Modern Kinbaku
The twentieth- and twenty-first-century tradition of erotic and aesthetic Japanese rope practice.
Definition
Modern Kinbaku is the tradition of rope practice that developed in Japan during the twentieth century, drawing imagery from historical restraint arts and shaping it into an erotic, aesthetic and performative form. It is the primary ancestor of contemporary Japanese rope as practised worldwide.
Historical background
Key figures in its development taught, photographed and performed in the mid- and late twentieth century, and their lineages continue through their students.
Discussion
Modern Kinbaku is not a single style but a family of overlapping lineages, each with distinctive vocabulary, aesthetics and pedagogy.