[L[Flag/Unflag]]
I'm always intrigued and happy to find that people in other countries are doing Shibari. Obviously, they are doing it in Japan, but I was surprised to find out how popular it is in Russia and the Ukraine.
I think my first clue was when I stumbled into this clip on YouTube.
In it, a news reporter from Russia Today interviews people at the 2nd annual Bondage Fest in Moscow. About half way through, one of the riggers demonstrates rope bondage on her, and she finishes the report with a happy sign off while lying on the floor, completely bound. (You can see the original report on the Russia Today site here, but the YouTube version plays better, at least in the US.)
I tried imagining this happening in the US. First, it is hard to imagine US news reporting the festival without sensationalizing it, and making the participants out to be a bunch of weirdos. And the idea of one of our newscasters letting herself be tied up during the newscast seems even more unimaginable (though there are a few women on the evening news that I wouldn't mind seeing in ropes).
I wasn't able to find out much about the Bondage Fest in Moscow, but on Twitter, I ran into OpenBDSM.org. This is a site where a lot of Russian and Ukranian riggers post pictures of their work. I asked about the Moscow Bondage Fest, and they told me it had moved to Lviv in the Ukraine and become Kinbcon, "the first European Convention dedicated exclusively to the Japanese art of erotic bondage - kinbaku."
Kinbacon was the same weekend as our own Shibaricon. (I really wish I could have gone, but besides the fact that I was at Shibaricon, and the expense of flying to the Ukraine, the idea of tying people up in a country where I don't speak the language or know the rules and customs scares me a little bit. I just imagine having a misunderstanding and winding up in jail.)
What is interesting about Kinbacon is that the Masters they had presenting were mostly people I had never heard of. They had Arisue Go from Japan, but the rest were all from Russia or the Ukraine, with one from France. And they were really good.
There is photo coverage of Kinbacon on their website. They are also on Twitter (Kinbacon), and they usually tweet when the have new photos.
Besides checking out the Kinbacon website, you should definitely check out the OpenBDSM site. They are also on Twitter (OpenBDSM). It is a little hard to follow sometimes if you do not read Russian or Ukrainian, but the images and ropework are nice. And OpenBDSM on Twitter speaks both English and Russian, so if you really get confused, you can drop him a tweet.
It makes me really happy to find people out there who I can barely communicate with because we don't speak a common language, but we all understand the joy and beauty of rope bondage.
Be well,
drigger
