1.-After all you have seen and done and being in contact with the great masters of Shibari, do you feel there is more for
you to learn in this field?
I have merely scratched the surface of what Shibari/Kinbaku
has in store for me. The day I stop learning is the day I die.
2.-Is it true that Asian girls have an extra ingredient for being submissive?
Personally, I have observed that Japanese people, mainly due to having been spared the guilt indoctrination spread by the Christian church, are fairly open and relaxed towards sexual experimentation – including power exchange play. Add to this that in most Asian societies, men – especially mature men (who, in the West would be considered “uncles” past their prime) – are afforded a good deal of respect. So you have the added ingredient of women looking up to men. Read: Asian women are used to be seeing things from the bottom.
But then again, there is a thin line between women doing so consciously, because it increases their pleasure or because there is something to be gained from, and women who merely do so because they have been culturally programmed to behave in such a way. In any case, in Asia it is not necessarily looked upon as odd, if a woman (on the surface) allows
the man to lead.
But don’t be fooled. Asian women are as strong as they come.
At the end of the day, Japanese women are very much in charge.
3.-What kind of music do you listen to, while working
and not working?
Musically speaking, I’m stuck in a time warp. So I mostly
enjoy the old stuff. Like Jimi Hendrix, for example.
When I’m “working”, I’m so focused that I don’t see or hear anything beyond my ki periphery and my sub(ject). There
could be no music at all or very loud music of any kind,
I simply wouldn’t notice.
As I often work under strict time constraints from show/performance organizers, this can be quite a problem. Because, if I don’t hear the music, I have no clue when my gig is supposed to be over. I have tried to make deals with the lighting fellows, to blaze the strobes five minutes before ending time, but that hasn’t worked out too well. These days I use a kind of Morse system where I put a finger into the hands of my performance partner, and she will squeeze it a number of times. One squeeze being equal to one minute left in the show.
4.-Besides Shibari what other kind of interests
do you have (in general)?
I am a simple guy, so I do not have any other interests
to speak of.
However, when looking back on my life, I have gone through several “phases”. There was a time, when I was transfixed on the game of chess. Then there was a time, when I was a martial arts nut. That was followed by a period when I was very heavily into photography.
If this is any indication of what the future might hold, I might switch to tantra sex tomorrow or focus all my energy on becoming a French chef next week.
Point is, once I do a thing, I do it 120%. That leaves very little time for anything else.
5.-In your opinion, why did America need so many years to accept its own Kinky Heart, now everything is BDSM etc…?
If by “America” you are referring to the US of A, then I think this is part of a wider problem. First of all, the U.S. has had a very short history. When compared to Europe or countries like China, it has had almost no history. Read: zero history. As a consequence it lacks culture, identity, integrity. The latter is evidenced by a propensity for invading/occupying other countries, meddling in other peoples’ affairs. This propensity for meddling doesn’t even stop at the bedrooms of their own citizens.
No wonder then that American people are confused. Whether the emergence of an American BDSM community has something to do with their own government sanctioning and engaging in torture, is anybody’s guess. Fact is, that over
2.3 million Americans are on death row or are otherwise incarcerated (U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics), over 37 million Americans live below the poverty line (US Census Bureau),
and the illiteracy rate stands at 22% (US Census Bureau).
In most culturally and industrially developed countries you have something like a separation of religion and government. Yet, in the US you have the President saying things like “God bless America” and “So help me God”. Such utterances by officials in more developed countries would be considered blasphemy and thus unthinkable.
Under these conditions I applaud every courageous American who decides to do his/her own thinking, embrace his/her own sexuality and become part of the BDSM community. |
|
6.-What does a girl need to bring to the table to be accepted to be tied by you?
The way things work (on the professional circuit) in Japan, you don’t always have a choice with who to partner with. I wouldn’t be able to take home six figures if I were too selective.
A good Shibari session can be a very deep and rewarding emotional experience. So ideally both partners have good chemistry. So in my own productions I can select my own favorite girl(s). These tend to be young woman that have learned to enjoy my style of Shibari, and who will accept anything I have in store for them.
7.-Who do you consider the true masters of Shibari?
(Alive or dead)
These would be the two grandmasters under who I trained (Osada Eikichi and Akechi Denki) and grandmaster Yukimura Haruki (under who I am still training). These three don’t have the “grand” standing before “master” for nothing. In Japan they are considered Gods (in the sense of deities).
8.-Maybe a little late for me to ask, but how was your experience working with the Kink Group?
(waterbondage.com and hogtied.com)
A few years back, the people from Kink.com sent a fairly large and professional crew over to Japan to shoot with me. I figured they were after Japanese SM and a heavy dose of Shibari – which they were. However, the thing I never saw coming was, that they were also after penetration play.
In Japanese video productions there is a division of labor. First the SM/rope guy does his stuff, and after he’s finished with the woman, they bring in the fuckers. I guess, I caused the kink.com people a little bit of disappointment in that department. But when you read the comments on my work by members to their sites,
they were quite favorable.
9.-Do you feel there are differences between rope work
in America and Japan?
There is what you call Japanese bondage (Shibari/Kinbaku)
and then there is so-called Western bondage. The former is
based on old martial arts (hobakujutsu/hojojutsu) with very highly developed tying techniques used in battle and in prisons. So Japanese bondage is based on hundreds of years of tying people. In its modern form it is used for achieving a deep emotional exchange between two partners. A bondage in the Japanese style is supposed to bring out the beauty of the woman, the ties themselves need to be beautiful and follow Japanese esthetics, and great emphasis is placed on the “way” you tie – not only the end product.
It strikes me that so-called Western bondage has its origin in cattle farming and animal husbandry. That makes the ties more simple and utilitarian.
If your question was meant to compare the level of Japanese bondage between American and Japanese rope enthusiasts,
I’d say what you see in America are Japanese-inspired ties that have been reverse-engineered from photos on the Internet.
I’d say the general level in America is about five to ten years behind Japan.
10.-Are there any countries in Asia that have some crazy
cool new shit that we haven’t discovered yet?
What might be of interest to people serious about their rope skills – though this is neither crazy, nor new, nor shit, but simply cool – are the Shibari Clinics offered at the Osada Kinbaku Dojo Tokyo. These are 2-week intensives of daily 5 hours of tuition and training, offering on a silver platter everything I learned from Osada Eikichi, Akechi Denki, and Yukimura Haruki.
This is giving Western rope enthusiasts a choice of whether
to spend their vacations on the beach and continue their
tying with trial and error, or to invest some quality time,
come to Tokyo, and start tying on a completely
different level.
|
Click here to see the gallery
All images of this gallery are property
of Osada Steve. Photos by: Z.Matri
This is an adult gallery.You must be
18 or older to watch it.
|
|
