The Edo Period was the era of the Tokugawa shogunate. During this time martial arts of restraint, including Hojojutsu, were formalised and taught within schools attached to samurai lineages and civil administration.

Rope practices of the Edo Period reflected the wider social order: forms of restraint communicated legal status and were subject to written codes.

The Edo Period is frequently invoked in Kinbaku writing as a source of imagery and vocabulary, though the erotic Kinbaku tradition itself is a much later development.