Graydancer
Korean Burritos
Written by Gray Dancer on March 12th, 2007Last friday, at the shoot with MyWifeBound, my friend K introduced me to his new photographer friend as "Graydancer, the Shibari Master." I almost jumped down his throat.
"Please, please, please never call me a Shibari Master," I said, quite seriously. "I’m a rigger. I’m an artist. But I don’t do shibari–I just do rope."
Seriously. I did, to my shame, call myself a nawashi for my very first rope performance. I will even teach Japanese-inspired (or "based") bondage techniques. But I don’t know shibari, nor would I ever claim to have achieved "kinbaku". And why? Well, because of this particular statement by Osada Steve:
What I don’t appreciate are people who classify their ties as Shibari, when in fact their ties are reverse-engineered Japanese-inspired bondages. In my book, someone who has never been to Japan, someone who has never directly studied under any genuine Japanese Shibari practitioner (read: someone with a traceable lineage to one of the Shibari dynasties in Japan), someone who takes his knowledge from a picture on the Internet, or from watching a Japanese SM porn video, or from having attended a workshop that was mislabeled as a Shibari lecture, would be better off not making a fool of himself. Such a person should better describe his bondage in English words, perhaps as Japanese-inspired bondage, with emphasis on inspired…When you read discussions about whether a Korean could make a decent burrito with rice instead of wheat, and whether you could then still call it a Mexican burrito and if you could, then THEREFORE you too (and your cousin’s neighbor) have the right to call your bondage Shibari, you know what direction Shibari is taking in the West.
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Hi Gray - Excuse me while I make a fool of myself. I won’t ever call myself a nawashi or shibari-master either, and I have a lot of respect for accompished folks with “traceable lineages” to dynasties and other medieval concepts, but still, something makes me itch whenever anyone starts calling out the hierarchy for me…even the redoubtable Osada Steve. You know I’m a fan of Tex-mex; I take burritos muy seriously. But somehow I am not willing to foreclose on the possibility of a great Korean rice-burrito. Probably the Koreans love ‘em. I’d even try one myself. I guess what I’m saying is, whether you (or any of the talented folks we know) are shibari masters or may ‘legitimately’ call themselves that is immaterial to me. I know the word is overused, appropriated, etc etc. Does it matter when I see you, Graydancer, rig? I don’t think so. The truth will out, as one of my favorite shibari masters said…
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Interesting thoughts on how to define “the real thing”.
Since my experience in Bondage (be it western style or shibari or whatever else) only is a result of watching as closely as possible, I will stick to the part of the topic I can comment on: Food!
I do not think that there can be a Korean “Mexican Burrito”. Why? Because I have tasted “Italian” icecream, “Turkish” Döner and several “German” sausages not only in Germany, but also in Italy and Japan. And the result is always the same: There is no “German” sausage in Japan. Just as well as there is no “German” Döner (originally, Döner is from Turkey, but the differences between the German version and the Japanese version of it cannot be overlooked).
The original German sausage ist entirely different (I perceive it as much better) and the German Döner is totally different, too. So, why do they call it the same in both countries? Because the overall concept is the same. Roughly same shape, similar (not identical!) spices and ingredients and so on. But no one who knows a German sausage will EVER find that in a Japanese “German sausage”.
Therefore, if the analogy to Bondage is valid (which I can hardly claim to know due to my lack of personal practical experience with it), it will be the same.
Of course I understand the concern of people who are not willing or able to succumb to an ancient and at times very odd system as applied to Shibari in Japan. It seems closed and the risk of someon claiming anything just by pointing at his gender, origin or family name is obvious.
But skilled riggers will get their credits, and those claiming more than they should will, at least among people who know what they are doing (be they riggers or shibari-masters), easily be unmasked.
Perhaps the whole definition is way to hairy to get started with it in the first place. But one thing is for sure: Nothing in Japanese historical culture is something that can be mastered in less than a lifetime. This applies to tea ceremonie, martial arts and shibari to the same extent. And just because I do not perceive any difference between a shibari-style bondage and a kinbaku-style bondage, it does not mean that this difference is not obvious to others, who deal with these matters ten or twenty years.
So my personal way is: stay humble, develop your skills, learn from the best (if you can afford it) and do not mess with definitions too much.