The most interesting practice of sexual bondage is the traditional Japanese Bondage honed over the centuries. It is also known as Shibari, which literally means bondage. Japanese Bondage is a type of art, which includes coiling and lacing the derriere with numerous thin ropes evoking feelings of passion.

Unlike the western style of bondage, which merely restricts the bottom, Japanese Bondage puts pressure on specific parts of the body such as the breast and genital regions to provide sensual pleasure. The tied person has to achieve a perfect aesthetic pose and Japanese Bondage especially engages asymmetric postures to intensify the mental imprint of the style.

Some of the Japanese Bondage methods have been developed from Hojojutsu— orthodox mode of Japanese martial arts, for constraining people with twines or rope. Japanese Bondage is a much milder method, and tremendous precaution is practiced to prevent harm of any kind.

The use of Japanese Bondage or Shibari for sexual gratification was first documented way back in the Edo era. The founder father of Japanese Bondage Ito Seiu, in 1908, transformed it into an artistic style after extensively examining Hojohutsu. Japanese Bondage gained more popularity in the 1950’s after being printed as a magazine and people attribute it to John Willie. Japan saw the emergence of Japanese Bondage as a conventional “performance act” in the 1960’s.

Shibari is greatly inspired by the blackest eras of Japan, the Sengoku era which is infamous for its brutal techniques of torment and slaying, comprising usage of fire, daggers, tattoos, stones, boiling water, and rocking horses, etc. Japanese Bondage has evolved over the years from a traditional performing art to a method for having sexual pleasure.

Today, many variants of Japanese Bondage style of rope usage have become popular, but Shibari is in vogue in Japan.

Related sites:

• Japanese bondage – Wikipedia
• Bondage Sites