Articles: What is Shibari? | Hans & Selena | Shibari lessons
Bondage Garden - Shibari Art
On these pages we will try to inform you about the unique Shibari art.
The Shibari Experience
Ukiyo - The Floating World
"Ukiyo" - sometimes also called "Karyukai" ("the world of flowers and willows") - is the 17th century Japanese concept that allows for temporary escape from the strictly organised every day world. "Ukiyo" too is strictly regulated but totally opposite from daily life.
Illustration: Rare Ukyio-e 17th century woodblock print with bondage motive."Ukiyo" - partially a real world that takes shape in tea parlours and "geisha distrticts", partially a more abstract concept - provides room for the emotional world, where emotions (contrary to the west) are not labelled positive or negative. I.e., emotions without judgment. This is where the Kabuki theater, Haiku poetry, drawing, restaurants, theaters, tea parlours, geisha and even prostitution came together.
"Ukiyo" is a melting pot of beauty, eroticism en creativity that in some wways can be compared to the Parisian bohemian and artictic world of the late 19th and early 20th century where people like Picasso, Dali, Hemingway and the Parisian "courtisanes" thrived.
"Ukiyo" has roots in "Kama", one of the three fundamental Buddhistic levels: "Dharma" (the spiritual, divine), "Arthe" (the social, economical) and "Kama" (the physical, sexual). These form and integral, equally important total. The undisturbed and untamed raw emotions from Kama simply take another, appropriate shape and form in "Arthe" and "Dharma".
Shibari - The Weaving
Illustration: CD cover for Emilie Autumn in Gothic Lolita bondage style."Shibari" is a form of art, dating back to the 13th century and possibly further back. "Sculpting with a living woman" probably is the best Western description of the art.
Like "Ikebana" (arranging flowers) tries to depict the beauty of a single flower in the surrounding space, or like "Bonsai" tries to capture only the essence of the tree, Shibari freezes the female power, beauty and eroticism, positioned and caught in a web of ropes. Thus the immense female power (the Yin) is tamed yet visible and safe to view, meet and sculpt by the male power (the Yang).
"Shibari" reached its top within the safety of the "Ukiyo" protection. In the 20th century the art was rediscovered and ever since artists are looking for new ways and forms, in which the art can find a place in our contemporary society.
Illustration: Photography by Japanese top avant garde photographer Nobuyoshi Araki: "Flower, Yamorinski and Bondage Woman" (2007)One of the most eycatching examples of contemporary Shibari art is the way, in which it inspires the worldfamous Japanese avant garde photographer Nobuyoshi Araki. Another example is the influence of Shibari on contemporary Japanese trends such as "Visual Kei" and the "Gothic Lolita" fashion trend.
"Shibari" weaves: quite literally (direct but superficially) with ropes; spiritually with emoties with the "Ki" energy of life; pratical with the conflict between reality and (erotic) fantasy.
It is an hollistic experience that is both confrontational and inspirational: the magnified difference between Yin and Yang and the tension between the two, from which new energy emerges.t.
Emotions in the West are often tied to judgments of value: anger is lack of selfcontrol (hence bad), love is good and men are not supposed to cry. In the Orient emotions are approached without the value labels. In fact, Zen Buddhism sees emotions as a far better means of communication than words and language.
"Shibari" brings out emotions. Emotions can be fierce: fright, resentment, fascination, admiration, lust, insecurity, deep warmth ........ nealry every emotion is touched upon when seeing (and as a result being part of) a "Shibari" experience or "Shibari" performance.