This video is quite interesting (unfortunately, cannot find a way to embed it, and is technologically retarded... Bear with me.) Old, and shows some basic hojo-jutsu knots for tying up criminals, one less and one more dangerous. It is also designed in terms of the person's physique, not only their level of danger. For example, one knot is for a tall, thin, and harmless criminal, while one is for a more obese one.
Also, this webpage provided me with a dictionary for Japanese bondage:
Words
後手 – gote : hands in back
緊縛 – kinbaku : Tight binding or sexual bondage
縛り – shibari : to tie
高手小手 – takatekote : literally: “high hand, small hand” where “small hand” is the part of the wrist and a bit of the lower arm
釣 - tsuri : suspension though is also used to mean fishing or to ensnair
後ろ – ushiro : behind ushiro is just a different reading of the go in gote
Reading more about it, the connections between kinbaku and shibari and more Western, at least from what I know them, sexually performative activities and arts become apparent. They don't even need to be sexual, such as aerial silk. Or pole dancing. I did not even think about this until I mentioned to my teaching assistant that I was researching aerial silk, bondage and harnesses, and she showed me a video of a pole-dancing championship. I have never really looked at pole-dancing, and only ever considered it something for strip clubs; something pretty low-life and not involving a very high level of skill. But those videos... Some of them are quite incredible. And, technicality and creativity aside (and the height of the pole, as well, is insane), the beauty of the static, heavy and never-moving pole as opposed to the light, ephemeral and fluid aerial silk. The artist guides the aerial silks, and the pole guides the pole-dancer, and finally, they are both prone to gravity. (I actually found a teaser-class for silks, in which they give you a few hours, sort of to preview it, see if you like it, for free. Will probably go.)
I don't know what about this that draws me in, but it is, in essence, something very like a harness, and the body being guided by structures. Also, the various boundaries we associate with these activities are interesting to me. For example, pole-dancing is not, and will probably not be for some time, an Olympic sport. It is often considered to be sexual (there is a reason for that, yes, that they are found in strip clubs), whereas aerial silk is something more acrobatic, for the theatre. And then, kinbaku and bondage, is another thing entirely, but is it? It is definitely static, and there is also the element of subjugation and oppression (although I shouldn't use that word too lightly, I am fully aware that it is a much more complex discussion than the one I'm presenting). I am opening the floor to myself!
This is not the end. My brain has just started spinning.