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| Origins of Japanese Bondage
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Origins of other japanese Bondages
1. Part
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In
my search for the origin of Nawa Shibari i found a number of interesting
articles at Google.com while searching for Nawajutsu, a part of
the skills the japanese ninja's used.
One among many weapons the ninja used was the Kaginawa. A Kaginawa
is a piece of rope with a hook attached to the one end.
At
one of the big International sites about Nawa Shibari it is stated
that this weapon is one of the origins to the tecniques used in
Nawa Shibari today.
A
little research and a few trips to Japan makes me able to
tell that the Kaginawa origins from the warriorschool called Kumogakure
ryu. Kumogakure ryu was founded in 1532 by Heinaizaemon Ienaga Iga,
a leading member of the famous Iga ninja's.
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In the japanese makimono
Shoninki from 1682 there is an instruction about how
to use the Kaginawa;
"A
Kaginawa can be used to climb up high, to tie a person or to
lock a door"
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Many
warriorschools (ryu) that teach the techniques of the Kaginawa has
relations to the famous ninja; Hattori Hanzo Masashige (1541–1596).
Hanzo Hattori is commonly known in Japan for assisting in the Shogun
Ieyasu Togugawa’s escape from being captured by hostile clans and
his function as bodyguard for the Shogun until his death the 4. December
1596. The Hattori family origins from the Iga prefecture in Japan
and among the Hanzo Hattori's ancestors is the prior mentioned Heinaizaemon
Ienaga Iga.
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It is hard to say if the tecniques Hanzo Hattori used with the
Kaginawa has contributed to Dannoshin Toshimitsu Masaki’s invention
of the Manrikikusari (ten thousand power chain) about 300 years ago,
but Dannoshin Toshimitsu Masaki was the chief centerguard at the maingates
to Edo-jo’s (Tokyo castle) and he invented a number of ways to take
prisoners with the Manrikikusari. Manriki ryu is still teaching
Dannoshin Toshimitsu Masaki's techniques downtown Tokyo.
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2. Part
Hojo-jutsu
Hojo jutsu is often mentioned in connection to Japanese bondage.
Some of the statements are: Hojo jutsu is the same as Nawa Shibari.
It is difficult, to find information about this subject. It is a
secret art.
Facts: Hojojutsu is a part of Bugei Juhappan which is 18 bushi (Japanese
warrior) skills. That has a part of skills the ancient Japanese
warriors had. It is not the same as Nawa Shibari - but the methods
used in Nawa Shibari have origins in Hojo-jutsu. The techniques
used in unarmed battle within Hojo-jutsu (jutai-, koppo-, koshijutsu
and more). I will not mention any further in this introduction,
but basically Hojo-jutsu is about caption of prisoners and that
means you are able to handle a combat situation with or without
rope.
There is a lot of literature about bondage on the Internet - if
you read japanese or english and uses a proper search engine such
as hotbot or google.
Hojojutsu has been used by Bushis and Doshins (police) for many
hundreds of years, and there are some Ryus that still teach these
methods. The modern fight system Taihojutsu teach rope techniques
and is still practiced in the Japanese police force.
Hojo-jutsu is a concatenation of the following characters: Ho -
can be pronounced as Tori (To caption, to arrest, to detain) and
Jo - which can be understood as Nawa (rope) and Jutsu (technique).
Bottom line, two different pronunciations of the same character:
Hojo-jutsu or Tori-nawa-jutsu. Another word for Hojo-jutsu is Keisatsujutsu.
The name Hobakujutsu is mentioned on many websites about Nawa Shibari,
and a search will lead to links about Ninjutsu. Hobakujutsu is roughly
the same thing as hojojutsu - only this is more used in connection
with punishments including suspension.
Hayanawa: Quick rope on 4,5 - 6.5 m. Sometimes a hook (Kagi) or
a ring of metal is tied to the one end. It was were very common
that the rope were hidden in a sleeve so that the opponent didn't
expect anything, so the rope became an element of surprise in the
fight.
There was a golden rule saying that captioning prisoners with a
rope the maximum time should take 10 seconds to perform.
