Kinbaku as a project

By Martín Kinbaku English translation by Ka

A few weeks ago I said goodbye to Federico Kirigami and Marta Tenshiko at Ezeiza airport for the second time, they had to take the flight back to Milan after several weeks of hard work.

Three years ago it all started as a crazy idea, a suggestion to organize something out of the ordinary for those times in Latin America. At the end of 2023 this idea materialized, I saw it as a sign of a certain maturity in our rope community and the kick-off for everything that came after and what is to come.

On that occasion Fede and Marta planted a seed. On their second visit, which has just ended, maybe they have seen a sprout or two beginning to appear. My task must be the daily watering. In the window of the room where they stayed I left three small bonsai (“pre-bonsai”, in the jargon), they are the trace of my learning about irrigation, so difficult in the cultivation of miniature trees. In their previous visit they did not exist; in their next visits, if I actually develop a good method, they will be better trees every day and they will show off in elegant pots (as I know that they are fond of certain Japanese arts I hope that in the future they will also awaken their appreciation). Watering is difficult, of course, but the tap is open and the water is flowing more and more strongly.

The fact that on that occasion, with so many possibilities to choose from, they dared to come to such a remote and not so elegant place speaks very well of them, but that they have decided to return shows that they have not come as opportunists or tourists to an exotic community of ropes, and in that gesture they also become part, as builders, of our kinbaku.

More than a decade ago, Haru Tsubaki -Camelia-, after her lessons in Japan with Yukimura Haruki and Osada Steve, opened her dojo in Buenos Aires. Since I approached that space I found a path and, over time, as my ropes matured, I built a bond so strong that some may find it hard to understand. If there was someone who illuminated the dark path a little bit, in a society that seeks immediate success, in a world of video tutorials and in the banal and volatile logic of social media, if someone pointed a direction which, although it wasn’t a quick and easy path, finally allowed us to reach a clearing in the forest, I decided to become a student and disseminator, friend and son, defender and shield. Builder and organizer of a rope perspective. And this has been a family for me, which was then nurtured by those who came to learn on my tatami and who affectionately began to call Tsubaki grandmother. United by a rope perspective that has, and has had a difficult road to make its way.

I'm just as grateful with Federico and Marta as I'm with Camelia. We'll see how long it takes before we can see the fruits of their visits (just a few seedlings appear, but in the humid pampa the apical force pulls hard, and the flowers may appear sooner rather than later), and I feel it's my task to build this path, support its maturation and defend it when difficulties appear.

I'm not going to lie, our strength is that we believe in this Shibari Kinbaku project, and not something else. When no one saw it we organized something that is changing the rope scene, and keeping that initiative is what makes us strong. It's the spirit that Camelia passed on to the students who follow in her footsteps (in our ways and paces). Then, we have a lot to learn, to train, to discuss... water has to pass under the bridge. We need time to assimilate what they brought to us; if it took a long time for some of that Camelia gave us to bear fruit, this time either won’t be easy.

Good teachers are always demanding. But they can also be great pedagogues and sometimes even kind and patient. We have all of this in our favor.

I also tried to plant my seeds to build the Latin American shibari. At home an ombú with a robust trunk grew (bonsaistas will say: like a sumo wrestler prepared for the initial Tachi-ai clash) which is the one that enabled the craziness of Kirigami and Tenshiko's trip. The first thing I planted outside, on the other hand, dried up. The second, when it sprouted its first little leaves, was whipped by the wind. At that time I was very enthusiastic about what I had experienced, the experiences we had exchanged and the contacts we had made, so it made me sad to see it withered. But it lived and little by little it's recovering, I get the news that it timidly throws a twig here and there. The construction of something like a rope perspective is difficult, that's why I am also grateful to 'los tanos' (as we affectionately call them when they are not present), since their contribution is fertilizer to help these little trees to grow and overcome the inclemency of the weather.

Between the first and second visit of Fede and Marta, a group of people determined to study Shibari Kinbaku, GESHI, was formed, which among other things edited Marta's "Guide for rope addicts" in Spanish, also expanding the discussions of those who are tied. A small revolution, a breath of fresh air that will have its consequences because it puts us to talk, discuss and exchange, about those who are tied and the bond with those we tie. People fully involved in translating, designing, helping with the logistics of printing and transport.

This whole experience, with everything that happened, every class, event and performance, strengthens us. Those who gave everything selflessly, those who traveled from far away, those who provided the car, the apartment, beds for outsiders and for the organizers, those who put the tacuaras on a very high roof, those who gave encouragement, those who listened and gave advice, those who acted as tour guides, the translators. Those who applauded and gave hugs.

A community ready to develop kinbaku in Latin America.

Many things that involve internal movements. As I'm giving myself to Kirigami's style, my life, which relies on shibari, is shaking back and forth, my classes mutate, reformulate.... What has to remain, in which form, what other things have to be let go. 

Camelia used to ask her students when they had been with her for a while, what changed in your life with shibari? What aspects of your personality? What different person are you now that the ropes have gone through you? The ropes for me are not a pretty picture, a little popularity on social media, a pseudo-success that allows three crazy cats want to be tied by us or want to photograph us in a session. Kinbaku is a project in which my teachers made something of me that I wasn't before. It's the river that runs over us, the love that happens in a dark room and tying someone to the bed legs, the infinite chats, the friends, the desire, the elegant frictions, the small details in which Federico puts so much care, that meticulous closing of each rope while another suffers, the expression of those who surrender, Marta giving everything in each lesson, the heat that she left in every person who dared to see their performances. Tsubaki, a day of mourning in 2016, showing her model's panties in honor of her teacher.

In an increasingly horrible world of a decaying capitalism, a small family of people who do strange things, who think of the beauty of the small knot while a body cries, agonizes and gets wet, of perverse humiliation as a game in a truly perverse world, with all their body and spirit to give, on this side of the ocean and on the other side as well, this is my project.