TokyoBound

We were contacted by a reporter for the Japan Times recently. The Japan Times is a large circulation English language daily newspaper which has been around since the 1800s. The reporter, who is one of their freelance movie reviewers, explained that he was looking for some additional information and contacts for a review he was writing of the film Bakushi.

We did what we could here at TokyoBound to help out. We sent along a photo from our vast and growing library which you probably already saw in a previous gallery if you’re a regular reader.

The piece came out yesterday (Thursday) and, to my surprise, it took up one whole page of the newspaper. And this is a broadsheet paper, not a tabloid. I must admit, I was pleasantly surprised by this. As I mentioned to the writer Read more »

The latest in our series of unique and insightful interviews with the top shibari masters. This interview of Miura Takumi was conducted by Osada Steve and represents another in a line of interviews at TokyoBound which are as illuminating as they are rare. — KJ

Osada Steve: You’ve been doing shibari for about 15 years, the last seven years as a professional nawashi. What is it about shibari that interests you so much that you are devoting your life to it?

Miura Takumi: I was first attracted to shibari because of an interest in Read more »

Osada Steve is in Germany so I’m taking this opportunity to put up a gallery of pictures of Aiko-chan from a previous Studio SIX shoot. I usually take between 400 and 800 photos on an average evening at Kinbaku Live Night at Studio SIX. I’ve gotten more used to my camera by now and I’m much happier these days with the settings I’ve arrived at through pure trial and error. As a result, I happen to like a much larger percentage of the photos I take of late. The bad part is, I can’t fit all of them into a single gallery.

Same thing goes for the video, which is why I’m putting up a new movie of Aiko-chan I didn’t have space for in the past.

The video reminded me of my comic book-reading days. That was a long time ago and if I hadn’t thrown them all away decades ago, I’d be a lot richer now. But that’s water under the bridge.

These comic books always had ads for mysterious, exoctically-named martial arts. No bully would ever kick sand in your face again if you sent away for the cheap booklet purporting to teach Dim Mak, Ketsugo and, my personal favorite, Yubiwaza. I think Dim Mak is Chinese for death touch or some such thing. Ketsugo sounds Japanese but, I must say, I’ve never heard the word in Japan. Ketsu can mean ass, for what it’s worth.

Then there’s Yubiwaza, or finger technique. That’s got to be the greatest martial art of them all. Destroy your attacker using just your little finger.

Anyway, watching this latest video of Aiko-chan, I saw Steve apply a kind of yubiwaza, just not the type that was advertised in the comic books. This is in conjunction with his favorite newaza. He also lets Aiko-chan have it on her lovely ketsu with the short, bamboo rod known as konjobo.

The only thing missing is the Dim Mak.

KabukiJoe

A long time ago I saw an interesting film. It’s been so long I don’t remember much about the story but a guy was riding the train in Tokyo and saw a woman standing nearby holding a hand strap. This caused her coat sleeve to slip down a bit. Nothing unusual about this but the guy was startled to see rope marks on the woman’s wrist. This is where it gets hazy. Somehow, he gets together with the woman and they begin a bondage relationship. There was a good outdoors scene at the end where he hoists her into the air from a tree limb at night in the rain. I wish I knew the title of this movie and the production company. I think it may have been produced by Nikkatsu but I’m not sure.

Anyway, I thought about this as I was riding the train home Saturday evening following Kinbaku Live Night at Studio SIX. You see, sometimes I just take advantage of the luxurious suite Osada Steve lets me use after the performance. It’s very close to the dojo and has all the amenities Read more »