If 5 days of intensive training with Osada Steve appeals, you had better be quick as the first course for 14-20 April sold out in 24 hours! Assuming you haven’t been living under a rock or totally disinterested in kinbaku, he will need no introduction. If the former, you can find out more on his site or on his blog. If the latter, what are you doing here?
Please be aware that the minimum requirement is to be able to tie a three rope Osada Steve/Kinoko Hajime style takate-kote competently. If you are not confident that you can and already have some grounding in authentic shibari techiques, I am running a class on Saturday 7 April to address this, book here.
Course syllabus
The course will consist of 5 hours tuition per day, plus breaks.
Kazari Nawa (飾り縄)
In Shibari, what separates the men from the boys is not the size of their toys but their mastery of kazari nawa. Osada Steve will explain the principles behind kazari and offer exercises that help develop kazari skills.
Yokozuri (横吊り)
The focus will be on achieving comfortable suspensions that are beautiful to look at.
Futomomo-zuri (太腿吊り)
This thigh suspension requires absolute accuracy of rope placement and is very demanding (read: potentially painful) for the “model”.
Hojojutsu/hobakujutsu (捕縄術/捕縛術) ties
Shibari (縛り) and kinbaku (緊縛) are based on centuries-old hoshu hojojutsu (捕手捕縄術) which was one of the 18 warrior skills (bugei juhappan, 武芸十八般) of the samurai. An intro into hojo-style ties is given and the historical concepts will be explained.
Newaza (寝技) techniques
These techniques will mainly be based on Yukimura-ryu (雪村流) and are meant to increase the emotional connection between two partners through the medium of rope.