A Quiet Revolution in Kinbaku Photography.

Fuji Akio’s BIND (1992) is a visually restrained yet emotionally charged exploration of Japanese rope bondage, or kinbaku. Though modest in size, the photobook has become a landmark in the genre — not for spectacle or shock, but for its meditative, human approach to documenting the tension between body, rope, and atmosphere.

Shot entirely in black and white, BIND features model and rope artist Chimuo Nureki, one of the most influential figures in postwar kinbaku. Nureki’s work — blending Edo-era aesthetics with postwar underground rope culture — played a pivotal role in moving kinbaku from a niche practice into a formalized visual and performative art. Fuji’s photographs, then, are more than portraits; they are cultural reflections of this transition.

The 1990s were a period of refinement and internal codification for kinbaku in Japan. The influence of SM magazines like SM Select, SM Fan, and the formation of Kinbiken Communication (a publication co-founded by Fuji, Nureki, and Naomi Sugishita) gave rise to a new wave of kinbaku expression — one that moved beyond shock value and towards emotional and psychological nuance.

BIND is emblematic of this shift. The rope scenes are sparse, quiet, and intimate. There’s minimal nudity, but an overwhelming sense of presence. Fuji’s compositions often draw out the in-between spaces — between tension and release, between subject and viewer, between dominance and surrender. It’s not about what rope does to the body, but what it evokes in the gaze.

While Western BDSM imagery in the 1990s leaned toward glamor, power-play, and erotic assertion, BIND is resolutely Japanese in sensibility — aligned with wabi-sabi aesthetics, the value of stillness, and emotional ambiguity. This makes the book not only a document of rope work but a meditation on artistic and human collaboration.

Conclusion
BIND represents a mature point in the visual history of kinbaku — where art, trust, and restraint are interwoven. It stands as a subtle but powerful record of a moment when rope photography shifted from underground subculture to reflective art form. For those interested in kinbaku’s deeper emotional and cultural layers, BIND is essential viewing — not loud, not graphic, but timeless in its quiet force.

 

My copy is a hard cover with debossed silver titles , first edition in mint condition.

Format: 13,5 x 18 cm
92 pages
Published by Mole, 1992.