Kinbaku

Kinbaku (緊縛) is the art of Japanese Rope Bondage.

During Edo era Japan, the Samurai class used rope in combat to restrain criminals and prisoners of war in a martial art called hojojutsu, a brutal practice that bears little resemblance to the kinbaku it evolved to be today. With consent, people are tied up and relinquish full control to the ‘rigger’.

This project explores both the mental space people escape to when being tied up, and the art of the ropework itself.