News and reviews: what is happening on the shibari scene

From October 8 to 12, 2026, Tokyo hosted the photo exhibition “The World of Yukimura Haruki: 10 Years After His Death,” devoted to the kinbaku (緊縛) master Yukimura Haruki (雪村春樹), who had died a decade earlier. The show was organized and curated by his son, the photographer Higurashi Keisuke (日暮圭介), and was split between two venues.

The “Clara” soap opera continues. Previously on: rope sold under the “CLARA Esinem” brand and produced between 2024 and 2025 has a serious quality problem: it breaks after only a few uses. After repeated complaints on social media, the distributor withdrew the whole batch from the market, acknowledging a manufacturing defect.

In July 2026, the online publication Kinbaku Today presented an archive of historical Japanese SM magazines, with issues from the fifties and sixties that can be viewed online.

The Kinbaku Society of Berlin (KSB) is a European collective of people interested in studying kinbaku and its sociocultural setting, from its origins to its current evolution, and the print magazine it has published since 2019.

Yūgen Studio Magazine (Yūgen SM) is a print shibari kinbaku magazine born at Yūgen Studio, the space devoted to bondage and Japanese culture that Federico Kirigami and Marta Tenshiko run in Milan (Italy).

Midori is a key figure on the international kink scene: writer, educator, performer, activist and committed. Her books, workshops and talks are a reference around the world.

Kita Reiko (喜多玲子), a pseudonym of Minomura Kou (美濃村晃), is the creator of this illustration titled Ten Positions of a Naked Tied Woman and one of the great reference figures in the history of shibari.

During Japan’s decades of rapid economic growth, love hotels became a characteristic presence in the country’s urban landscape and popular culture.

Kitan Club (奇譚クラブ) is a Japanese magazine unique in the history of postwar popular and fetish culture in Japan.

Go, Go, Second Time Virgin (ゆけゆけ二度目の処女, Yuke Yuke Nidome no Shojo, 1969), directed by Wakamatsu Koji, is a raw, disturbing work that tells the story of two teenagers, Poppo and Tsukio, whose lives are marked by trauma and violence.

On May 30, 2023, Shura: Rope Sisters (しゅら -縄の姉妹-), a film directed by Tohjiro, premiered at the Theater Guild Daikanyama in Tokyo, continuing his attempt to build bridges between the most extreme porn and independent auteur cinema.

The historical link between shibari and the porn industry is a historical fact, even if some would like to deny it.

Far from B- or Z-grade productions, Murder on D Street (D坂の殺人事件) is a true work of art.

This delightful 1969 film, Blind Beast (Moju, 盲獣), is a complete guide to understanding the delicate aesthetic blend the Japanese call “grotesque” (or “guturesque,” depending on who says it).

The International Shibari Film Festival (ISFF) held its first edition on July 2 at the Cinéma Aventure in Brussels. It was organized by the Belgian collective Atelier Mae and served as the opening night of Graines de Cordes III, a four-day gathering held in Namur.

In May 1936, police in Tokyo arrested a woman at an inn who was carrying her lover’s severed penis wrapped in her kimono.

The period around the turn of the year is busy in Japan, since New Year is celebrated twice within a few weeks: once following the Western calendar and once following the Chinese calendar.

The sixth edition of Japonorama, for September 2024. This edition covers, among other things, the Onawa Asobi festival and Tenma Haru’s shibari style.

This special summer edition of Japonorama brings together a selection of the venues that, in Shibari Dojo’s view, should be visited on a shibari tour of Japan.

Japonorama for January and February 2024: Akechi Kanna and his Kinbaku Salon in Tokyo, a photo session with Hourai Kasumi in the snow, the memorial for Yukimura Haruki and the special edition of Coco Ropes.

Japonorama for January 2024: the death of the model Kasumi Kana, the Fetish Bar Arcadia anniversary, SM Night 2 and a talk on shibari between Yagami Ren and Tenma Haru.

Japonorama for December 2023: Hajime Kinoko’s North American tour and the reissue of Itoh Seiu’s work.

Japonorama is the section dedicated to news, events and curiosities from the Japanese shibari scene.