Japanese bondage (SHICHISEKI) techniques are slowly entering the Western erotic world. They appeal to many people, mainly because of the beauty and the erotic charisma. There is a lot more to Japanese, or oriental, bondage than just this. Doing it requires knowledge and understanding. There is very little written information about Japanese bondage. As far as we know POWERotics is the only medium currently containing background as well as “how to” information. This section will give you background information and will show you the way to the basics of Japanese bondage.
There are different ways to approach and learn Japanese bondage. We have chosen the most practical one and will introduce you to the different bondage’s immediately, so you can make bondage’s almost instantly. The other, more traditional approach is to start with the different – usually very complicated – knot tying techniques (NAWA SIBARI). The bondage’s we have chosen can all be made by using very simple, basic knots.
To understand Japanese bondage you need to understand a little about its background and culture. All oriental bondage techniques have their “roots” in two things: ancient oriental torture and Zen Buddhism. To the Zen-monks it was one of the ways to train the power of the mind over the body and to separate physical experiences like pain and discomfort from mental power. All this in search for ultimate meditation. Like all other things the monks – and this is a part of the traditional Japanese culture as well – thrived for perfection and sublimation. You may compare this with techniques like Bonsai (Japanese tree nursing), and Ikebana (Japanese flower arranging), the Japanese kitchen, Japanese gardening and to some extend martial arts (most of which have their roots in Zen too). Serenity, beauty, perfection and meditation are all elements that you will recognize in Japanese bondage.
The other main “root” is the medieval oriental torture technique, where time is the predominant factor. No other culture has produced such efficient, effective ways to torture the human body, which again has to do with thriving for perfection. Unlike the Western executioners, their oriental colleagues did not put enormous amounts of energy and physical effort into torturing whatever they wanted to hear out of their prisoners.
They let time – and psychological impulses – do the trick. They also did not use too many complicated devices (you will not find a Japanese torture-rack) but used relatively simple techniques. Things like “the eternal water drip” we all know about (which is a Chinese invention but perfected by the Japanese, who “successfully” made a big point about the sound effects, locking up the victim in a complete soundproof room when this torture was used so the victim would hear the water drip as well as feel it. The sound soon turned into the sound of an imaginative hammer banging on the forehead).
To tie someone to a simple wooden plank will eventually do the same trick as a torture rack or ladder. It takes more time but a lot less effort. This basically comes down to: use the internal power (or weakness) of your opponent. A judo fighter will not try to use his own muscular strength, but will try to use the weight, speed and momentum of the movements of his opponent.
In the erotic bondage techniques the trick is to use the internal power of your partner as well. What you do is stimulating the mind by stimulating the body and let the mind of your partner do the work for you. This internal power in Japanese is called KY and it is used in many practical ways, because it is nothing else but mental and physical energy concentrated in one point of the body. This is exactly what a karate expert will do when he smashes a piece of wood. He concentrates his KY and uses speed and perfection, not physical strength. Acupuncture and SHIATSU (Japanese massage) will help a person to concentrate this KY into a certain point in the body and use it to heal, to relax or to influence physical processes.
Different “Schools”
There are two different “schools” (directions or streams) when it comes to Japanese bondage. These are quite often mixed up in publicity around Japanese bondage (if any) which makes things quite difficult to understand. The traditional school concentrates on the torture aspects of Japanese bondage. Bondage used to be used as a torture technique by itself and there are very effective deadly bondage’s that should never be used, such as strangulation.
Traditional torture bondage was used for different reasons: either to make the prisoner talk (as an interrogation tool) or as a corporal punishment. Traditional torture bondage’s are based on the principle of draining the body slowly by crushing and blocking organs, bones and arteries slowly. Obstructing but not completely blocking the transportation of blood to the brain for instance has huge psychological effects because it will distort the brain function as well as the senses. Having to watch a limb slowly go pale and finally black – and thus losing it – must have been a very effective way to get a prisoner to talk as well. Tying wet hemp very tightly around the torso and leaving it it to dry and shrink will slowly crush the ribs, causing enormous pain in the process. As opposed to many European ways for interrogation torture these oriental techniques (they were not only used in Japan, although almost all of them where perfected by the Japanese) did not kill the prisoner in the process. There were no humanitarian grounds for this by the way, the objective was simply to keep the prisoner alive so he or she could not escape punishment later.
Bondage as a form of corporal punishment was used for example to amputate limbs, by tying them tightly and leaving the victim (usually publicly) to wait for the limb to die. Probably the cruelest form of this “amputation” bondage was to tie the male genitals, leaving them to die and eventually fall off, causing a very slow death. Totally crushing the ribs or the liver with slow drying ropes was another effective but slow way to kill someone.
The traditional Japanese bondage school still uses remainders of these techniques in an erotic power exchange sense. These bondage’s are usually extremely complicated and done with rough hemp ropes or equivalents, mainly with the aim to cause pain and discomfort.
