The SM Detective

I met up with Esinem and Electric Fairie today (actually yesterday) and, as planned, we had lunch at the Korean BBQ place, the same place Esinem and I had eaten at a little over a year ago. It hadn't changed a bit and the food was as good as I remembered.

We rendezvoused just outside the Shin-Okubo station, a short train ride from where the pair are currently staying in Ikebukuro. A little further for me which is why I was 20 minutes late. Fortunately, Esinem came equipped with a mobile phone which had been lent to him by Osaka-based photographer Rik Sanchez, and I was able to inform him of my late arrival.

After eating, we noticed a little shop that was selling those unique polka dotted pieces of cloth that you often see used as gags in Japanese SM photos. They were cheap and Esinem got himself a nice supply. There was one with a large, red kanji character on it. He seemed drawn to it. The kanji said "matsuri" (festival). I advised against it. Not authentic and too touristy. I'm not sure if he bought one of those while I wasn't looking.

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I received an email from Esinem letting me know he had arrived in Osaka safe and sound. He'll be spending several days in the Kansai region before coming here to Tokyo.

I believe I've already mentioned that I met Esinem last year in Tokyo when he came here to study kinbaku with various masters of the art. He ended up being interviewed by the people at S&M Sniper when it was still in magazine form. There was a video interview included in the DVD that accompanied the magazine. I also believe he got some coverage in the magazine itself either on that or a previous occasion.

We had a good time eating Korean BBQ at some place in Shin-Okubo, just a stone's throw from Shinjuku on the Yamanote line.

So what do two perverts talk about while gorging on pork and beer? Why, making an SM movie, what else?

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So the other day I decided I should check out the site using Internet Explorer, you know, just to be sure.

Another blog I was writing for previously used a different platform (WordPress) and, at that time, I was using a Toshiba laptop, Windows OS and IE as my browser. So the blog was "optimized" for Internet Explorer. After the laptop died I switched to a Mac Mini and have been using either Safari or Firefox. Mostly Firefox as I personally don't care much for Safari.

But I fired up my new PC the other day just to have a look at the site using IE. (I generally don't use the Windows box for the internet. It's my editing machine and as such, I really don't need some virus in there screwing with my software.)

I figured the layout of this site would look pretty much the same. Boy, was I wrong. What a disaster.

Hit the Read More link for info. Don't miss the last video called Guillotine Show.

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Now that I've spent some time bashing the 90s, I would be remiss if I didn't note something good about that time period: Japanese TV.

The first time I came to Japan, in 1994, I stayed at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel. I was only here for a few days and spent most of the time out just wandering around Tokyo. After a long day of sightseeing, I'd return to the hotel and turn on the boob tube.

To my surprise (and delight) there was T & A all over the place -- and even bondage.

And this wasn't on cable or satellite TV. I'm not even sure if there was satellite TV back then. This was regular, over-the-air broadcast television. As an example, there was a game show that had a pretty young woman tied up quite stringently as part of the fun.

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While everyone has heard of Tani Naomi, there seems to be precious little information available on the other Naomi: Oka Naomi. Although in a previous post I reported (thanks to my friend who is much more informed in this area than I am) that the two Naomis actually appeared together, at least once, in a Nikkatsu film.

I have searched the internet in both English and Japanese for information on this beautiful actress and have come up with very little, indeed.

One interesting thing to note about this actress: her name is written in at least four different ways in Japanese. I found this out when I was out poster hunting. I thought the picture on the poster looked like Oka Naomi but I had to confirm this with the shop owner just to be sure.

Here are some examples: 丘ナオミ -- 丘奈保美 -- 岡尚美 -- 丘なおみ

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Spring is just around the corner and that means we'll soon be welcoming the cherry blossoms. But that's not all we'll be welcoming.

A pair of Western riggers will be showing up in Japan in the not-too-distant future. They'll be arriving with a couple of blonde, blue-eyed babes, ready to sit under the trees with a bottle of sake and contemplate the beauty of the sakura.

When they're not doing the hanami thing, they'll be studying for their Ph.Ds in kinbaku with various masters around town. Esinem and Electric Fairie will be coming from London while Mark and Lani will fly in from Sydney.

