Many theatrical programs of traditional kabuki, including the famous classical operas of “Yuki-me” [Snow Maiden] and “Kinkaku-ji” [Temple of the Golden Pavilion, a Zen Buddhist temple in Kyoto], all contain plots of Seme-ba that depict the leading roles suffering from beating and torture.
After the First Sino-Japanese War, in June of 1896, the Hong Haruki-za Theater in Tokyo put on stage a drama called “Nisshin Senso – Youchi no Kataki-tan” (First Sino-Japanese War – Tale of the Enemy’s Night Attack]. It profoundly touched a fourteen-year-old young man among the audience. Many years later, he would, under the nom de guerre of Ito Seiu, become a kinbaku painter, photographer, and research investigator. He published the first photo book of kinbaku in Japan named “Seme no Kenkyu” [Study of Torture] in 1928, and organized theater shows. Eventually, he became recognized as the father of modern Japanese kinbaku.
The postwar ’50s and 60s is the heyday of the magazine Kitan Club [Club of Strange Tales]. This magazine often used sex, torture, abuse, and exotic customs as its main themes, with occasional detective stories or even science fiction. From today’s point of view, this magazine can be regarded as a precious historical representative of the formative period of Japanese SM culture. In addition, Kitan Club also acted as a promoter of Kinkajou cultural. Suma Toshiyuki, who worked as a writer, illustrator, and photographer, along with people such as Tsujimura Takashi [the two people collectively used more than ten pseudonyms in order to create an impression of many authors], first researched kinbaku for the purpose of illustration.
In 1962, Dan Oniroku’s novel “Hana to Ebi” (Flower and Snake] began its serial Publication in Kitan Club. In 1965, Osada Eikichi amazed the world with a single brilliant feat: an SM experimental drama, which is now widely acknowledged as the
progenitor of kinbaku stage performance. From the late ’60s to early ’70s, with the popularization of “Pink Cinema” type movies, people like Konuma Takashi also began to assume the role of kinbaku directors in movie productions. In 1974, facing impending bankruptcy, Nikkatsu Film Company decided to make “Flower and Snake as one last throw of the dice and achieved unexpected popularity. Afterwards, the movie’s kinbaku director Urado Hiroshi Collaborated with Nikkatsu on a total of 46 Movies. In order to safely adapt Knikabu to its newly found applications in photography, stage performance, and movies without harming the models, they experimented with all kinds of new kinbaku techniques that captured the verve and charm of kabuki and hojojutsu, while taking into account safety issues. From several decades of records starting from Kitan Club, we can see the modern kinbaku techniques gradually taking shape during this period.
With the advent of VHS tapes in the ’80s, adult videos gradually replaced adult films.
Nawashi such as Nureki Chimuo, Shima Shikou, Akechi Denki, and Arise Go not only assisted in the kinbaku production of adult movies but also became a new generation of celebrities. They appeared in movies, speaking with fervor and assurance, talking about what rope means to them, their emotional connections with their models, and the true meaning of SM as they see it.These words by the nawashi have come to nourish generations of Japanese SM enthusiasts, and have exerted an important force to influence and shape the SM culture in Japan.