This Japanese Artist’s Rope Bondage Performance Straddles S&M and Art

Kinbaku-bi, a Japanese style of rope bondage, translates to “the beauty of tight binding.“ The practice—part erotica, part avant-garde performance—originated from a rope-based martial art called Hojojutsu in feudal-era Japan. Today, kinbaku-bi artists are redefining the art for a modern audience, toeing the line between underground S&M and artistic tradition. Kinoko Hajime, one of Japan’s foremost practitioners of kinbaku-bi, recently held a performance at the Museum of Sex in NYC. We paid him a visit to