TOKYO BONDAGE REPORT
Exclusive Interview: Akechi Denki 
On July 3, 2005, Osada Steve had the honor and good fortune to interview Akechi Denki,
arguably the most accomplished nawashi in Japan,
just two weeks before the great rope master passed away on July 17, 2005.
What follows is an English summary of their discussion.
Osada Eikichi Kinbaku Live Show
This video is both important and amazing.
Important because it's one of the few recordings
ever made of sensei Osada Eikichi's (1925 - 2001) famous shibari act.
Amazing because of the energy and fire of the act itself.
Bondage painting report-An encounter with a SM subject
| Last summer, at a meeting organized by an SM club, I got acquainted with an SM subject. The meeting had as its main attraction demonstrations of pantom ime, dancing and other spectacles of an "avant-garde" nature. Half way through the event, everybody recessed for intermission. The "halftime show" that was sandwiched in between consisted of a bondage session held to the accom paniment of techno-beat music. A small lady with angel-like wings clipped to her back began tying up another lady in a one-piece suit. For those used to seeing professional-level displays of SM bondage, what unfolded was nothing worthy of comment. Except for one little detail, when a weird sensation briefly pervaded the area. The whole spectacle unwound in the area of the seats where the audience was seated. The area was jam-packed with spectators, and it just so happened that the lady whom the SM artist wearing the wings decided to tie up was a spectator who happened to be seated nearby. This spectator, who only a short while ago had been chatting with her friends, suddenly became gloomy and serious when the rope was put on her. At first glance, she seemed to be saying with her body that she wanted none of this. However, a look at her eyes said that something inside had snapped. Her friends seated nearby also became aware that a weird transformation had occurred to this lady. |
Exclusive report from the Apron Club, a self-proclaimed society of SM fans
| A blue plastic sheet has been spread across the floor of the condo. A totally naked lady is on her fours and has her ass pointed upwards, wagging it and barking as if she were a dog. A dominatrix, in leather clothing and w ith tattoos emblazoned all over her body, inserts a gloved finger into the lady's anus. She manages to slip one finger, then two fingers into her asshole. "Erica, you really one horny gal. How many more fingers can I slip up your ass?" By now, the dominatrix has managed to insert four of her fingers up the butt hole. She wiggles her fingers in and out of the asshole while at the same time continuing to verbally tease Erica. Erica howls with pleasure and grasps for breath. The dominatrix continues to plunge her four fingers in and out of the anus while messaging the genital area with the other hand. The victim continues to squeal like an animal. The dominatrix grines as she notes the commotion she is causing with her finger motions. |
"Love, women, and rope"-the Tanbi Kai in action
| At the end of August, the Tanbi Kai (Aesthetics Society) held one of its meetings at a basement studio. The venue was Yostuya San-chome, in the heart of downtown Tokyo. The Tanbi Kai is a club of SM enthusiasts led by Rope Master Eizo Chiba. A few times each month, the Tanbi Kai holds get-togethers where masochistic women are paraded in front of club members and do their thing. The three ladies who were the star attractions of tonight's show all were students of Eizo Chiba, in their mid-twenties, who had been taught the basics of bondage by the Master. Their names are Miyu, Miei, and Ibarako. At first glance, these ladies seem like ordinary gals, the last people on earth who would bother to take up bondage. A talk with them revealed that they were not interested in SM activities purely as a means for expressing their sexuality. In addition to tying up men and women with SM proclivities, they frequently applied rope to non-living things. Poles holding up telephone and power lines, pianos, stuffed objects, tamagotchis, and even food such as tofu are all fair game for these ladies. And even when they do apply the rope to living beings, they treat their subject as if it were a non-living object. The threesome whom we interviewed in the course of this report seemed to be interested mainly in the creation of unreal art forms that exploit the contradictions created by the juxtaposition of scenes from everyday life with the bizarre and surreal. Thus, tonight's events, which were billed as "Bondage night," are more like an exhibition of these girls' skills in front of a general audience. Eizo Chiba has been invited as a special guest to tonight's show, to perform alongside with Ayah. Over a year has elapsed since the two last performed together. |
Erotic tears: the tale of Saotome Hiromi, Japan's undisputed self-immobilization queen
| "This story begins in the depths of a wooded area in the mountains way up north. Two hungry foxes leap out from the woods, in search of something to eat. The pair consists of a he-fox and his female counterpart, a vixen. The he-fox was in the habit of tormenting his mate night and day. At first, the vixen detested the sadistic practices of her boyfriend. But gradually, she came to expect, and eventually long for the brutal advances of the he-fox." The above account is heard being piped in the background. A lady wearing a spotless white kimono and a fox-shaped mask appears on stage. While prancing about on stage in rhythm with music, she greets the spectators and walks toward the center of the stage. Taking off her mask, the lady smiles beamingly. A man, also wearing a fox-shaped mask, next appears on stage. Grasping the lady's hands, the guy leisurely proceeds to tie up her hands and her feet. With her ankles and wrists immobilized, the lady is in no time at all suspended from mid-air. Tugging on the end of the rope used to immobilize the lady, the man shakes her about. The kimono slips off in response to the undulations, and the spotlight falls on untanned, pasty buttocks and a pair of well-developed boobs. The man briefly cuts loose the lady in order to disrobe her totally. He then once more suspends her with her facing pointing downwards. The man proceeds to pick up a huge candle with a bell appended to it and uses it to drip globules of wax onto the lady's back. Although she occasionally grimaces from the pain, the lady in general continues to wear that Cheshire-cat smile throughout the whole performance. |
Akechi Denki's Odyssey to Chichibu
| It was a Sunday in late June. The place? Chichibu, in northwestern Saitama prefecture (about 60 miles from Tokyo). The event? Master Akechi Denki's bondage show. We at KIKKOU got up early in the morning in order to see this show. Our trip began at 9:30 am at the Seibu Railway Station in Ikebukuro, in the northwestern section of central Tokyo. We got on the Red Arrow Limited Express train headed for Chichibu. The day before, the Tokyo metropolitan area had been hit by a typhoon, an uncommon occurrence in June. But thanks to the typhoon, Mother Nature seemed to have temporarily exhausted its supply of rain for today. Not a cloud in the sky was evident this Sunday morning. As our train wound its way through the mountainous terrain, the rays of the sun glinted off the green leaves of the trees, which caused us some problems with glare as we sat in the train. This was not the first time that we at KIKKOU had the honor of being able to see Master Akechi Denki's show. In December 1996, we were able to see Akechi perform. And even after that, we were invited back on numerous occasions. For example, we were able to see him perform at the theater D in Shibuya, performing the skit "James Bondage Dies Twice." Akechi also found the time to do things such as producing bondage videos with his long-time photo editor and producer, Motonobu Takasu. And more recently, he was able to fulfill one of his long-held dreams by opening up a hard core SM salon of his own. The event to which we were invited today, namely a bondage show held at a hot springs in Chichibu, marks its 10th anniversary this year. Having arrived at Chichibu, we now change trains and get on the Chichibu Line train. We get off the train three stops later, at a small station called Kuroya. From there, it is but a five minute walk to the hotel near the hot springs where the bondage show is to be held. The hotel's name is a plain old "S." It is located atop a cliff situated at the confluence of the Yokose and Arakawa Rivers. The picturesque scenery provides the perfect accompaniment for the wild bondage show that is planned for today. |
We bring you the following report from SM Salon JAM
run by Ran Amano
| The following is an extract from a private party staged by the "queen" (female artist specializing in sadistic activities) Ran Amano, and her SM salon JAM. The party, going by the name "8 p.m. to the wee hours of the night," was staged in a modernistic hotel located in the vicinity of Tokyo's Disneyland amusement park. The trend in recent years has been for "queens" such as Ran to disassociate themselves from clubs and "go solo." That is, these ladies have tried to stake out their fortunes on their own, and start up SM clubs and salons on their own, or otherwise found other outlets for expressing their SM proclivities. "Queens" such as Ran have also performed in many video clips, and Ran also happens to enjoy close and stimulating relationships with bondage artists. The very fact that Ran, as well as other "queens," with distinctive personalities demonstrates that the industry as a whole has become increasingly bold and comfort in asserting a distinctive identity as professional SM artists. Of course, it could be that this boom in the demand for SM artists has been sustained by a parallel increase in the number of guys with masochistic activities. However, it has to be remembered that few guys, even those who are genuinely masochistic, enjoy being attacked or degraded by total strangers. Most such people get a kick out of being "exploited" by someone whom they love or who loves them. This is why both guys and gals usually find it very difficult to form substantive relations in SM clubs. Perhaps this has accelerated the trend for professional SM "queens" to disassociate themselves from clubs and go solo, so that they are enabled to engage in fulfilling SM play and establish satisfactory relationships with their partners ("slaves"). What's behind this recent upsurge in "queens" trying to stake out a fortune by themselves? This is what we aim to find out in this report. |
Bondage Performer Osada Eikichi's life story, "Prologue of SMBD"
| Strains of the album produced by Andy Warhol, "Velvet Underground and Nico," can be heard emanating from the stage. A young woman with long hair walks onto the stage. Her white one-piece suit contrasts sharply with her red lipstick. A long rope, hooked onto a beam perched up around the ceiling, dangles about in front of the young lady. A short guy carrying a long strand of rope walks onto the stage. He ties up the young lady in a jiffy, immobilizing her hands in the process. The victim is then made to get on her fours, as if she were a horse. The maiden in distress writhes in pain, struggle to regain her freedom of movement. Her tormentor forces her to disrobe, while continuing to tug on the rope as if it were a leash. The young lady's hands are next bound behind her back. The man manipulating her then pulls on her cheeks with both hands. This forces the young lady to do a sit-up, so that her upper body stands vertical in relation to the floor. This position allows the man with the rope to hook it around her breasts. Pulling tightly on the rope further accentuates their budge. Without hesitation, another part of the rope is stuck into her mouth, and the poor girl is forced to clamp down on it as if it were a bridle. The presence of the rope in her mouth causes her to gag and gasp for breath. The look on her face is almost animal-like. The young lady's "trainer" tugs once more on the rope. This causes the young lady to arch her back in the shape of a bow, and her suit, already in pieces, falls off to reveal her pale thighs. This sight provokes her tormentor to flagellate her thighs with a whip that is conveniently at hand. The lady reacts to this provocation by leaning sideways, in an effort to avoid the business end of the whip. The whip lashes out again, and this time, it squarely nails its target. The victim muffles a cry of pain. Sparing no effort in his dastardly attack on the girl, the man next removes what remains of the victim's suit so that he can redirect his attack to her buttocks. He begins to spank them with his bare hands. The man next switches his focus to the audience, hoping to elicit from them a reaction. The spectators, which number about 100 in all, seem to be satisfied by this outburst of violence. Of course, they ain't seen nothin' yet. The venerable grand master of SM, Eikichi Osada, has just started his show. These are nothing but the opening preliminaries. |
Chiba Eizo's show, "Seiyu Once Again."
| "The Bastardly Boob Hanger." This is the nickname which Eizo Chiba has come to be known by, beginning from this year or so. The reason? A series of articles printed in the magazine "S&M Sniper," running under the title "The adolescence of Kiriko, a died-in-the-wool Masochist." The exploits that Eizo performed on his subject in these articles went far beyond the realm of ordinary enthusiasts, and were enough to satisfy even the most hard-core SM maniacs. The photos included with these articles spoke for themselves. In these skits, Eizo had his subject secured with nothing but multiple strands of rope around the boobs. When suspended from the ceiling, the ropes would contract around the breasts, causing them to turn red. As the subject was pulled upwards, higher and higher, the redness in the breasts would turn into a purplish, and then eventually a blackish color, with all the blood being dammed up in those tits with no place to go. It was a spectacle that was enough to make the spectators on the scene sick to their stomachs. But it also ensured that Eizo's name would become a household name in the SM business, familiar even to the uninitiated. Chiba Eizo's show was scheduled for the final few weeks of 1996, a time when everybody is thinking and talking about other, more festive things(?). I arrived at his underground studio several hours before his skit was to begin, and asked for permission to sit in as a guest to cover the proceedings as a reporter. The place was packed with equipment and people getting ready for the show, and I took a seat in an inconspicuous corner of the place, and waited for the event to begin. The studio, a rather spacious place, looked like it could easily hold more than 50 spectators. Up above the stage, which was carpeted with tatami mats, there loomed a long beam. From this beam was suspended a seat-shaped frame that would serve as the receptacle for accommodating the subject of tonight's show. The seat had attached to it two hemp ropes for buckling down the star of tonight's show. Master Chiba, who is busy scurrying about the place with the final preparations for the show, takes care to see that his crew is not too tensed up by chatting with them as they get ready. Contrary to what one might expect of someone who makes a living by tying up other people, the Master behind the stage is a mild-mannered man. Hearing him speak, one would think that his true profession was a butler or a valet. With all of the preparation work complete, the spectators for tonight's show come flowing into the studio. The place soon becomes packed, and with all the bodies crammed into such a confined area, the place becomes rather warm. In the midst of all this commotion, I somehow manage to stay seated, and wait for the show to commence. Soon enough, the lights flicker, and the MC goes through the formalities marking the start of the show. The spotlight is tilted toward the stage to reveal the Master, Chiba Eizo and the subject that he will tie up (we'll call her here Miss M). Tonight's show, dedicated to the memory one of the godfathers of the bondage business, Seiu Ito, has gotten underway. |
Live report on Akechi Denki's show
"Heaven and Hell-an orgy of pleasure and pain,
love and domination, and just plain craziness"
| Today, we feature a report on one of Japan's premier "quick-tying artists," Aketti Denki, and his live bondage act, entitled "Heaven and Hell." This run of "Heaven and Hell" was held on a cold, November day, whose weather reminded us of the fact that Christmas was not less than a month away. The venue for today's show was a studio located on the highest (fourth) floor of a building in Nakano (a Tokyo suburb) frequently rented for various types of entertainment spectacles. The studio itself is a cramped and dingy place. An audience of twenty people would easily fill up the entire place, and the only thing that separates the spectators and the stage is a small curtain. This is not the average type of place for holding a show. But then, Aketti's act is anything but average. Of the handful (less than ten) "quick-tying artists" who make their living in Japan, Master Aketti is the only one who enjoys the privilege of holding the special title "Master of the Rope." Master Aketti, who freely confesses that he holds a fetish-like attraction for anything having to do with ropes, has managed to gain this title through the incorporation of innovative techniques in his show. His compulsive desire to achieve perfection in tying his subject often gives the impression to even the casual spectator that he is engaging in a sublime act, akin to love-making, with the subject on stage. A firmly built chair can be seen in front of the stage, tilted slightly forward in the direction of the audience's seats. A florescent lamp, emitting a bluish light can be seen attached to the back of this chair. At 3 p.m., the lights in the studio are extinguished, signaling the start of the act. The seats, which were virtually empty up until only about half an hour ago, are now packed to capacity. The florescent lamp, hanging above the chair, glows ominously. One of the Master's assistants hands over a bamboo rod, about 50 cm. long, to a spectator sitting in the front row. From behind the curtains, the subject to participate in tonight's show (we'll call her Miss M) emerges. She is blindfolded and bound. Holding her hand, one of the show assistants leads Miss M to the front of the stage. Wearing red stockings and red underwear, Miss M is tied up to the chair with the area between her thighs wide exposed for viewing. A member of the staff now asks the spectator wielding the bamboo rod to start poking at the immobilized Miss M. The spectator is directed to aim his thrusts at her boobs and pussy. The guy gleefully jabs away at Miss M's private parts. Miss M, who has had to go through the ordeal of being bound, now is confronted by this poking. Low-pitched groans start emanating from her mouth. Egged on by these grunts, the guy with the stick relentlessly stabs away. While in the midst of this stabbing frenzy, the curtain is suddenly raised. From the curtain emerges Master Aketti Denki, standing tall like a mighty giant over a helpless captive. |
Live bondage show, featuring Randa Mai
| In this report, we bring you scenes from rope artist Randa Mai's live bondage show, which was staged in mid-September in downtown Tokyo at a hotel frequently used for such spectacles. On the day of Mai's show, the weather was bad, with strong winds and intermittent rain marring the event. But despite the foul weather, Mai's bondage show was packed with reporters and other people from the media. When describing Mai, the adjective most frequently used has been "up-and-coming." In fact, this has been overworked to the point that it has virtually become an integral part of his name. And in fact, this adjective, "up and coming," has stuck because since his debut, no other guy has appeared to challenge his status of being the new kid on the block. All concerned acknowledge that there are no other claimants to the title of "The Number One Up and Coming Performer" in the bondage business. On second thought though, Mai's handle, "the up and coming guy," has over the years, become somewhat of a misnomer. Mai is already in his mid-thirties, and he has over twenty years of experience as a bondage artist. He began his career as a bondage specialist when he was still in high school, and he admits that his first play partner was "a high school classmate." Despite his age, Mai still has not lost his youthful enthusiasm for the art. He is brimming with many ideas on how to revitalize the bondage business. Currently, the SMBD business in Japan is divided into two opposing schools of thought. One camp emphasizes the formal, traditional aspects of rope-tying as has been practiced in Japan over the centuries. The other conceives of SMBD as an esoteric art that should remain the exclusive preserve of a few select devotees. Mai seeks to stake out a middle ground between these two extremes. His emphatic belief is that "SMBD is not the exclusive preserve of just a few enthusiasts. Nor should it be seen as an aberration practiced by perverts. SMBD is a normal and universal way of expressing the sexuality that lies within us all." Mai's goal is to make SMBD a common, everyday way to express our sexuality, while at the same time establishing its credentials as a form of sexual entertainment in its own right. In his quest to popularize SMBD, Mai has been active on many fronts. He has appeared on major television network programs to explain what SMBD is about, as well as collaborating with people such as Dan Oniroku (who is acknowledged to be one of the prime writers on the subject of SMBD) and photographer Gaku Fukada to produce a promotional CD-ROM on the subject of SMBD. He also has started to release SMBD-related information on the Internet. In the near future, Mai seeks to practice his art in distant lands such as Europe and America. This edition of the Tokyo Bondage Report brings you excerpts mainly from the press conference that was held immediately after Mai's show. We hope that you will be able to get a better idea of just exactly what kind of a guy Mai is after reading this report. |