, Teaching, Workshops|Tags: , |

I've been asked a lot of times if Ichinawa is right for the one rope technique I teach or if it should be Ipponnawa. So rather then keep explaining it I'm going to write out my answer here and point people at it in future.

Yukimura Haruki Kinbaku in Copenhagen

By |2018-08-07T23:28:05+01:00August 31st, 2012|Categories: Events, Learning|Tags: , , , |

This post is from 2012. I was really excited as you will see. This interaction with Yukimura Haruki really had an impact on us and our Kinbaku. It lead to us planning a trip to Japan to study with him further. Sadly Yukimura Sensei passed away not long after as we learned the week before we were scheduled to see him in Japan. We decided to go anyway and we had an amazing time in Tokyo, more of that in another post. This is a brief account of that first meeting though.

Go to Top