The SM Detective

I heard more than once that the promoters of the Nawaya Toubaku winter bondage event in Tokyo on Jan. 29-30 were concerned that the event hadn't had enough advance PR. Apparently, the idea of turning it into an international event had come relatively late in the process. They needn't have worried. The club in Shibuya was packed. In fact, I'd hate to see the place any more crowded than it was.

Full disclosure: I was out of town on the first day of the event but was there on the second day.

There were photographers and video crews all over. Video people came from London and France (I believe). I pretty much gave up trying to get a better location for snapping pics. Fortunately, thanks to Rida, I have been able to secure a lot of photos so I'm putting up three galleries; one featuring Hajime Kinoko performing his trademarked neo kinbaku, Naka Akira performing traditional kinbaku, and Shishiwaka doing something in between.

For more detailed reports, I recommend visiting these blogs:

Rida's blog
Hedwig's blog

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I highly recommend attending one of Tanaka Kinichi's monthly events. I've been to all of them so far (three) and have not been disappointed. You can go there and just drink with your friends for cheap. Watching the show adds an additional 4,000 yen to the cost. As things go in Japan, this is on the low side.

At some events, photography (but not video) is allowed of the pro performers. However, this will set you back 9,000 yen. You should check beforehand if you're a photographer to make sure this option is available.

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PHOTO COURTESY GUILTY


The excitement is palpable over at ForumBondage.

It isn't often you get to see a real Japanese rope artist doing his thing outside of Japan, so the folks who attended the second edition of the London Festival of the Art of Japanese Bondage were in for a special treat.

Hajime Kinoko was on hand (along with his busty sidekick) to perform shows and hold special classes in the art of kinbaku. It seems a lot of very good photographers were on hand as well. I'm reproducing just one of the photos here. Check out ForumBondage for a much larger selection. (Note: If you want to see the goodies, you need to register.)

There are also a couple of videos available:

Video I
Video II

Esinem, one of the sponsors of the event, is to be commended for bringing authentic Japanese kinbaku to a Western audience.

Update: Hajime Kinoko will perform at Torture Garden in London on April 30 and will present kinbaku workshops at BoundCon in Munich, Germany on May 7-8.

KabukiJoe

Thanks to poster Nuitdetokyo in the Kinbaku Group at FetLife, we are informed that it will soon be time for the twice yearly DX SM Live Show in Kabukicho, Shinjuku. This is a huge event running from March 11-20.

From the flyer we can see Kazami Ranki, Naka Akira, Shima Shikou and Randa Mai. Also performing will be Hajime Kinoko, Asagi Ageha, Osada Steve, Mira Kurumi and others, as well as a host of mistresses. NdT points out that the mistresses pretty much split between tying up dainty young females on stage and recruitng male volunteers from the audience.

Entrance is 8,000 yen for men, 6,000 yen for women and this is on a daily basis.

Here's the link.




In addition, a friend of mine let me know that Tohjiro of Dogma fame will be holding an event at Loft Plus One, also in Kabukicho, on March 24. Doors open at 18:00 and the event begins as 19:00. This one is 10,000 yen but it looks like there will be no fewer than five beautiful sub girls on display, not unlike in times past.

Here's the link.

I wasn't able to make it to SM World in Night in Shinjuku a couple of weeks ago. I made up for it by attending an event in Shibuya hosted by Hajime Kinoko and his Ichi Nawa No Kai rope salon.

This one started in the afternoon and continued into the evening, while SM World was an all-nighter. I need my beauty rest.

The show featured very traditional nawa acts with most of the performers dressed in olden days Japanese attire.

I wasn't able to see all the acts because they were going on simultaneously on two floors of the club, a place called Module. Besides this, Module was a lot smaller than I had expected and it was really hard to move around. I was pretty much stuck on the B1 level and decided to remain there after hearing that the viewing arrangement on the B2 level was even more challenging.

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