My Unsuccessful Quest For The Perfect Kinbaku Porn

I’ve been modeling as a “rope bunny” for almost two years now, however I never found any porn including Japanese bondage (also known as Kinbaku) that I really enjoyed. Lately I have been asking the boss (my official porn dealer) to find me some videos including the emotional and challenging act of tying AND the penetration. He has been completely helpless, and had to admit he had no clue. Here is my quest to find the perfect kinbaku porn. [Spoiler alert: It’s a fail]

© Avalon. Rigger : Avalon. Model : 0dd

I know what you may think, that I should check on Kink.com, but you see Hogtied or Sadistic Rope are absolutely not Kinbaku at the exception of some quite old Water Bondage videos. I’ve also been diving into the scary and fascinating abyss of Japanese porn, I’ve seen a lot squeaking Japanese girls bound with ropes, oh yeah plenty around. However, like on Kink.com, lots of Japanese porn has rope only as restrain and it’s not really about the tying process and its beautiful intimacy but more about the hardcore humiliation and punishment.

But before entering in the details, let me slide my big frames teacher glasses on the tip of my nose, and explain what the fuck Kinbaku is exactly.

What Is Kinbaku?

(With my softer and most educational voice) Japanese rope bondage is also called Shibari or Kinbaku, terms that are quite often argued : Shibari means “to bind” or “to tie” in a very generic way (not in the context of sex-related bondage) and Kinbaku means “the beauty of tight binding’” which introduce the notion of aesthetics and emotions. The origin of Kinbaku comes from Hojo-jutsu, the martial art of restraining captives, used in feudal Japan by the Samurais as a form of imprisonment and torture. Samurais had many codified methods of ropes binding, regarding the social status or the sex of the prisoners: men were bound in a way that showed their strength and their muscles, whether women’s sexual attributes were enhanced through the ropes work. Centuries later, Kinbaku became famous through erotic photographs inspired by Seiu Ito’s art in the 50’s. The sadistic and fertile imagination of the Japanese did the rest…

In Kinbaku, unlike the western bondage you may watch on Kink.com, the emphasis is placed on the intimacy, on how the rope is placed from the rigger, so it becomes an extension of his hands. To quote Riccardo Wildties, one of the most famous European riggers, “Japanese bondage concerns more the path that leads to the final result, than the result itself.”

In most of the westerner productions, the ropes are used only as a way to restrain and immobilize the bottom: a cage, handcuffs, cellophane or any wicked torture instrument imported straight from the middle age can do the same job. The pleasure, the distress or the pain does not come from the rope itself, but from whatever sadistic trick the top is using.

The rope work is easy (my inner rope bunny voice would even say comfo) on the performers body so they can handle the position for quite a long time and of course be fucked, flogged, titty-twisted, fisted and degraded happily, mercilessly and endlessly while being suspended or hogtied. Lucky bastards.

An Extreme Sensorial Experience

© Avalon. Rigger : Avalon. Model : 0dd

Like loads of models, I’m not really a masochist and can hardly handle pain outside of a rope session. The ropes, by pressuring my body at some very precise contact points challenge myself in dealing with suffering, and pushing my body limits. Whether on the floor or suspended, it triggers a large range of emotions and stimulations including pain of course, but also the shame and excitement for being so exposed, abandonment or freedom and even a sensation close to the “runner’s high” well known by athletes. The moment the brain and the body let go, the bliss begins.

Soon after facing a very uncomfortable or painful moment,  models can experience the “rope-space.” Basically it is a state close to a trance or even to the MDMA effects, triggered by a strong release of endorphins or adrenaline caused by the pain, and amplified by the sensual or sexual connexion with the top. When it happens to work, it creates the most subtle, intense, deep connection. And like the comedown induced with drugs, the return to reality is sometimes pretty harsh. One moment you have a bratty defying sub in ropes, the next she has turned into a dribbling toddler asking for after-care and cuddles.

In most of the westerners BDSM prods, including Kink, the extreme action, including penetration, caning, wax and various tortures is there, however the models rarely show this range of emotions : there is no abandonment, real shame, no guilt, tears, or reversed eyes. For Riccardo Wildties, Kinbaku must be shocking, emotional and sexual: “I like videos with lots of intimacy, shame and humiliation, runny nose, tears. I see more connection in tears from being in a takatekote (breast harness) than the kind of fainted model stuff on Kink.com. It’s porn done by porn models, they do their job, there is no real intimacy. Models with closed eyes and peaceful face is a big no for me. I find it boring.”

Porn And Kinbaku: Best Enemies

Almost all the most famous Japanese riggers have their websites including tutorials, shows and some DIY porn or erotic footage, extremely sophisticated, meticulous and very ritualized (check out Haruki Yukimura, one of the rare top riggers to own a website that is translated in English). However, according to the riggers I interviewed, Kinbaku porn is too niche for the porn producers to invest in, and even in Japan it’s hard to find mainstream porn videos featuring the act of tying. For the english rigger and rope educator Wykd Dave, “The problem is that most straight out porn producers really don’t care for the quality of the bondage and don’t want to pay for good riggers so the rope is often terrible, leading me to not finding it good to watch.”