Honnawa: Main rope on 6,5 - 21 meters. That was a basic element
in samurai equipment. Used for escorting prisoners. In the Meiji
period the standard length of the rope were between 7 and 15 meters.
Kaginawa: The practices of rope with hooks were used of the Kumogakure
Ryu Ninjas. In some of the well known scrolls (Shoninki, Bansenshukai,
Ninpiden etc.) you can find instructions on how to tie with a Kaginawa.
Sageo: The rope that is attached to the sheath of a Japanese sword
was often used to fasten prisoners.
There were traditions concerning the colors of the ropes. These
traditions matured during the Tokugawa Era and has origins from
China. You might recognize the ideas in the building architecture
across Eastern Asia. The most known traditions are:
Blue rope: Spring - east - left - dragon
Red rope: summer - south - forward - phoenix.
White rope: fall - west - right - tiger
Black rope: Winter - north - backward- Tortoise
Prisoners were forced to sit faced in the direction matching the
color only to please the eye of the audience. In prison the ropes
were blue for a period of time in history. In the dog days (July/August)
yellow ropes were used. In the Meiji Period the codex changed and
the color changed to:
White rope: minor crime
Blue rope: lager crime
Purple rope: a person of high rank/class
Black rope: a person of low rank/class
Many clans in Japan used the color of the rope to state their social
status. There were knots for sex, social status, character of the
crime, the prisoner's physics strength, the ability of resistance
and much more. If several prisoners were tied together there were
special knots for that too. The knots durability, strength and amount
varied between Ryus, but one common denominator was that if the
prisoner tried to escape the ropes, he would realize that he was
tied in a way, that every movement would have the result that the
rope becomes even tighter around his neck with the possibility of
strangulation. 
The individual Ryus did not want others to learn their techniques,
so neither the prisoner nor any others were allowed to watch how
it were done. But that was wishful thinking. Reality was that most
of the Ryu's techniques were copied by others.
This is not a complete survey of information about all the Ryus
that contain Hojo-jutsu (there are approximately 150 Ryus in Japan,
which has documented Hojo-jutsu methods).
The Ryus I have seen on the Internet or while visiting Japan are:
Chokuji Goden Ryu, Eishin Ryu, Fujiwara Ryu, Ittatsu Ryu, Jittetori
Ryu, Kito Ryu, Kushin Ryu, Sekieuchi Ryu, Shibukawa Ryu, Shin Shin
Ryu, Shinden Fudo Ryu, Shinden Muso Ryu, Shinto Muso Ryu, Tagaki
Yoshin Ryu, Takenouchi Ryu, Tenjin Shinyo Ryu, Yoshin Ryu.
As earlier mentioned there were many Ryus in Japan's history and
many relationships between them. The most Ryus that uses Hojo-jutsu
have their individual techniques of making a knot and about the
length and color of the rope they used. Some old ricepaper scrolls
include great details and beautiful illustrations how to make knots.
Among the most well known Hojo-jutsu Ryus are Ittatsu Ryu founded
of Suzaki Kinzaemon in the year 1723 (Ittasu Ryu Hojo-jutsu is still
used by the Japanese police). Kito Ryu, Takenouchi Ryu and Tagaki
Yoshin Ryu are also well known Hojo jutsu Ryus. The rope techniques
in Tagaki Yoshin Ryu can be Toritsuke and they are a part of the
modern Bujinkan Dojo system. Tagaki Yoshin Ryu has relations to
Takenouchi -, Shinden Fudo -, Kukishin Ryu -, Hontai Yoshin Ryu
and more.
Notice: On http://members.aol.com/squaddiejh/Hojojutsu.htm
you can read about a confusion between Tagaki Yoshin Ryu and Hontai
Yoshin Ryu. It is a fact that different levels of knowledge and
understanding of Japanese traditions (Shoden, Chuden, Okuden, Kaiden)
and neither a web site nor nice pictures can replace the studies
made in a Ryu in touch by a qualified teacher and sensei.
Knudemanden
Published with kind permission of nawashibari.dk (not online any
longer)
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