Shinobi

"Tell my tale to those who ask. Tell it truly - the ill deeds along with the good, and let me be judged accordingly. The rest... is silence."

Out of curiosity I have been born into the lifestyle as an artist, as a craftsman. Thru almost two decades of dedicated practice and experimentation I have developed into the “Nawashi” that I am now. I had no mentors, no training and hardly any material to learn the craft. All in all it took seven long years to painstakingly learn just the basics of Kinbaku and Shibari… and yet here I am now the only openly performing Kinbaku artist in the Philippines.

"Shibari is a Japanese word that literally means "to tie" or "to bind". It is used in Japan to describe the artful use of twine to tie objects or packages. Kinbaku is the word for "bondage" or Kinbaku-bi which means "beautiful bondage". Kinbaku (also Sokubaku) is a Japanese style of sexual bondage or BDSM which involves tying up the bottom using simple yet visually intricate patterns, usually with several pieces of thin rope usually hemp or jute (generally 6 mm or 8 mm in diameter). The word Shibari came into common use in the west at some point in the 1990s to describe the bondage art Kinbaku."

I had been fortunate that through my journey into the lifestyle that I have found those that share the same passion and are willing subjects to be bound with rope…

I have no need for fame or recognition; I am here for the art and the craft alone. Everything else is just a product of the dynamics of people being together in the experience.

"There are those who follow a certain path… I go where there is no path and lead the way"

Just as in any medium of art, whether it be painting, sculpture or the performing craft there is always an element of eroticism in them. The way the nude form is presented depends completely on what the artist is feeling or what he intends to convey to the spectator. Pain, pleasure, beauty, love, lust, anger, fear, joy are just some of the basic elements that an artist can incorporate in their artwork.

Ironically these elements can also be conveyed in Japanese Kinbaku. Unlike western BDSM this old bondage craft has transcended its original intent and has evolved into a visual and even into performance art.

As an artist I choose to go where there is no path and find the value of this old art form for what it really is and not just for its visual kink that most people view it to be, to veer away from commercial notion and to focus on the beauty of the rope.

Shinobi is based in the Philippines a former student of the College of Fine Arts in UP, Diliman taking Visual Communication as his major from 1991 to 1997. He’s provided creative expertise for professional theater as production and creative artist for 10 years and has worked for numerous advertising agencies as consultant and creative art director for print media.