I took my own Japanese rope harness to the bondage night at the Vagevuur (translates as "Purgatory") in Eindhoven in The Netherlands. I'd worn the harness, including a butt plug, a couple of weeks previously under street clothes for an hour or so journey on the tube in London on my way to an SM session, so I had the dimensions worked out. That journey was fun: half-hard most of the way and quite a few good-looking boots to concentrate my eyes on, so I arrived hot and ready for Action!

As I understand the Samurai bondage traditions, these Nawa Shibari harnesses were worn for many reasons including as a penance, punishment or ascetic torture; this might be self-imposed or decreed. The colour of the rope used had significance with regard to the class and degree of humiliation the harness represented: this is not so strange as it first appears, we can understand that being tied in pink rope is not the same as being tied in white rope; think also of the belt colours in Judo: a black belt is not the same as a yellow belt.

Also the knots have significance and where they lay on the body is significant. If you are wearing one of these harnesses for many days - or on many occasions - then the whole thing becomes like a close friend... I'd be very interested to learn more about these traditions, in as much as it is possible to teach them to a foreigner. If you can assist in this research then please get in touch ›

For this Vagevuur bondage night I wanted the harness to be more intense: wearing the harness would probably be my main event for the night. Self-bondage can be just as severe as imposed bondage, or even more severe. To myself, I can be the most nasty Top I know, so I made sure the harness was roped tight against my body. Immediately that makes breathing more laboured and also it is an effort to stand up straight.

This rope harness is in the Japanese Hojojutsu "butterfly" style - knots and diamonds across the front and the back is a straight line of knots up the spine from my ass crack where a knot on the harness retains the butt-plug.

On the front, rope passes tight under the armpits and also either side of the nipples. There is a diamond centred on my navel and others around my cock. I tied the harness off with a knot behind my back - not easy to untie to release myself - and wound the surplus around my cock and balls to stretch them and make a packet under the small pair of white shorts I was wearing.

I put this on tight and immediately began to feel the constriction like wearing a latex rubber body suit. But unlike rubber, the rope also begins to burn where it is tight over the skin and tied tight. This has an effect like mild tit-clips: I wasn't much aware of it to begin with but the effect increased insidiously while I was talking with my friends. Of course I was also drinking enough beer to relax and not be inhibited. I think this contributed to my allowing the effect of the harness to increase.

Also I chose a butt plug that is the cylindrical pattern that is possible to wear for a long duration, rather than the conical shape with a point that rests on the prostrate. The sensation is of fullness not of jabbing. It's shaped so that it is not necessary to consciously clench the sphincter to retain the plug.

The tight harness and plug was apparently comfortable enough for me to enjoy watching the various other bondage activities in progress in the play area: one slave was being wrapped in plastic film and then roped tightly inside a sleeping bag, another was secured standing in a diamond pattern rope web harness and was abused by his Master, others were secured to various Vagevuur playroom furniture pieces and played with by their Masters.

It was indeed intense. A natural high. The cumulative effect was that I was pretty much tripping after a couple of hours of wearing this tight rope harness. There are some great pictures painted on the walls of the Vagevuur play areas and they were starting to come out at me as three-dimensional bas-reliefs off the walls.

While chatting, I was also playing about on the various metal cages, suspension bars and so on; one or two friends did some CBT on my rope-tied cock and balls. I was hypersensitive compared to normal: very little work made a major sensation. This was a bit problematic as I had neither expected this effect nor were they much aware of the Hojojutsu rope harness trip I was on. No disasters but I would very much have liked a Master who was on the same wavelength, like the TT (nipple play) a fellow slave put me through when I was similarly sensitised at a previous Vagevuur SM evening.

The evening climaxed and I removed the harness. There was a huge relief as my body relaxed. Whatever it is that the harness makes happen was removed and I felt wiped out, drained. Blood circulated more easily. A fellow slave commented how the pattern of the rope harness was imprinted in red marks on my skin, he could see it clearly even in the dim reddish light of the dungeon. The rope marks faded quickly but were still showing at the end of the evening and had faded completely by breakfast the next morning.

I remarked at the time that the relief I felt when I was released from the constriction of the rope harness was somewhat like a man feels after tit-clips are removed from his nipples; that's not the closest analogy because there's high pain when you remove tit-clips which didn't happen with untying the rope. Probably a better analogy is the relief you sometimes feel when leaving work on Friday evening for a break after a particularly hard week.

I daresay the tripping on the pictures and paintings was a combination of the beer and an empty stomach but I didn't have a hangover the next morning! Heightened reality occurs in some other ancient rites. It certainly wasn't drug induced on me and I wasn't aware of anyone smoking anything other than tobacco around me; I reckon it was mainly the effect of the harness and plug and the friendly fetish ambience of the Vagevuur.

Lots of potential for more play in this... Get in touch - click here to send mail and let's get practical

• Page about Hojojutsu
• Japanese traditional judicial CP
• Rope notes - Nawa Shibari or Hojojutsu, Japanese Rope Bondage resource
• Rope slave - my page in Japanese
• Japanese SM and endurance - my page of links to SM sites in Japan

• Vagevuur Adieu!
• Vagevuur - non-commercial safe sex club [Eindhoven, NL]

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