The Japanese Rope Bondage DVD Shibari Tutorials by Esinem are two different Volumes of DVD footage that teaches you how to tie traditional Shibari rope bondage. This DVD set includes two different disks – Volume 1 and Volume 2. I recommend watching the full set – even if you have bondage experience – but if you have knowledge of basic rope ties, you may choose to skip to Volume 2.
From what I can tell, there are really two different “types” of how someone can teach you to tie bondage. Someone can teach you, individually, all the basic ties to tie bondage than say something like “This advanced tie requires A, B, and C” OR someone can just teach you all of the steps to tie an advanced tie without separating them into parts, but when it comes to doing bondage for your own purposes without that advanced tie, you might be lost. Personally, I prefer the first option, and that’s exactly what the DVD Shibari Tutorials by Esinem provides. The DVD teaches you all of the basic ties that you need to use your Shibari rope bondage and make more advanced ties if you choose to.
That’s another reason why I love “Esinem Japanese Rope Bondage” DVD. Not only does he show you exactly how to do the tie, but he’s very quick to explain the best places and times to use that tie. For example, first he’ll show you how to tie the Sword Hilt Tie, but then he’ll tell you and show you some of the best reasons and times to use the tie. This way, you’ll be able to better “make your own” ties when you’ve learned this basics instead of always relying on the same set-up.
It’s easy to navigate the DVDs. If you want to learn it all, you can hit “Play All”, and it will play all of the selections on the disk. If you hit “Scene Selection”, you can choose specifically which items you want to watch. For those that already have a background or basic skills in rope, this makes navigating the DVD especially easy. The lighting is amazing, and the sound is great as well. The picture is fantastic. Aside from the “mood lighting” of one of the tying scenes, all of the tutorial portions are well-lit and very easy to see what’s going on. It’s a very high-quality production.
Here’s the content on the two different DVD volumes:
Volume 1: Safety, Conducting a scene, Rope care & choice, Tying People not parcels, Two column tie, Single column tie, Limb-to-limb tie, Sword hilt wrapping, Lacing, Tensioned single column tie, Pole tie, Tying October Noire. Some of these categories, like “Safety”, have further choices to choose from.
Volume 2: Safety, Box tie, Halter neck, Mount Fuji, Reverse Box Tie, Forced bow, Hog tie, Bad knot placement, Equalising ropes, Safety rope, Floor suspension, Free-styling, Summary, Tying Eden, Tying Boy Kitten, Tying Alex-Kate
One of the things that I’m impressed by is the fact that many of the tutorials almost seem like they’re just a friend talking to you. The instructor’s discussion and explanations are very beginner-friendly, but they aren’t “talking down” to you. Instead, it just seems like the instructor is having a very friendly conversation and explaining exactly how things work. The instructor, unlike instructors off of other other DVDs, is extremely relaxed and personable, and you never once get the feeling that he’s nervous. It truly feels like you are both just sitting across each other in a room while he explains things.
It’d be pretty boring if some guy just sat and talked to you the entire DVD, though, right? That’s why it’s so great that the DVD features regular in-person bondage scenes that it cuts out to. This way, you can see rope bondage directly in action. It isn’t just clinical stuff either – it really shows how this instructor would behave with a real person during a real rope scene. It’s not “faked”, and the instructor and his rope bottoms obviously have a chemistry together. It doesn’t really feel like “porn”, though. It’s just two people enjoying rope together. It really doesn’t appear to be designed to get you off; it’s designed to look sensual and fun and make the idea of rope bondage much more appealing.
Along with that, at the end of the DVDs, you’ll get to watch a full “rope scene” with him and a partner. He’ll tie up the person the same as he would in-person, and you get to feel the mood and see how rope bondage can really work as a form of foreplay in itself. He basically only uses the ties and techniques that he’s already taught you at that point, so it’s a very encouraging scene that will show you what YOU could be capable of with some practice. They aren’t long, but they definitely get across how sensual and enjoyable bondage and BDSM can be. For example, the first one is 7 minutes long while others are around 10 minutes long. I love that he included it. In these little segments, again, he isn’t going for pornographic or “get-off” material. He’s attempting to show you how this could fit into your own relationship and how a real rope-scene could work. For that reason, there’s never any penetrative sex or anything like that. There’s slight nudity if the person’s clothing comes undone or moved, but both partners start off and stay semi-clothed the entire time.
This leads me to another fantastic feature. During the editing of the DVD, the editors made sure to put the chapters in the right place. As-in, if you need to “rewind” or restart a tie, you just have to go “previous chapter” or “restart chapter” on your DVD remote, and you’ll end up at the start of the tie instruction again. This is extremely helpful, and I’m glad the editors edited in that manner.
This how to do Shibari rope bondage DVD makes it really simple to do these ties. That’s just because of the huge difference in footage versus books. There are rope bondage books out there, but it can be hard to follow pictures with captions. In this DVD, though, you get to watch the instructor do the ties with clear picture and lighting while he does a voice-over of exactly what he’s doing. The instructor doesn’t really “stop” for you to catch up while he’s tying, but he does do the rope at a slower pace so you can learn. In order to get the full tie completed, though, I’d recommend watching it twice then attempting it – just so you can keep up better. You still may have to rewind the DVD though just to catch up on something you missed though.
Something you will notice, though, is the fact that the instructor does use technical rope names. This isn’t a huge deal, though, as the instructor only really “uses” them while he’s actually showing you what he’s doing, so if you don’t know what a “half-hitch” is, you can easily replicate what he’s doing, and you’ll remember the term for future use. Again, this is something that wouldn’t be possible in a bondage book, and it’s the living DVD footage that makes that possible.
I’d like to add in that I’m glad that Esinem included a part about “Floor Suspension”. So often in my kink groups, people will see a suspension and want to instantly try one themselves. Esinem basically includes a “compromised” version where parts of the body are lifted off of the ground while the majority of the weight is kept on the ground. This is much more sex-friendly, beginner-friendly, and easier to do in most homes (unless you have a random weight-bearing portion of your ceiling which most homes do not without a bit of modification). This type of “Floor suspension” is fantastic for the target of this DVD, and it’s a great compromise that doesn’t have as many risks as full-on suspension.
So how did it work for me? I actually have done some okay bondage in the past (I’m past “beginner” and mostly in “intermediate”), and some of the stuff was new learning to me! Esinem does a fantastic job with teaching, and I never really felt “bored” during his lessons – even if I already knew what he was teaching. In fact, his lessons on free-styling were truly invaluable. In addition to covering the best ways to put each “piece” of the puzzle together, he talks about how to make ties look better. It’s amazing, and even if you’ve done rope work in the past, it’s extremely, extremely helpful. I really can not give this DVD enough praise, and I really have no criticisms to it at all. It’s high-quality, doesn’t come across as pornographic, comes across as very instructional and very easy to learn from, and is very beginner-to-intermediate-friendly. It’s amazing how it does it all.
Overall, I’d recommend this to any person wanting to try rope bondage. The DVD is high-quality and well-made. The instructor is personable and enjoyable to listen to, and he really knows his stuff! The ties range in difficulty from very beginner to advanced-intermediate, and with all of the basic information given, you can easily build on this DVD and make intricate rope bondage. This is truly one of the best rope bondage DVD resources I’ve ever seen, and it really embodies the huge difference between tying inanimate objects and the core of sensation involved with tying real people. Thanks to Esinem for providing the rope bondage DVD for my Japanese Rope Bondage DVD review.
