Ottawa's school of Japanese erotic rope bondage
Semenawa (責め縄) is an approach to kinbaku or shibari in which rope is used to create a physical and emotional ordeal. Seme does not simply refer to pain. At CORE we define seme, as the torment that can emerge from constraint, discomfort, anticipation, imbalance or uncertainty. Semenawa is above all relational. It develops through the reactions of the person in rope and the attention paid to those reactions. Semenawa can be many things, and there are almost as many definitions as there are leading figures. Our understanding of semenawa is rooted in the legacy of Akechi Denki.
Akechi Denki (明智伝鬼, 1940-2005) was one of the major figures of Japanese kinbaku at the end of the Shōwa and the early Heisei periods (1980s-2000s). His performances profoundly influenced several contemporary lineages. In his work, this relationship combines sometimes demanding rope with close attention to his partner’s experience and reactions. Drawing on principles of dominance and submission or sadism and masochism (BDSM), the technique and aesthetics of rope become ways of gradually creating and modulating torment. His semenawa can therefore be understood as a shared experience of torment, in which intensity, vulnerability, trust and attentiveness to the other are inseparable.
Close to Akechi Denki from the early 2000s until his death in 2005, Akechi Kanna (明智神凪) stands directly within his legacy, taking up his principles and rope language and developing them into a style that is now distinctly their own. Kanna is today one of the most important and influential figures in contemporary kinbaku, recognized for an immediately identifiable style deeply rooted in Akechi Denki’s work and legacy, which they have developed and evolved through their own practice in Japan and abroad.
CORE stands within Akechi Denki’s legacy through the lineage of Akechi Kanna, a disciple and inheritor of his approach to kinbaku. Under the leadership of Mango, with Kanna’s authorization, we follow this lineage and dedicate ourselves to transmitting and keeping this approach to semenawa alive. Our teaching seeks to preserve this heritage while continuing to explore it through contemporary practice.
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