Japanese: 縛り

Fabric weaving; Tying (“things”); The action of tying someone up

Shibari literally means “to tie decoratively”. The term came into common use in the West at some point in the 1990s to describe the bondage art “kinbaku”.

Since the evolution of shibari from tying techniques used solely for restraint and torture to sophisticated erotica has taken 100’s of years to mature, it’s natural that, for Westerners especially, the terminology can get a bit confusing.

The word “shibari” to most non SM oriented Japanese simply means weaving!

See also: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/縛り

 

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