The more “modern” school – that concentrates on erotic stimulation combined with the other advantages and possibilities of bondage – by the way is not entirely free of ancient torture techniques as well. A favorite “home” punishment as well as a game (using female slaves) was to tie women up in an uncomfortable and exposed (which is considered to be extremely humiliating) positions combined with so much unreleased erotic stimulation it would eventually drive them mad. Many women while tied up this way, in their desperation to find relief would rub their clitoris on the ropes so hard and long, that they would completely lose it in the process.
Psychology
The psychological effects of Japanese bondage are huge. Your partner will not only feel totally exposed and at your mercy, but she will constantly be aroused by the erotic effects of the ropes. This can be absolutely great, but a little shameful at the same time because she cannot stop it and the excitement is just not enough to satisfy her completely so she will need – and probably beg for – more. Since you can quite easily use the basic bondage’s in public places the arousal is even bigger and the length of the average Japanese bondage game is another factor that will confuse her.
The other thing is that rope – as opposed to leather or steel cuffs – will always give your partner the idea she can escape. If your bondage is good, she can wriggle all right but she cannot escape. However she will try. This leaves most women wrestling with the question whether she will submit or just try a little longer to escape. That is very frustrating. Plus, the more she wriggles, the more intense the erotic stimulation will be.
Integration of Goals
Japanese bondage thrives towards the integration of several different goals at the same time.
♥ erotic stimulation by concentrating KY into erotic zones;
♥ seek for beauty and perfection;
♥ immobilize your partner, thus achieving better concentration since nothing else matters;
♥ expose the partner to the dominant;
♥ stimulate the mind of the partner by introducing immobility, instability, exposure, pain and discomfort, humiliation, uncertainty and unreleased erotic stimulation or combinations of these factors (whatever appeals to you most).
Not every individual bondage will deal with all goals at the same time, but every bondage is always a combination of two ore more of these goals.
Respecting your Partner
To understand Japanese bondage it is important to understand about the way Japanese people think and to understand what a Japanese bondage master wants to get out of the bondage.
First of all, in the Japanese culture, a group is always more important than the individuals that constitute the group. In this case the group is you and your partner and the bondage is a group-effort. The success of the bondage is determined by the value, the two of you together get out of it. It is not there to individually please either one of you (although of course it will).
Next it is not so much the individual that counts, it is about what the individual can achieve. Towards the bondage this is the skill of the bondage master and the ability to cope with it by his partner. Important aspects here are:
♥ thriving for perfection by both partners;
♥ thriving for beauty. Not only the bondage itself should be perfect and beautiful, the bondage should also express or underline the total beauty of the bound partner and the beauty of the whole environment and the moment;
♥ thriving for long and intense erotic stimulation (to the bondage master the beauty, the perfection and the sight, to his partner the physical and mental stimulation of the ropes and to both the interaction between the “group members”).
This is where you can draw a direct parallel to “Ikebana”, the Japanese way of presenting the beauty of one single flower in a free space. No wonder suspension is often an essential part of Japanese bondage, because this will literally lift your partner into free space. It is of paramount importance to understand that Japanese partners have great respect for each other. This respects grows because of the interaction between the two partners and the way they grow towards each other, thus as a “group” rising to a level above what each individual can achieve. This is one of the major topics of Zen.
In Japan there are two different “schools”, that look at bondage from two different ways, but are achieving the same goal. The more “traditional” or “classic” approach is that the pain, the discomfort, the humiliation and way the submissive partner can cope with that are the important factors and that erotic stimulation is only instrumental to this process. The more modern approach, which we are dealing with here, will put the erotic effects and the emotions in front and will consider other aspects as instrumental to the ultimate goal.
Physical and Mental Training
Especially for the submissive partner it is important to understand that it is hardly possible to cope with the more complex Japanese bondage’s, without some basic physical training. To start with: you need to know about what being bound and feeling helpless and exposed feels like and you need to understand general basics like negotiation, mutual respect and trust and both partners need to (learn to) understand each other completely, since this is a group effort.
Self-control is another big thing in Japanese bondage. To the dominant partner this means a couple of things:
♥ first of all, never to experiment with things you do not know about and never to introduce complex Japanese bondage to a novice partner without introducing the technique and without giving this partner sufficient time to learn and experience;
♥ secondly: you use a minimum of technique to get the maximum effect and you only introduce a new technique (or a new bondage layer) if the previous ones have done their job;
♥ thirdly: take your time. Building up a Japanese bondage often will take hours. Compare it to carrying your partner up the stairs, one step at a time and not going to the next step until you are fully balanced on the one you are on. In this sense you can compare Japanese bondage to the different stages (plateau’s) of female sexual arousal. If you do it right you co-inside directly with the plateau’s.
Japanese bondage is something you need to learn. Having to learn about sexuality is a concept that is not native to most of the Western sexual cultures, where sex is considered something you just do (and are supposed to know about), but not something you learn, develop and talk about. You will have to practice, try, retry and communicate with each other about it to get acquainted with the techniques and the different effects. This is a whole new discovery-trip if you are open to the technique as well as to your partner.
