By now, Hajime Kinoko’s name is well known, even beyond the shibari scene.
Hajime Kinoko is considered an international reference in shibari. He was born on October 22, 1977, year 52 of the Showa era. He began working with rope in 2001, self-taught and with guidance from Yumeko; later he also learned from Yukimura Haruki and Kanna. He honed his technical craft in a fetish bar he ran in Roppongi, where he would tie up to ten customers a day. He has used the name Hajime Kinoko since 2006 and has performed and taught abroad since 2007. Since then he has innovated in the practice with an artistic and conceptual approach of his own.
In addition to his performances and publications, he has created shibari installations at international events such as Burning Man and has taken part in academic gatherings such as the symposium “Kinbaku New Wave × Asia Humanities” (緊縛ニューウェーブ×アジア人文学), held at Kyoto University on October 24, 2020 (year 2 of the Reiwa era). The live demonstration he gave there was streamed on YouTube and passed half a million views; on November 5, after receiving complaints that it was disrespectful to women, the university took the video down.
He is one of the Japanese performers with the strongest presence in the West so far this century, and possibly one of the public figures who have done most to popularize shibari among the general public. He has performed and taught workshops in some thirty cities, such as Paris, London, Rome, Berlin, Sydney, Melbourne, Vancouver, New York, Los Angeles, Taipei and Shanghai.
His recurring theme in this field is “connection,” which he expresses through the motto “tying, not binding,” putting the focus on the intention behind the action.
So the same action, “tying,” can be a restraint, a capture or a way of joining and bonding.
By stressing the idea of tying without restraining, Kinoko seems to suggest that true connection, whether between people, between objects or between space and viewer, should rest not on domination or submission, but on harmonious, free coexistence.
VR180 Hajime Kinoko Rope Work — exhibition at Standby.
In Kinoko’s hands, rope is not an instrument of control, but a means of communication and connection. The rope physically joins the objects and bodies it touches, but it does not imprison or limit them. This interplay of tensions and freedoms can be read as a metaphor for human relationships: the most authentic connections are not based on mutual control, but on a dynamic balance between closeness and freedom.
In his installations, then, he uses rope to “join” everything from small, delicate objects such as flowers to large structures and colossal buildings. By spreading his creations across entire spaces, he creates immersive experiences for the viewer.
His works range from giant human forms at the Burning Man festival to structures resembling children’s playgrounds, made solely of interwoven rope, adapting to—or rather merging with—the space they interact with. At Burning Man in 2017 he built the Shibari Sanctuary with the sculptor Benjamin Langholz, using steel and cable. In September 2024 he presented LINK at Roppongi Art Night in Tokyo: with his students and more than 30 volunteers, over ten days he stretched more than 20 km of pink rope across 350 m² of one of Roppongi’s landmark buildings; according to the artist, pink symbolizes “human warmth.”
In May 2021 he also explored the digital format with Samsara, an NFT auctioned through RPM Studio in which a rope performance, filmed in high resolution, became an interactive 3D augmented reality model.
Beyond their aesthetics, Hajime Kinoko’s installations invite reflection on human relationships, freedom, connection and the tensions between them, and they offer a sensory and visual experience that draws viewers and practitioners from around the world.
Cast — Hajime Kinoko with rope (piano: Hiramoto Masahiro; double bass: Tanaka Keisuke; violin: Morimoto Yukiko).
And although his art may seem similar to that of Shiota Chiharu, and both seem to arrive at the same place, a closer look at their work reveals clear differences.
Against Shiota’s emotional introspection and organic component (her installations are always indoors and visitors walk through them, which makes her a clear exponent of the installation concept), centered on fragility and the ephemeral, Kinoko expands outdoors or into large open spaces, includes both people and objects in his works and takes a more performative approach, always seeking the contradiction between bond and freedom.
The artist describes how he became interested in shibari because he wanted to tie his partner, without originally being into SM. In his approach, he seeks to bring out a woman’s beauty through aesthetically pleasing ties. He explains that, although he has been criticized for not following the conventions of more traditional or “purist” shibari, he is guided by his own artistic vision, not by the perspective of domination.
Over his career he has explored different approaches: he has tied not only people but also objects, which allows him to express concepts such as the connection between people, the universe and technology. He points out that his art focuses on the emotional connection between the person tying and the person being tied, and that it creates an experience of beauty and enjoyment.
Finally, he describes his intention to take shibari from the underground to the mainstream, so that the general public can appreciate it as an art form rather than as a purely sexual practice.
In November 2020 he published his eighth book, Wayo kinbaku: Miyabi (和様緊縛 雅), in a limited edition of 500 copies, accompanied by a traveling exhibition across Japan.
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