Rope Practices for Every Body

This workshop/research lab series by Akechi Kanna & Akechi Kagura aims to work towards diversifying Kinbaku/Shibari/rope and making it more accessible to all bodies, sizes, shapes, ethnicities, ages, and genders in a positive, empowering way.

Enjoy challenging rope practices in a healthy and comfortable way that caters to the needs of your body and your heart. ♬︎♡

Note: This series works mostly with common knowledge and not highly advanced techniques that require the prior acquisition of skills and knowledge. You will not require special equipment or furniture that is not available to everyone everywhere in order to keep the lab accessible for everyone. Furthermore, the current situation of Covid-19 in Japan (while this series took place in 2021) made it unsafe and flat-out impossible to work with different models of various body types and genders as it was too dangerous. Whereas it could not provide the representation we wished to provide for safety reasons, we nevertheless wished to share our vast knowledge and we also have various ways to improvise and demonstrate.

❤ Part 1: Restriction with furniture

Instead of the hashira work that is not accessible for everyone, we’ll show various possibilities for restriction with chairs and other furniture.

❤ Part 2: Restriction with bamboo

In this lab, we will NOT use bamboo as a hard point/suspension point (like parallel bamboo, vertically suspended floating bamboo), but we will bind the body to the bamboo.

If possible, please prepare a THIN bamboo. If you don’t have bamboo, you can use a curtain pole, a wooden stick, or a mop handle.

❤ Part 3: Exposure for Play

For humiliation, play, se+ual acts, and se+y poses let’s do Shibari where the partner is restricted in an embarrassing/shameful position (with the secret places in full view).

This class will include floorwork predicament and partial suspension.

❤ Part 4: “Supporture”

Supporture = torture along with compassionate support. Let’s do some Shibari that can be both tormenting and supportive?!
The term supporture was created by the participants during the second series, and can include many things such as hip harnesses, crotch rope, a hair tie, or foot/toe bindings!

❤ Part 5: “Approaches to Tying Larger Bodies”

There are many different approaches to similar shapes and positions for people with larger bodies. In this class, let’s do Shibari with less burden and more ropes so that any person can enjoy the same system of torture and suspension!

❤ Part 6: “Asymmetry for Different Physical Limitations”

In general, the main patterns of Kinbaku are symmetrical shibari, but you can also enjoy asymmetrical shibari even if your partner has shoulder pain, lack of flexibility, shoulder/arm muscles tightness, or left-right differences! Together we’ll adjust ties to different physical handicaps.

The Videos of this series are Recorded Zoom–Sessions that took place in 2021 organized by Karada House.