Relaxation Techniques
To the submissive partner two things are very important: physical flexibility and control and the ability to relax, even when under physical and emotional stress. To know about basic breath control techniques is a must, since this will automatically lead to concentration and with that relaxation. There are three simple techniques you should get acquainted with (and train) and that you can use either by itself or in combination.
Breath Control
Teach yourself to breath firmly, deeply and wittingly. Inhale slowly through your nose. Fill up the upper part of the lungs first until there is no more space and then fill up the lower part. If you feel that your lungs are completely filled, hold your breath for a couple of seconds and then exhale – slowly and through your mouth – in reverse order. This is a very basic yoga-technique that you can easily learn yourself by practicing it every day in bed just before you go to sleep (you will probably sleep a lot more relaxed if you do). You have got to train this until you feel you can rely on it in a stress situation. It helps if you close your eyes and try to imagine you are in a very tranquil environment (on a mountain, on a beach or any place else with a lot of space, quietness and fresh air, whichever one appeals to you).
Concentrating your KY to one point in your body
The simple way to learn this is again to lay back in your bed, place a matchbox on the bare skin of your belly, close your eyes and try to feel the exact surroundings of the matchbox on your skin, without touching it. In the future the different knots of the bondage will take the place of the matchbox on different parts of your body. By the way, a good night sleep again is an extra spin off of this technique if you practice in bed before going to sleep. It is a lot better then sleeping pills.
Coping with Cramp
You can do this easily by teaching yourself to contract and relax the muscles in your body in a regular, repetitive pattern (whichever you like). This also improves your concentration abilities dramatically.
Preparation
Like every other bondage technique Japanese bondage requires some preparation. However, in this case these preparations are the first steps on your stairway. First of all: you need time and you don’t want to be disturbed. Unplug or switch off your phone (or switch on the answering machine) and make it something special. An exotic adventure.
Your scene is probably going to take quite some time so preparing something to eat and drink is not just a luxury. Turn it into a picnic if you like. And since you are in a Japanese mood anyway, why not go out and buy some SUSHI (Japanese raw fish snacks). Refrain from alcohol (and drugs). If you want to be in style Chinese tea will do fine and so will fruit juice. But soft drinks or mineral water are just as good as long as they do not contain gas.
You need to plan your bondage, if you are inexperienced. It helps if you make some kind of sketch or use a picture as an example. Your ropes should be ready at hand and pay attention to the temperature in the room. It should not be to cold, because your partner will be there (naked and unable to move around) for a couple of hours.
Next: every Japanese erotic scene starts with bathing. If you have a bath, have one together, but a shower will do just as fine. Wash and relax each other. This is important to get in the mood. A nice, slow erotic massage is the next step. This warms up your partners? muscles and relaxes the body. Getting in the mood and warming up is essential (and it is a lot of fun).
Ropes
Japanese bondage’s are always done with rope, as opposed to the Western culture, that often incorporates cuffs and belts. Experienced bondage masters use different ropes (rough and soft ones), if this is new to you, stick to the soft cotton ones. You need a set of different ropes. The basic set you need is is:
♥ five 3 MM diameter ropes (0.15 inch), each about a yard (meter) long (used for binding nipples, for some intersections and for hair-bondage);
♥ seven 6 to 8 MM (0.3 inch) diameter ropes, each about four yards/three meter long (most frequently used);
♥ five 10 to 12 MM (1 inch) diameter ropes, each about four yards/three meter long (used for suspension);
♥ two 6 to 8 MM (0.3 inch) diameter ropes, ten to twelve yards/ten meter long (used for harnesses);
one 10 to 12 MM (1 inch) diameter rope, twelve to fifteen yards/twelve to thirteen meter long (used to tie a suspension harness).
Depending on your submissive partner you may need different dimensions. The above are averages.
If you mark the different types of rope by tipping the end in different colors of paint you won’t have any trouble picking the right one when you need it. Reserve your ropes for bondage only and take could care of them. If any of the ropes, especially the ones used for suspension, gets damaged even in the slightest way, replace it so you know your partner will be safe.
The Basics of all Bondage
There are probably several hundreds of different bondage’s and we cannot describe them all here. Once you get into it, your own creativity will guide you as long as you understand the basics. We will give several examples of bondage’s and we will tell you about the erotic zones and how the tension of the ropes and the knots do their job. Always use a so called “reef knot” they feel good on the body, are easy to untie (even under tension) and will not deform.
Every Japanese bondage is built up in several layers and is built up one layer at the time. Take your time between the different layers. Let your partner get used to the feeling. Now will understand why you work with different short ropes instead of one long one. it makes life easy and it allows you to adjust the bondage without having to untie the whole thing. You will notice that adjustment is necessary. Your partner will ask for more tension as times goes on. That is because the erotic stimulation builds up over time and she will want more and more of it.
Be aware not to block any veins. You will notice that tightness is not the issue here. It is about tension, but the ropes should never be extremely tight. There is no need for that, it is counter-productive and the tension will built up especially when you suspend your partner.