Rope Bondage

Rope Bondage
 

This guide will help to answer all your questions relating to rope bondage and Japanese rope bondage.

For many people, rope is the best bondage material available as only a small amount of knowledge is required about tying knots. Rope also looks good against skin and can also leave beautiful bondage marks on the sub’s skin which can last for minutes or hours depending on the sub’s skin and the type of rope used.

Types of Rope

There are two main types of ropes; twisted and braided. Twisted rope can be smooth or rough depending on what material is made from, it also doesn’t slide easily over skin, but can usually leave beautiful marks on the sub’s skin. Braided rope is generally softer and easier to knot and slide over skin.

Materials

Originally bondage ropes were made of twisted natural fibres however hemp, cotton, silk and jute are more commonly used today.

Cotton

Cotton bondage rope is not rough on the skin. It comes twisted and after it has been washed it becomes much softer. The only downside of cotton bondage rope is that it is not as strong as others and should therefore never be used for suspension bondage.

Hemp

Hemp rope was traditionally used for Japanese rope bondage. It is soft and will soften more after having been washed, however if rubbed against the skin it will leave burn marks.

Silk

Silk bondage rope is silky smooth, strong, doesn’t fray and will not damage the skin.  It can be very erotic.

Choosing the right rope

There are several points to note and remember when choosing which rope you should use for bondage.

Comfort – If you want your sub to be comfortable, go for cotton rope, if you prefer something a little rougher then go for the hemp.
Purpose – If you are only using rope for restraining and the actual stimulation is coming from say, flogging then choose a softer rope. If the rope bondage is the stimulation, then go for the rougher rope.
Aesthetics – If you like to see marks on your sub’s skin from a bondage rope, go for twisted rope such as the cotton or the hemp.

A guide to Japanese Rope Bondage

What is Japanese Rope Bondage?

Shibari is a Japanese verb that literally means "to tie" or "to bind" it is used in Japan to describe the artful use of twine to tie objects or packages. Kinbaku is the word meaning "bondage" or Kinbaku-bi, which means "beautiful bondage". Kinbaku is a Japanese style of sexual bondage or BDSM, which involves tying up the submissive using simple yet visually intricate patterns, usually with several pieces of thin rope. The word Shibari came in to common use in the west at some point in the 1990s to describe the bondage art of Kinbaku.

Japanese Bondage is said to differ from western bondage in that, instead of just immobilizing or restraining the submissive, the submissive gains pleasure from being under the pressure and strain of the ropes, squeezing say the breasts or genitals. Japanese bondage as practiced in Japan also uses relatively simple knots (requiring only about two to five types of knots), while western bondage enthusiasts tend to favour more complex knots.

The aesthetics of the bound person’s position are also important: in particular, Japanese bondage is notorious for its use of asymmetric positions to heighten the psychological impact of bondage.

History

Although some of the techniques of Japanese sexual bondage originated with the military restraint technique of Hojojutsu, sexual bondage techniques are far gentler, and greater care is taken to avoid injury.

Many rope artists have derived their own flavour of Japanese-inspired bondage, which often mixes some Shibari techniques with other forms of known bondage.

In recent years, Japanese style rope work has become popular in the western BDSM scene.

Technique

Japanese Rope Bondage is based on a series of fairly specific rope patterns, most of them influenced by the Hojojutsu ties.

These involve a length of rope being wrapped in specific patterns around certain parts of the body, and eventually the whole body, with varying degrees of pressure and constriction depending on which part of the body is being targeted and stimulated.

Traditional Kinbaku is based on fairly specific rope patterns, most of them derived from Hojojutsu ties. Of particular importance are the Ushiro Takatekote (a type of arm box tie) which forms the basis of most Kinbaku ties, and the Ebi or “shrimp” which was originally designed as a torture tie but today makes the submissive vulnerable for more pleasant forms of play.

Generally, traditional Kinbaku is practiced with rope measuring 7 metres in length. Due to the generally different physique of Western submissives, rope measuring 8 to 10 metres is generally used in the West. The rope material is usually hemp, although other materials are used such as cotton or silk. Sex Centre supplies various bondage ropes in a range of colours.

For historic reasons, Kinbaku uses very few knots, sometimes none at all.

As with all bondage, extreme care should always be taken.