The Vancouver Couple Bringing Japanese Bondage to Art Classes
Credit to Author: Michelle Gamage| Date: Wed, 16 Jan 2019 19:17:31 +0000
A woman stands at the front of the room, her arms bound behind her and a cloth blindfold over her eyes. Ropes snake around her body, digging in to her flesh as they form a body harness. She’s breathing heavily while classical music drifts through the room. There’s a pause of anticipation, her toes twist against the tatami mat, and then she is hoisted by her harness into a full-body suspension.
She moans loudly and her partner gently touches her shoulder and finds her hand. A silent communication is squeezed between them before her partner ties off the ropes holding her aloft, reaches down and flips over an hourglass.
The 13 artists packed into the room start madly sketching and clicking their cameras. It’s life drawing night at Vancouver’s only kinbaku or shibari dojo, a Japanese bondage studio in East Vancouver.
Kinbaku’s intricate knots has long-since infiltrated fringes of the art scene, with even Lady Gaga being photographed by Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki in rope. But that is like taking a photograph of an orchestra—beautiful but missing the point, according to one Vancouver instructor.
Georg Barkas runs the Osada Ryu Kinbaku Dojo Vancouver out of TheSpace2 with his wife Addie Tahl, where they teach beginner classes, suspension workshops, host socials, brunch, life drawing and more.
“I may be alone with this in the kink world but it’s not about pain for me, pain is easy,” Barkas told VICE while sipping green tea at the dojo. “Pain is so immediate and just a cover for shit that lies so much deeper.”
Barkas has spent 10 years practicing, learning and teaching kinbaku. He is one of three Osada Ryu instructors in the world, and fist learned from Osada Steve in Berlin and later from Yakimura Sensei in Japan.
Safety is paramount in the classes. Mistakes are rare in the kink but Barkas still remembers seeing one slip that lead to a rope tightening around a neck. Emergency scissors are always nearby and no one was hurt, but it drives home the cold reality of what carelessness can lead to.
Consent is also a central part of the practice. Understanding your partner and their interests and limitations takes time, which is why Barkas only ties with people he has a pre-established relationship with. Words like ‘challenging’ or ‘sexual’ vary dramatically between people and can be misinterpreted said Tahl.
Which is why you tie with someone, rather than tie them, says Barkas. It’s a conversation, it’s active participation from both or all partners.
Classes range from beginner knots to full-body suspension, but that shouldn’t be treated as a goal, said Tahl. Rushing towards suspension is like pushing through sex only for the orgasm and ignoring the rest of the play, she said.
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