TokyoBound

Time is running out for this film’s run at Documenta in Germany so it was essential to post this fascinating article just as soon as possible. Thanks to Asagi Ageha for penning this wonderful behind-the-scenes look at one documentary flimmaker’s unusual quest — to find photos taken of her in bondage 20 years earlier in Japan. KJ

With an impressive body of work to her name, Hito Steyerl is nobody’s fool. The avant-garde feminist filmmaker knows that some things simply can’t be done. So when Hito embarks on an odyssey, she doesn’t fool herself. Not when she sets out in search of a photo of herself in bondage. A photo that was taken 20 years ago when she was a film student in Tokyo. A photo she had never seen herself, with no recollection of who the photographer was, no memory of the studio location or the faintest idea in which magazine the photo eventually appeared, assuming it ever was published.

All this doesn’t daunt Hito. It’s the search that matters, not the find. It’s the effort that counts. This hunt is going to be made into a documentary — a video for Documenta, the mega art event held in Kassel, Germany every five years.
Read more »

This interview was conducted by Osada Steve in 2000, and published in Secret Magazine in 2002. A German version of this interview appeared in Schlagzeilen in 2000. An online version has resided on Asanawa.com since 2000. Part one of two.

Randa Mai prefers black. Not Chrome Hearts or any of the fashionable get-ups. And definitely no fancy latex perv wear. He wears baggy pants and worn-out shirts. He sports a three-day-old beard, dons sunglasses, chews gum and removes his shoes and socks for each performance.

The latter allowing him to feel the ropes should he step on them. This nawashi (rope artist) even boasts a fourth dan in shorinji kempo, a Japanese fighting style of Chinese origin, Read more »

September is here and that means it’s time to post another classic interview conducted by Osada Steve of a top mover and shaker in the SM scene in Japan.

The next interview I will put up will be with Randa Mai. This is actually a two-part interview and there will be a gallery as well. So stay tuned. I’ll probably publish it some time this week.

Randa Mai is an interesting character. There used to be a late-night TV show in Japan called Girugameshu Night, or something like that. They featured Randa Mai in a long segment and he even performed a mini-show with a blindfolded girl wearing only black panties (the girl, that is, not Randa Mai).

This show is no longer on the air but it had a good run.

You used to be able to see all kinds of boobies on TV in Japan, and not just late at night. Now it seems you need a subscription to cable or satellite TV as boobies on regular TV are almost non-existent. This is discrimination against the poor, pure and simple!

I once read that Randa-san tied up one of his female high school classmates when they both should have been studying kanji and was suspended as a result. The rest is history.

Osada Steve will be performing in Shinjuku at the DX Kabukicho theater beginning Sept.5. And as if he weren’t busy enough, he has taken on the duties as the shibari trainer at an SM club in Tokyo called Mode et Baroque. He will be there once a week for a couple of hours teaching the finer points of shibari to staff members interested in refining their skills.

Apparently, this club is heavily weighted in favor of cute, submissive girls and Steve is doing his best to see that they are taken care of — even making it possible for us gaijin to get on over there to get some hands-on experience.

There are so many different kinds of SM clubs in Japan, it’s hard to keep track.

You have the serious shibari-only offerings like Studio SIX which is run by Steve and similar set-ups run by a few other well-known nawashi. There are the “happening bars” which sometimes feature SM gear and live shows. Then you have the SM clubs and so-called mistress bars which usually have a per-hour fee modeled on the hostess bars of the bubble economy.

The latter are the most expensive but, since bondage is not such a taboo subject in Japan, you can often find cheaper fare. There are once-a-month events such as those organized by Mira Kurumi and they are really quite reasonable. And, you just might see some erotic SM scenes play out at live houses which ordinarily feature not-so-well-known rock ‘n’ roll acts.

I once saw Shiko Shima put on a show at the popular SM video store Sun Shop in Akihabara. The price of admission: one purchased Shima DVD.

I don’t have a Studio SIX report this time, sadly. Thomas is too far away. Maybe Steve needs to consider setting up a web cam. Anyway, most of the below pics were taken at the most recent Kinbaku Live Night at Studio SIX.

KabukiJoe