---
title: "Cultural assimilation in shibari themes"
date: 2026-10-22
author: "Sr. Interior (流庵殿)"
intro_image: "https://shibari-dojo.online/images/lectures/lct0102en_sq.webp"
fulltext_image: "https://shibari-dojo.online/images/lectures/lct0102en_lg.webp"
categories:
  - name: "Lectures"
    url: "https://shibari-dojo.online/lec-en.md"
tags:
  - name: "Shibari in society"
    url: "https://shibari-dojo.online/tags/shibari-in-society.md"
---

# Cultural assimilation in shibari themes

![Cultural assimilation in shibari themes](https://shibari-dojo.online/images/lectures/lct0102en_lg.webp)

In this article we look at the proliferation of images that imitate greeting cards or typical seasonal scenes as Christmas approaches.

 ![Christmas image of a person tied with red ropes and Christmas lights](https://shibari-dojo.online/images/lectures/lct0102_01.webp) Christmas image with red ropes and lights.

 Globalization and cultural assimilation are a fact, whether we like it or not. As Christmas approaches, anyone scrolling through their social media timeline comes across plenty of “Santas,” “Christmas” and assorted greetings so typical of the season.

 **But are these references really that typical?**

 In Spanish-speaking countries, for example, people come from a Catholic tradition in which the birth of the “baby Jesus,” nativity scenes and the family gathering are what characterize the festive Christmas spirit.

 By contrast, the elements mentioned at the start of the article belong more to **Anglo-Saxon, Protestant or Lutheran cultures**.

 And when we turn to shibari, we find that in recent years, as Christmas approaches, images imitating greeting cards or seasonal scenes have multiplied.

 Something that would fit the idiosyncrasies of Anglo-Saxon culture, but that is very striking when it comes from Latin Americans and, even more so, from the Japanese.

 We can laugh or we can complain, but that won’t change reality: **popular Christmas folklore has become established as a theme within shibari**.

 Shibari, as a narrative genre—whether written, graphic or in a sequential language such as film—is characterized, among other things, by being structured into “themes.”

 In the second edition of *Japonorama* we listed some of **Itoh Seiu**’s favorite themes, which makes it clear that themes have been one of its hallmarks from the start, and that they took shape over the course of the *Showa* era.

 They were traditional themes, very Japanese despite their universality.

 The aesthetics, the forms, the composition and the message took us as viewers to an idealized **Empire of the Rising Sun**, remote, exotic and beautiful in its brutality.

 A representative example: the theme of “bodies tied in the snow” has been present in shibari through every era it has passed through, though with a visible evolution.

 If in Itoh Seiu’s time it captured the beauty and purity of snowflakes in nature, equating it with the beauty and transience of bound bodies, today it reflects the incongruity and contrast of frozen snow on urban asphalt.

 ![A bound person kneeling in the snow at night](https://shibari-dojo.online/images/lectures/lct0102_02.webp) Shibari in the snow.

 With the *Heisei* era (1989–2019), shibari gradually absorbed Western influences and took on new forms, styles and techniques. It was the period when it left Japan and reached Western audiences on a mass scale.

 One example of this process is the theme known as *hashira*, in which a person is tied to a wooden pillar in a traditional house.

 In past eras it was an unpretentious device: when a production took place in a traditional setting, the elements at hand were used without further complications.

 But when it reached the West, many minds were captivated by the beauty and intensity of *hashira*, and it ended up becoming a specific technique, with instructors teaching workshops on it and well-defined rules of the game; it thus became one of the new “themes” of *Heisei*-era shibari.

 ![A bound person in a Santa Claus costume next to a Christmas tree](https://shibari-dojo.online/images/lectures/lct0102_03.webp) Christmas shibari in a Santa Claus costume.

 We are now in the *Reiwa* era which, despite its name (harmony), is proving turbulent and contradictory. And that can be seen in the way Japanese shibari mixes traditional values with Western references without order or judgment.

 ![A person suspended with ropes in a dark room](https://shibari-dojo.online/images/lectures/lct0102_04.webp) Rope suspension.

 It is in this cultural blender that we find the proliferation of Christmas imagery, with the following clichés taking center stage:

 **Christmas cards.** Replicas of the cards that families in films use to decorate their mantelpieces.

 **Ornaments and decorations.** Everything gets mixed here, from imitating a Christmas tree to replacing ropes with strings of twinkling lights.

 **Christmas ero-cosplay.** Whether as Santa Claus or a reindeer, adapting Christmas characters to erotic fantasy and putting them in bondage is by now a classic.

 ![A person tied and wrapped in Christmas lights](https://shibari-dojo.online/images/lectures/lct0102_05.webp) Christmas shibari with Christmas lights.

 Any other variations? If you know of other versions of Christmas shibari, write and tell us about them and we will add them to this article.

 You may love Christmas or you may reject these celebrations for a thousand and one reasons. That is your choice, just as you may enjoy these themed images or find them utterly stupid.

 Either way, they are one more example of how shibari as a “hobby” is becoming part of life and society and moving away from the dark dens where it grew up in the *Showa* era.

 Mind you: this isn’t about mixing everything up and swallowing it whole like geese on a foie gras farm.

 
## Normalization or trivialization

 Is this trend a reflection of the normalization and visibility of shibari as an erotic practice, or rather a sign of its gradual transformation into an **exotic pastime**?

 Both options are fully valid and respectable, as long as we are clear about where we stand, approach the practice of Japanese bondage honestly and it turns out to be a satisfying experience for everyone involved, spectators included.

 **Trivializing erotic practices carries risks that, if not managed properly, can affect our interactions: lowering their quality, reducing the satisfaction we get from them or—worse still—damaging our capacity to feel desire**.


## Custom Fields

**Content Type — The formal and communicative nature of a piece of content, based on its documentary function.:** Article

**Knowledge Type — The nature of knowledge according to its role within practice.:** Scene

**Field of Study — The specific area of practice that the content focuses on.:** History

**Corpus — A structured body of reference knowledge that underpins the content.:** Industry

**Criteria — A cross-cutting perspective that defines the emphasis or intent from which the content is approached.:** Entertainment

**Summary — A brief synthesis of the content that presents its main topics, purpose, or most relevant aspects.:** Christmas shibari as an example of how its themes evolve between Japan and the West, between normalization and trivialization.