History of Shibari Bondage

The history of Shibari started with illustrations from the Art known as Hojojutsu, a martial art practiced by the Samurais.
So that we can understand it better, we should go back in the past, to the most obscure period of Medieval Japan, where these arts were practiced on the war camps. This practice resumed itself in capturing and detaining the enemy in the faster possible way, using the ropes. On the study of this art, the Samurais specialized themselves in extremely cruel methods of torture.

In the beginning of the 17th century, Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) was the governor, one of the most intelligent Nobunaga’s partisan. He turned himself into the most powerful man in Japan, and breaking his own promises, he turned against Hideyoshi’s (the young Hideyori), to become the Country’s center of power. During Tokugawa’s government, there were four ways of torture that were very common: lashes, heavy stones pressuring parts of the prisoner’s body, restriction of movements and hanging using ropes. The ropes were used to cause restriction of blood circulation, immobilization and humiliating positions for the prisoners.

In this technique, ropes of different kinds and colors were used, in order to identify the crime that the prisoner had committed, and also his social class. The last descriptive images of old Hobaku-Jutsu techniques were found at Matsumoto Castle, where the cruel and violent techniques started to be eventually applied for sexual and aesthetical proposals.

The first illustration where the Hobaku-Jutsu was used for sexual proposals appeared in the ending of Edo’s period. It was an epoch when Japan started to open its doors to the world, and the occidental concepts reached the nation. From that time on, this torture techniques are still used to cause pleasure, beauty and sensuality. In sexual fantasies, ropes were a symbol of power and control over women.

During the Second World War, Japaneses had a close contact with Germans and learned several sadomasochism concepts from the Occident as well as all legacy from the Marquis de Sade. When they incorporated all of it to their old torture techniques, it was created the concept of aesthetic, beauty and sensuality of the art, which is known today as Shibari.

In 1960, Shibari’s popularity had grown to a level where special sessions at theaters were organized. In Tokyo people paid to see a Master tying his dorei (slave). The Master could even choose a girl from the audience, undress her, tie, suspend and sexually torture her, in front of all the spectators.

Shibari is an art that till nowadays is appreciated by many people, and one of the most beautiful on BDSM scenario.

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