Tenma Haru (天馬ハル), a cheerful Japanese rigger, was born on May 20, 1975 (year 50 of the Showa era) in Kanagawa Prefecture. He has blended classic and modern concepts into a style of his own, Tenma-ryu (天馬流), which explicitly separates kinbaku from sadomasochism and steers it toward emotional connection between two people.
Very close to the style and philosophy of Yagami Ren, he shares with him a passion for function over ornament, summed up in his own philosophy: “Every rope has a purpose.” He sees rope as a tool for communication, an extension of the hands toward the other person.
Before taking the name Tenma Haru, he went by the alias Goku in his early days.
In January 2013 he joined the staff of the happening bar Zone (域) in Yokohama, and on March 1, 2014—year 26 of the Heisei era—he founded his own kinbaku salon, Genso Nawa Kai (幻想縄会), at Studio T’s in Yokohama. A week later, on March 8, he taught his first kinbaku class there, and in January 2019 the salon opened a branch in Gunma Prefecture.
Since then, the salon has served as a space for meeting, training and practice: classes for all levels, an open salon for free practice, private sessions, space rental and a steady program of special events.
Career and events
Since 2013 he has performed at venues such as DESIRE, DX Kabukicho, Kawasaki BOTTOMS UP, Theater POO, HYPE (Nagoya), DOUBLE (Kanazawa), Studio T’s, MK Studio and SARU (Nagoya), among others. At the DX Kabukicho SM tournament he presented three special performances, Nawabaku Genso DX (縄縛幻想DX), in 2018 and 2019, and with Reika (麗華) he formed a regular stage duo.
He has taken part in events such as “Onawa Asobi,” “Next Generation of Supernova Bud” (次世代の超新星達 Bud, from 2013 to 2016), “The Loop of Five Ropes,” “Bondage Sengoku Era,” “Bondage EXPO Japan” and “Erotikava’s Nawa Blessing Festival in Chiba.”
Video production
In 2016 he released the recordings Genso Nawa Ichiya ten.1 and ten.2 (幻想縄一夜). During the pandemic he focused on producing content for the adult video industry; those works include the film Steamy Heaven And Hell - The Inn Of Passionate Bondage - The Best Hits Collection Vol.2 Visions Of Bondage Chapter One, in which he shared scenes with Sato Nonoka, Aino Momona, Azu Mihina and Yamai Suzu.
Recent performances and collaborations
In April 2022, during the Nawaten festival at the Erotikava bar in Chiba, he gave a live kinbaku performance with his regular stage partner, Tsubasa Yuka (翼裕香), recreating the theme of “Beauty and the Beast.” The video is available on YouTube.
In April of that year he co-organized the event “San-nin no Nawa Kai” (三人の縄会) with Doyama Tesshin (堂山鉄心) and Yagami Ren, and in May he took part in Design Festa vol. 55. In September 2022 he took part in the Nawaten Festival and in a photo session organized by Van Associates. In October he launched the special event “Otokojuku” (男塾) and the fourth edition of his event for women.
In August 2023, together with Yagami Ren, he launched the live stream “Exclusives: Yagami and Tenma’s Talk” (鵺神・天馬のココだけの話) on FC2.
On August 11, 2024 he took part in the event organized by Arcadia Tokyo in the basement of the Spiral building in Omotesando, where he shared the bill with Kamijo Saki, Yagami Ren, Aotsuki Nagare and Doyama Tesshin, in a gathering of hard SM rope riggers. The next day he co-hosted and commented on Kokonawa 2. Kokonawa (ココ縄) is a series of gatherings he has led since February 2024 with Yagami Ren, in which the two preside and comment on the performances of new riggers; Aoi Marie produces them and usually hosts them.
International reach
Like the whole “new generation” of Japanese riggers, his international reach rests on his geographical surroundings: booming cities in China, Taiwan (linked to adult industry festivals), South Korea, Thailand and Oceania.
In October 2024 he traveled to Taiwan for a series of events at Salon Isshion (一紫苑) in Taipei. On the 11th he taught the “Tenma Style TK” (天馬流後手縛) workshop, and on the 12th he gave a shibari performance followed by a nawakai exclusively for attendees, with Sora as assistant and Chinese interpretation by Miss Lina, his local student.
Online teaching
In 2026 he launched his Tenma Style online course, via Zoom, aimed at Asian audiences and focused especially on gote-shibari and leg ties.
This model includes regular in-person classes in Taiwan to consolidate learning.
Notes on Tenma-ryu
Tenma-ryu stands out for a teaching approach that puts understanding before imitation.
“The greatest feature of Tenma-ryu is not chasing complex techniques, but making every rope meaningful and every tension understandable. It doesn’t just teach you how to tie; it guides you to understand the forces, tension control, the logic of the rope and why you tie that way. Once you understand the principle, every rope will be tied in a more stable, safer way that adapts better to different bodies and interactions.”
Gote-shibari is the teaching core of the style.
Miss Lina, official interpreter for the Chinese-language courses and a Tenma-ryu student, explains:
“The gote really is one of the keys that determines many things, including the quality of later suspensions. At the same time, it lets you practice the basic concepts of knots, locks and pass-throughs thoroughly. Every school has its own way of doing the gote.”
The pricing at the Genso Nawa Kai salon in Yokohama is as follows (in US dollars, at the October 6, 2026 rate of 1 USD = 158 JPY): salon participation, about 38 USD (6,000 yen) for men and 19 USD (3,000 yen) for women; beginner-level classes, 38 USD (6,000 yen); intermediate level, 51 USD (8,000 yen); female models, free (with a 6 USD (1,000 yen) voucher for the salon).
Private sessions cost about 190 USD (30,000 yen) for 2.5 hours. Group classes range from 253 to 316 USD (40,000 to 50,000 yen) for groups of two or three people.
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