Esinem and Electric Fairie will arrive towards the end of March and start things out in Osaka. Mark and Lani will come straight to Tokyo a bit later. Although I believe their trips were planned independently, I'm pretty sure their paths will cross at some point in Tokyo.

Both of these gentlemen are showmen at heart so I wouldn't be surprised if they wind up putting on some performances while here. In fact, I thought this was such a good idea I whipped up some cyber posters (see left sidebar) to get the word out a bit. For anyone interested, their contact details are on the posters. They can be reached through this blog as well.

Both Esinem and Mark are serious students of kinbaku. They like to do things the right way. That's why they come to Japan to learn how it's really done. This isn't the first time they've traveled to Japan and I'm sure it won't be the last. But the time and effort they've already put into learning this art has certainly paid off.

KabukiJoe

In the mood for a little nostalgia? Good, me too.

Lately I've been contemplating the Golden Age of SM. It's hard to say exactly when the Golden Age was, though, and different people will have different opinions on the matter.

For me, the Golden Age of SM occurred in the 1970s. This was when the American company known as House of Milan were doing their best work and Japan's Nikkatsu were putting out their classic bondage films starring the legendary Tani Naomi.

However, you might go back to the late 1940s (or perhaps even prior to WWII) if you're a fan of Itou Seiu, the renowned artist whom many regard as the father of modern day kinbaku. I don't think I would consider this time period the Golden Age, however, since there were so few people openly (or somewhat openly) engaged in SM activities.

Itou Seiu was truly a pioneer but the Golden Age was yet to come.

You could make a case for the 50s and the arrival on the scene of the magazine Kitan Club. More and more people started coming out of the closet and the freedom to express oneself in kinky ways continued its slow but steady march forward.

The definition of the Golden Age of SM may be somewhat fluid, but I know one thing: Everything went to hell by the 1990s.

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Electric Fairie and I are making plans again for a trip to Japan in time for hanami (cherry blossom viewing) and to have some more lessons with Osada Steve. Hopefully, we'll get the chance to catch a few other masters in action.

Electric Fairie is also known as Panda. I have the nickname of Tako (octopus) amongst some in Japan, allegedly on account of my bald head. Although, I hear there is an altogether less flattering slang meaning.

I won't go into that right now. I'm just happy to be able to get back to Japan in order to further my studies of the fine art of kinbaku -- oh, and to gorge myself on Korean BBQ once again with KabukiJoe in Okubo.

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Well, I must say, this came as quite a shock.

The well-known magazine, S&M Sniper, has ceased publication after a near 30-year run in business. I don't have any inside information but it's pretty easy to arrive at some conclusions which are probably correct.

First, there's the economic situation. I won't recount the data (because it's too depressing), but Japan has been particularly hard hit.

Then, of course, there is this new paradigm we seem to be experiencing where a lot of print publications are going under, or hanging on by the skin of their teeth. When a newspaper like the New York Times starts losing money, you start to really wonder what's going on.

Things are moving to the web. S&M Sniper is no exception. They've had a web presence for a long time. So it looks like they're going to try to make a go of it as a web-only publication.

I used to know someone over there but I'm not sure if he still works there or not. I sent an email. If I get any more info, I'll pass it along here.

In the meantime, best of luck to S&M Sniper on the web.

Update: That was fast! It turns out my contact is now the editor-in-chief of Web Sniper. He confirms that Sniper is now a web publication. A long article originally in Japanese has been translated into English. It's a little rough but I am posting it here in its entirety. You will need to use your imagination a bit, but this is fascinating reading.

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How many times will a reader attempt to access a site that gives him the above message before he stops trying?

This blog host company, FC2, seems to want to find out. Yesterday we were off the net for hours. I checked several blogs on the 126 server and they were all down, down, DOWN.

Downtime. Not good, FC2.

In one crummy month with this service, I have been unable to access the blog several times. This latest was just the longest stretch. No news from FC2. No email. Nothing on their site. Nothing on their blog. Nothing on their forum (which is filled with spam).

What good is a blog host that just kills your hard-earned traffic?

Update: Okay, it happened again since I wrote this post! However, since then they seem to have fixed things and we've been fine for the past few days. Let's hope it stays this way. They got rid of the spam on their forum and they mentioned the problem on their blog (after the fact). All in all, I like FC2 and want to stay here. I hope they don't make that impossible.

KabukiJoe