2.4 How to practice shibari safely: training, risks, and exercises

We start with a basic question: what do we mean by shibari? We review the origins of the terms shibari and kinbaku and establish an operational definition of shibari as the erotic art of Japanese bondage, the foundation on which the entire course is built.

Estimated reading time: 12 minutes.

What “erotic” means in the context of shibari: how eroticism and sexuality relate to each other, why there are no universal techniques or responses, and what it means to understand shibari as a way of managing desire, far removed from any repertoire of sexual techniques.

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes.

To talk about sexuality in a shared language, we define the basic concepts we will use throughout the course and explain how asymmetry is understood in the style of shibari we teach.

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes.

Academic definitions take on meaning when we bring them into our own experience. We look at what erotic experience is, why each person’s eroticism is unique, and how we can cultivate it through fantasies and behaviors.

Estimated reading time: 11 minutes.

Personal responsibility covers whatever lies within our room for maneuver; understanding what it involves and taking it on allows us to recognize, in each interaction, what we can act on for safer and more satisfying shibari.

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes.

Learning shibari takes time: manual skills are acquired through repetition, and concepts through analysis. Organizing practice according to your goals and the time you have, and keeping it separate from erotic play, allows you to progress safely.

Estimated reading time: 18 minutes.

Besides the risks specific to each technique, there are others common to all ties: inadequate tension, pressure on blood vessels or nerves, and a series of minor discomforts that are also best avoided. Knowing them allows you to prevent them and recognize the body’s warning signs in time.

Estimated reading time: 14 minutes.

Neutral posture is an active balance built from our support on the ground; practicing it, standing and seated, allows us to recognize how our body distributes weight and to make use of ground reaction force without overloading the joints.

Estimated reading time: 14 minutes.

Control of your own body is the basis for managing the body of the person being tied; practicing posture and balance allows us to move ourselves and the rope ergonomically, with fluid movements that do not distract from the interaction.

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes.

An exercise for creating and managing, between the person tying and the person being tied, a kinetic circuit in which both share the ground reaction force.

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes.