What does it really mean to step into a Japanese rope bar - and how
do you do it without getting it wrong? In this episode, Mya and Fox
speak with Nuit de Tokyo, whose engagement with Japanese rope spans
more than three decades. His learning has come through formal
training, deep cultural immersion, and proximity to source:
watching over a thousand SM performances, performing publicly, and
absorbing the unspoken knowledge that circulates in bars, backstage
spaces, and long-standing communities. This is a conversation about
time, continuity, and lineage - and what Western practitioners
often miss. We explore: • Nuit de Tokyo’s journey from Paris to
Tokyo via martial arts • Discovering SM and rope in the
pre-internet era, through rare publications and bondage books • Key
differences between European and Japanese rope scenes • What a
Japanese rope bar actually is, and why bar culture matters in Tokyo
• How rope bars work, event etiquette, and how to attend
respectfully • The biggest cultural missteps Westerners make - and
how to avoid them • How poetry, Confucian social structures,
morality, and Japanese banquet culture inform modern shibari •
Dispelling the persistent myth that shibari originates from
Hojojutsu Insightful, grounded, and essential listening for anyone
curious about rope culture beyond the surface. Nuit de Tokyo first
traveled to Japan in 1989 and began collecting kinbaku books the
following year, an archive that has since grown into the thousands.
By the early 2000s, during a second extended stay, his Japanese
language skills allowed him to move beyond observation and into
lived experience within the Tokyo SM scene, where studio time, late
nights, and long conversations became part of his education. His
training is rooted in long-term study rather than brief encounters.
A formative lesson with Akechi Kanna in 2005 marked a turning
point, and when Kanna came out of retirement in 2010, NdT undertook
several years of structured training across the full cursus under
him. In parallel, he studied continuously for nine years with
Yukimura Haruki, an extended apprenticeship that profoundly shaped
his technical approach and his understanding of lineage,
transmission, and responsibility within rope.
Kommentare (0)
Melde dich an, um einen Kommentar zu schreiben.