Draft:Hajime Kinoko
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- Comment: Not currently meet Wikipedia's notability guidelines for creative professionals (WP:NARTIST). Most citations are interviews in which the subject speaks about himself, pages from galleries, museums, or event organizers presenting his own work, a commercial retailer selling his books, or social media posts, none of which are independent, reliable, in depth coverage. Balabush (talk) 02:59, 9 August 2026 (UTC)
Hajime Kinoko | |
|---|---|
一鬼のこ | |
| Born | 1977 (age 48–49) |
| Years active | 2001–present |
| Known for | Performance art, installation art, photography |
| Website | shibari |
Hajime Kinoko (Template:Lang-ja, born 1977) is a Japanese rope artist, photographer and shibari practitioner.[1] His work combines live performance, photography and installations in which rope is applied to bodies, natural objects, buildings and architectural spaces.[2][3] He is known for moving shibari beyond fetish venues into festivals, galleries and public installations, while retaining the medium's erotic and interpersonal dimensions.[4][3]
Career
[edit]Kinoko began practising shibari in 2001. He later managed a fetish bar in Tokyo, where he studied with established practitioners including Haruki Yukimura, Kanna and Akechi Denki.[3] After performing in Tokyo nightclubs and specialist events, he appeared at the Fuji Rock Festival in 2009. His first solo exhibition, The Young Woman and String, was held in Harajuku in 2010.[3]
Around 2011, Kinoko developed a performance style often called “cyber shibari”, replacing traditional brown or red rope with fluorescent colours under black light. Metropolis described the technique as a more accessible, entertainment-oriented introduction to kinbaku, while Tokyo Weekender characterised it as a departure from the explicitly erotic presentation of traditional shibari.[4][3] In 2013, he was the subject of the VICE Japan documentary Bondage Art with Hajime Kinoko.[5]
His later work increasingly incorporated objects and large spaces. In 2017, he participated in Shibari Sanctuary, a rope installation at Burning Man.[2] In July 2018, he performed at New York's Museum of Sex as part of the programme associated with The Incomplete Araki exhibition.[6]
In 2022, Kinoko covered the exterior and interior of the StandBy gallery in Harajuku with red rope. The installation required cranes and a team of assistants and culminated in a performance involving five models attached to the building.[3][1] He also wrapped the egg-shaped Natural Ellipse building in Shibuya in blue rope.[2][3] An AFP profile published in 2025 reported that his other public works included suspended cubes of red rope on the roof of a Tokyo shopping centre.[2]
Artistic practice
[edit]Kinoko distinguishes between kinbaku as an interpersonal form of bondage and a broader approach to shibari that can include objects and places.[3] His installations have used flowers, motorcycles, trees, rocks and entire buildings as supports for rope compositions.[3][2] Red is a recurring colour in his work; he relates it to blood, ancestry and the Japanese idea of the red thread of fate. He has said that the colour and arrangement of the rope should respond to the subject rather than follow a fixed design.[3]
Writing in Metropolis, the magazine described his work as evoking eroticism, nostalgia and maternal affection, and argued that the emotional sensitivity of a performance was as important as technical skill.[4] Tokyo Weekender similarly framed his public installations as an attempt to present shibari as a non-sexualised form of contemporary visual and performance art without erasing its history.[3]
Kinoko also teaches shibari through his Tokyo school, Ichinawakai. An AFP report described its ten-level training programme and his emphasis on communication, technique and the safety of the person being tied.[2]
Performers and collaborators
[edit]Kinoko's body-based works are collaborative performances in which the person being tied influences the form and emotional character of the piece. In 2018, he performed at the Museum of Sex with the model Aimi; Office Magazine noted that the performance reversed conventional dominant and submissive roles by presenting Aimi as the central figure.[6] Tokyo Weekender also reported his cyber-shibari work with the dance duo AyaBambi.[3]
Kinoko has maintained a long-running performance partnership with artist and model Marie Sauvage. The pair first performed together at Burning Man and later toured internationally with a large rope-cube installation. During Miami Art Week in 2024, Kinoko assembled the structure live and suspended Sauvage inside it.[7]
At Shibari Experience Brazil, held at the Ópera de Arame in Curitiba in 2025, Kinoko performed with Brazilian transdisciplinary artist and shibari model Luiza Prado. Event documentation and Kinoko's own performance credit identify Prado as the model in his rope work.[8][9]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- 1 2 WWD Staff (2 May 2022). 緊縛師のHajime Kinokoが原宿のアートギャラリーを“緊縛”するインスタレーションを開催 [Rope artist Hajime Kinoko “binds” a Harajuku art gallery in a new installation]. WWD Japan (in Japanese). Retrieved 9 August 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Tokyo's 'shibari' master turns Japanese bondage into art". The Star. Agence France-Presse. 11 August 2025. Retrieved 9 August 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Petkoska, Zoria (8 December 2022). "Untangled: Shibari Artist Hajime Kinoko Ropes the World Into Art". Tokyo Weekender. Retrieved 9 August 2026.
- 1 2 3 Metropolis (25 August 2011). "A Ropy Pastime: Kimbaku artist Kinoko Hajime creates special bonds". Metropolis. Retrieved 9 August 2026.
- ↑ "Shibari". Vice (in French). 12 September 2013. Retrieved 9 August 2026.
- 1 2 Weiss, Alexandra (31 July 2018). "Kinbaku @ Museum of Sex". Office Magazine. Retrieved 9 August 2026.
- ↑ Elias, Asha (2 December 2024). "All Tied Up: Hajime Kinoko Brings Shibari Performance to Miami Art Week". Miami New Times. Retrieved 9 August 2026.
- ↑ Shibari Experience Brasil (23 September 2025). "Hajime Kinoko and Luiza Prado". Instagram (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 9 August 2026.
- ↑ Hajime Kinoko (16 November 2025). "Shibari—model: Luiza Jesus do Prado". Instagram. Retrieved 9 August 2026.
External links
[edit]Category:1977 births Category:Living people Category:Japanese contemporary artists Category:Japanese installation artists Category:Japanese performance artists Category:Japanese photographers Category:Bondage artists Category:BDSM people
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