Master K Classes
For a Master Class in Kinbaku
Yukimura Haruki
Yukimura Haruki holds an honored place as one of the most active and accomplished of bakushi and as the longest surviving member of the great triumvirate of Nureki Chimuo, Akechi Denki and himself that dominated the Kinbaku publishing and video scene from the 1980s to the early 2000s. Sadly, he passed away in 2016.
He was also an astute businessman and producer with an astounding 2,500 shibari/kinbaku videos and DVDs to his credit! That might seem to indicate a mass production mentality but this isn’t the case as Yukimura was also one of the truly elegant craftsmen in the world of professional shibari/kinbaku.
Influenced by Nureki, whom he met early in his career, his style of kinbaku is unique and all his own. Dubbed the “caressing style” (aibu nawa) or newaza (as in “floor work” taken from judo) by himself and his admirers, he disliked suspensions and usually kept his partners on the tatami mat where he always strived for beauty in the tie and in the expression and pose of his models. It’s said his motto was, “Tying is serving the woman” and when recently asked what shibari meant to him he replied, “To me, shibari is an emotional exchange between a man and a woman. That’s unique to Japan—to express love and emotion entirely through the medium of rope. So shibari is not how you do this tie or that tie, it’s how you use the rope to exchange emotions with another.”
In 2010 Master K had the great honor of beginning lessons with Yukimura sensei in Japan and in late 2013 was given the name Haru Tora (Spring Tiger) as a member of his ryu and awarded a first class teaching certificate allowing him to instruct others in his unique, beautiful and brilliant form of newaza kinbaku, aibu nawa.) In 2015 Master K wrote the preface for Yukimura's book “The Affection of Kinbaku” from Sanwa Publishers.
You can read a lot more about Yukimura Hiroshi and all the legendary bakushi and kinabku artists in the biography section of the new and revised second edition of “The Beauty of Kinbaku”, available at Amazon.com, thebeautyofkinbaku.com and booksellers worldwide.