AkiraNaka and Randa Mai, two of the most famous nawashi (rope artist in Japanese) who collaborate as ropes artists and sometimes actors with few various BDSM Japanese studios, admit openly that on stage the sex part takes priority, whereas bondage comes second:

“Live and video are two completely different art forms” says Randa Mai, “With video you repeat scenes, keep changing the sets and have frequent breaks. The actresses often come straight from the adult video scene and are being booked via agencies. They do not necessarily have a taste for bondage or S&M. There’s enough time to play all kinds of games from intercourse to enemas, from whipping and cuffing to suspension bondage — all the time punctuated with a heavy dose of sexual action. During the actual work there is very little room for real pleasure.”

I’ve been digging deeply into both the footage displayed on the riggers websites and some of the more famous japanese bondage websites, including Hardcore Punishment, Forbidden East, and the crazy website Dogma (where I found out that I’m too vanilla when it comes to milk enemas, nose torture, viscera dipping and eyelid pulling). Soon, I was facing three majors problems (four if you include the fact that I could not find anything interesting on the tubes) : first, everything is in Japanese which considerably slows down the researches. Second, on the mainstream websites, although porn with bondage is everywhere, the bondage is usually not good and the connexion on screen often inexistant. And last but not least, when you eventually find some intimate kinbaku footage, genitals are most of the time blurred and besides, when it comes to masturbation I’m definitely not into the dynamic “old men playing with a squeaky tiny girl.” The thing is, to reach this level of experience and knowledge, you gotta practice a lot (sometimes for many years) and as a consequence, most of the riggers are much older than the hotties I usually fancy. Sorry Nawashi, your work is stunning and technically I’m in awe, but I’m not turned on visually, and would rather live it than watch it.

Back To The West

Coming to the conclusion that pure hardcore Japanese style is not my cup of tea, I then oriented my researches to the westerners kinbaku productions. I noticed that Wykd Dave had an explicit model application on his website.  When I asked him if it was easy to find volunteers he replied : “We find it easy to find models happy with adult levels like penetrations and we find it easy to find models that like being tied up. It’s less easy to find those who are happy to do both and are also good attractive bondage models.”

With his partner Clover, he produces shibari bondage sets for companies such as Hustler Taboo that include penetration, strapons, dildos, anal, hooks and other BDSM activity both on the floor and suspended. I questioned him on the challenges when shooting Kinbaku, and why it is impossible to script it in his opinion : “It develops organically as it progresses, along with the reactions of the model. Being ruled too much by a story board would really make it impossible for any real feeling to develop.” Dave and Clover are not interested in just showing pretty rope or just in sadism for its own sake, but try to capture the beautiful suffering, the physical stress and the emotion, all rolled up into one thing that’s deeply sensual and sexual.

On the Taboo magazine, which is exclusively bondage content, I found their work with the incredible cam girl, and rope bunny Maya Homerton. Maya is also starring in girl on girl bondage videos on Altporn4you  or on Clips4sale with Nina Russ, an other top international rope performer, and everything she does is absolutely stunning and sexy.

Rigger: Nina Russ. Model : Maya Homerton

Amateur: A New Hope

In the end, Clips4sale is probably the place where I found what was closer to the porn I was desperately looking for, the one including the act of tying, the beautiful suffering, the intimacy between a rigger and his/her partner and the sex – or at least the foreplays, as Clips4sale has drastic limitations, like no penetration in bondage if four limbs tied, 8 fingers in but no thumbs in, because then its fisting, no enema, no blood play etc.

At one point I even thought that I had discovered the Holy Grail, when I found out the channel of Fred, a young and gorgeous American rope artist, (aka DrRevMunsterMash on Fetlife)  displaying amazing home-made creative BDSM videos with his super cute  girl friend. Sadly they broke up recently and he is taking down the vids.

In the interview, Ricardo told me that he is currently doing some test shots available on Clips4sale with his work partner and his girlfriend to test a potential market. Considering that the clips are, in his own words, awfully expensive compared to similar material, and considering the limitations Clips4sale has he thinks they are selling pretty good.Tied and suspended, in the most pure traditional japanese way, he uses ropes (and other accessories) to punish or pleasure them, make them cry, squirm and moan, drool and cum.

“Gorgone facing the Lion” – © CapturedErotica. Rigger : DrRevMunsterMash. Model : Gorgone

Though I totally failed in my quest, I do believe that the young generation of rope artists can and eventually will capture sexual Kinbaku in a very interesting way, mixing the traditional japanese aspect with something more contemporary, inspired from the new alt porn productions. Judging by the multiplication of kinbaku performances, circus shows and workshops, and the popularity of websites like Kink.com, Fuckedandbound, rope (western or Japanese) is definitely gaining momentum and hopefully it should happen really soon. I can’t wait.

Cover : © Eddy Lamazzi. Rigger: Docvale. Model: Tyka.

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