We have been hard at work building my new site, Esinem.com.  This is also WordPress based and offers a lot more than the old site. It is early days yet so we are still ironing out a few glitches and loading content. So far, there is an Articles section, which will contain guides to technique and safety, information on hardware, interviews and much more, plus News and What’s On. The latter includes a searchable calendar showing my performances, classes and any interesting events. The next job is to load up the galleries but there are some sample photos and video up already.

Shortly, I hope to add a shop with my full range of rope and accessories. However, you can already buy my DVD tutorials and book classes.

Hedwig has provided some excellent coverage of the festival in her blog. It’s well worth checking out her write up on Toubaku while you are at it.

A very quick post, before I collapse, to say thank you to everyone involved that made this the best festival yet. It exceeded all our expectations. So many people put so much into making this happen, they jumped in whenever the inevitable crisis occurred and worked beyond the point of exhaustion. It’s a sharp learning curve and each festival brings new challenges. The support has been fantastic. It was very gratifying how many people thanked me for being part of creating the event; it made the whole occasion so much more personal, almost like a private party. Of course, in many respects, it was like a private affair as all the performers were not closeted away back-stage or in VIP areas, they socialised freely with the visitors and tied quite a few.

Finally, thank you to all our visitors who were so important in creating the warm and intimate atmosphere.

What can I say? The last of ‘Team Kinoko’ have just departed, the dust has settled on the 3rd festival and we have the aftermath to clear up. I can honestly say there has never been an event like this in the west.  Never have so many Japanese kinbakushi performed together in the west and for most of them it was the first time working outside Japan. Our biggest problem now is how to equal it again, let alone better it.  Since the Resistance Gallery has such a special atmosphere, it will be the permanent home for LFAJRB.  The only problem is space versus demand; a problem that will only become worse as the word gets out about just how good this one was. So, the proposal is to run it bi-annually, although that does create the problem of having to create two outstanding events per annum! Fortunately, there seems to be a lot of new talent emerging from the west. I was stunned at the leap in standards since last year. I await to see what ripples emerge from this year’s festival as many people seemed to ‘get it’ when we ran classes on connection and talking about not doing rope but doing people with rope. Obviously, seeing the Japanese performers in action and having the benefit of hands on tuition from them will be an enormous ‘leg up’ in the climb towards the goal of authentic kinbaku. In fact, with the current rate of progress, we might see shows by gaijin in Japan a bit more often as there are already many western riggers who would delight a local audience. I hope our visitors enjoyed our cultural twist on kinbaku as much as we enjoyed theirs.

Anyway, more later after some rest, all the crew are zombies by this stage. No doubt, a deluge of photos, posts and blogs will ensue…

Feel free to post your own comments here.

Whilst most have been busy practising their shows, I have been busy not practising.  In part this is due to logistics, as my model does not arrive till Friday, but it is also a case of attempting to practice what I preach. In other words, I believe passion wins over emotionless precision every time.  Anyway, if I properly get into a rope scene, I become lost in it and there is no way I would ever manage to follow a rehearsed set. So, I have decided to “let The Force be with me” and rely on the connection with Ika to guide me.  It remains to see whether I can make the grade as a rope Jedi or will crash and burn …either way, I plan to keep it real!

Sugiura sensei, Japan’s most acclaimed bondage photographer (see contributors), will be exhibiting eight photos that will be available for sale at £250 in A3+ size(329mm × 483mm/12.9 × 19.0 inches).  Although these are not numbered prints, they are signed, which is highly unusual and Sugiura will not sign the same photo twice . This is an unique opportunity, thanks to NuitdeTokyo, our man in Tokyo who is an avid collector of kinbaku art, who put in a lot of work to get us the signed prints.

Sadly, Victoria Birch is unable to attend to give her Yin Yoga and rope presentation. Every cloud has a silver lining it seems as we will be treated to a show by Yui Namiko, Kinoko’s model. Clearly, she can’t get enough rope as she has developed astonishing talents as a self-suspension artist! This lady should not be missed.

Due to putting on more shows that originally planned, they are starting 30 minutes earlier at

I am hearing from people who have tickets but are unable to come and those who are gutted because the tickets sold out. So, I propose a spot of match-making on our Fetlife group. If you aren’t a member, I’d highly recommend it but if you don’t want to join, you can always post in Comments below.

After much blood, sweat and tears, the launch of the first two volumes of ‘Japanese Rope Bondage: Tying people, not parcels’ by Esinem is planned for the festival. If you can’t make it to the festival, you can pre-order here. Trade enquiries welcome.

The final footage has gone off for encoding and authoring. Although the artwork is still being tweaked, it will be completed in the next couple of days. Barring disaster, it should all be ready in time. Here’s what the cover will look like (pretty much…the eagle-eyed will spot the title change):