Steve performing in Tokyo with Aya-chan
2025.01.11 –
Happy New Year! Saturday evening classes and gatherings are ongoing. Drop us a line to be included!
Are you in the Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Taos, or nearby in Northern NM and interested in exploring the arts of Japanese Kinbaku, Shibari, and Semenawa? We continue to be available for private or group instruction on most Friday or Saturday evenings. Reach out to us via email or the contact form to express your interest. Let’s deepen the connection and beauty through the conversation of Dominant and submissive energy. KinbakuNM offers a safe and welcoming space for those intrigued by Japanese rope bondage. Join us to learn, practice, and enhance your skills in a no-pressure environment where communication and consent are paramount. Connect with us to experience the connective, sensual, and artistic aspects of Kinbaku.
Thanks!
Kinbaku (緊縛) is a Japanese style of BDSM Rope Bondage. Rope is used to bind (tie) a person in a way which enhances connection, encourages submission, and emphasizes beauty.
Shibari is the Japanese word for tying or binding something. You can shibari your shoes. Shibari a bunch of flowers or a package. It simply means to tie. As applied to bondage, Shibari can be considered to be the pattern or method of tying.
Kinbaku is a bit more complicated. The definition we still see tossed about, and not entirely correct, is “tight binding”. More appropriate in English would be “to restrain”.
Anyone who believes, or continues to teach about Kinbaku as “traditional” or a “centuries-old art” is entirely misinformed. The Kanji for Kinbaku first appeared in the Japanese language in the 1890s. It was assimilated from the Chinese language, used at the time to describe the medical concept of applying a tourniquet. In relation to kink-play, Kinbaku first appeared in the language during the 1950s. Hardly “centuries old”.
The primary difference is – one can tie (shibari) their shoes, but can you restrain (kinbaku) them?
Japanese Kinbaku is more than just the rope or the patterns. It is a Conversation of Dominant and submissive Connection between the Top (person tying) and bottom (person being tied). Body, Mind, and Emotion. Displaying and enhancing the beauty of the person being tied. And always with a focus on the connective energy (“Ki” 気), deepening the relationship, the bond between Top and bottom.
Kinbaku is Connective, Sensual, and Sexual. It can also be Artistic, Soothing, Stimulating, and Tormenting/Punishing (Semenawa).
KinbakuNM offers:
- Instruction in Japanese Kinbaku, Shibari, and Semenawa
- Basic Rope Bondage for Couples/Beginners
- Space for Play for up to 15 people
- Rope Bondage Social & Play Events
Kinbaku New Mexico was founded in 2015 as a group dedicated to the practice of Kinbaku, Semenawa, and Shibari, the Sensual Arts of Japanese Erotic Rope Bondage. Since 2015, Kinbaku New Mexico Juku Santa Fe remains as the first and longest-running dedicated rope space in NM.
Based in Santa Fe, NM – our ongoing mission is to be a resource for training and education, exchange of information, and networking for students and practitioners of Japanese Kinbaku in Santa Fe, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Texas, and others throughout the Southwestern U.S.
Click Here For More About Joining KNM
KinbakuNM provides a safe, welcoming, and non-judgmental space for those who are interested in Japanese rope bondage. Our goal is to bring together people interested in Shibari, Kinbaku, and Semenawa, the Japanese arts of bondage – where all rope bondage lovers and practitioners can learn, practice, and enhance their skills.
KinbakuNM welcomes everyone, and encourages a no-pressure environment where communication is key for any class or play. KNM believes that like all kink play, rope bondage requires a consent culture. No one will tie or be tied without prior consent and negotiation.