Translator’s Note: When we explore the history of Kinbaku and Japanese SM (the two are inseparable, in reality), we have a tendency to focus on the legends of bondage themselves. Names like Minomura Ko, Nureki Chimuo, Akechi Denki and many others.
But equally important are the models, both amateur and professional, that help shaped the content and the shape of the culture of Japanese SM. From Kitan Club to Roman videos, and to the modern era of Japanese AVs, each model provides a unique canvas in expression and feeling, and without them, Japanese SM may have never evolved out of primarily reader submission magazines.
Hiromi Saotome is a legendary model in the Japanese SM world. First staring in adult films in 1983, she participated in one of her first magazine shoots in the same year, for a magazine called SM Mania. The production involved herself, Nureki Chimuo, and Sugiura Norio.
These are the translations of her blog, located here (https://note.com/saotome6) talking about her history with Nureki. It is my honor to have them published on Kinbaku Today.
By Hiromi Saotome
October 9, 2020
May 2011. The “Production: Tomoshibi” project finally got underway, and a photo shoot was conducted with the aim of capturing true masochistic eroticism. The team consisted of four people, the director Nakahara Rutsu, director of the Sex Industry Museum, photographer and editor Sachi Yamanouchi, bondage specialist Nureki, and model Saotome. The shoot took place at the female photographer’s home.
From just past noon until around 4pm, the shoot proceeded in a relaxed atmosphere. As a close-knit group of four, there was no need for unnecessary tension. However, once the shoot began, their determination and passion became intensely focused.
I immersed myself in the role of “Hiromi,” the wife of a husband burdened with debt. While trying to fully embody the character, I barely spoke. I hardly even offered verbal responses. When someone gave a direction, I’d merely nod slightly. Nureki Sensei, playing the debt collector, tied the ropes. There were far fewer ropes than in any bondage shoot I’d experienced before, and the ties weren’t very tight. But this was part of the scenario. After all, my character was just an “amateur who enjoys being tied up.” Yet this, paradoxically, only served to heighten my sense of “humiliation.” I feel as though my mind and body, not just my genitals, are being violated. If it were just my genitals, I could at least resign myself to it (thinking, “Well, I guess it can’t be helped”), but being tied up feels like having something out of the ordinary forced upon me, as if I’m made to endure a first-time experience. My emotions become a mix of half anger toward my husband (“You’re doing such a silly thing… I can’t believe this is happening because of you…”) and a sense of acceptance, (“But I have to do something for the husband I love…”).
I’m forced to bite down on a gag to keep from screaming. I know this is a standard tactic, but it was none other than Director Nakahara who was particular about how it was applied. “Sensei! Please make it tighter!” At that tightness, my voice will definitely leak out. “Sensei! It doesn’t look tight enough visually.” I was surprised by her insistence. To be honest, I’m not physically comfortable with gags. I love the act itself, so I’m usually the type who likes them tight, but my mouth doesn’t open very wide, and I’m slightly bucktoothed, so it’s hard to stuff anything in there. The traditional method, stuffing multiple layers of cloth into my mouth, becomes physically impossible for me. Based on his past experience with me, Nureki Sensei was aware of this physical limitation and had been going easy on me. However, prompted by Director Nakahara’s words, Nureki Sensei managed to make it look tight by stuffing several layers of cloth into my mouth. I put in a little extra effort to match his energy. Looking at the finished photo, the hand towel is digging into my cheeks, my nostrils are flared, and my expression clearly shows how hard it was to breathe.
Well, I’ve ended up writing mostly about my own impressions, so let’s take a look at what Nureki Sensei had to say by borrowing from Talking Theater, Chapter 166.
I need to write a little more about what happened during the filming of the Tomoshibi group.
Having shot between five and six thousand bondage photos and videos for commercial purposes, this was the first time I had ever completed a shoot entirely of my own volition, by reaching out to trusted staff and models, and without compromising to anyone or anything.
After the shoot, while we were having our wrap party at an izakaya called Akazatsuya, I told my three companions about this.
“Today is the first time I’ve ever shot purely based on my own tastes and will, without the greedy thought of trying to sell to ‘normal’ people outside the fetish community. In that sense, today is a memorable day of rebirth for Nureki.”
I repeated something to that effect over and over, changing my wording slightly each time, while thanking them in my heart.
In 1959 (Showa 34), when Minomura Ko asked me to take over the editing of Uramado, everything, from the photographs to the novels and other reading material on the text pages, was intended solely for enthusiasts.
Although it was, of course, a commercial magazine from a business standpoint, its target audience was clearly limited to enthusiasts.
I edited Uramado with only our enthusiast readers in mind.
I paid absolutely no attention to the general reader.
I aimed to create a magazine that would not be interesting to the general reader.
I even felt it would be a source of shame if the general reader found it interesting.
The authorities who regulated and cracked down on erotic magazines would say, “I have absolutely no idea what’s interesting about a magazine like this,” and mock me.
There were times when I even took a certain pride in being dismissed as clueless and mocked as a pervert.
As the magazine became increasingly shunned and despised by the authorities, its unconventional content was welcomed by readers who possessed an unconventional sensibility.
Around this time, the editors at Uramado, Minomura Ko, Yoji Muku and myself, were all people who possessed both a normal sensibility and an unconventional one.
As times changed, one reason SM magazines began to feature content aimed at ordinary erotic enthusiasts was the fact that they came to be edited by people who possessed only a normal sensibility and lacked any sensibility beyond the ordinary.
Even SM magazines edited by people with only ordinary erotic sensibilities, who were merely imitating what they saw, sold well as long as they were a novelty. They brought in profits for the publishers.
However, it was inherently unreasonable to have people from the world of common sense, who possessed only ordinary sensibilities, edit SM magazines aimed at enthusiasts.
(When I spent time with them, there were so many instances of such misguided thinking that it made me want to cry.)
Editors with only ordinary sensibilities inevitably end up incorporating the eroticism of ordinary sensibilities into the magazine.
They’d try to lift up the hem of a woman’s clothes to immediately show her butt, or make her spread her legs to shove something between her thighs…
Admittedly, for ordinary people, the eroticism of inserting something into a woman’s crotch is easier to understand.
Because it’s easy to grasp, it makes editing feel safe. It’s unsettling to present something to readers that you yourself don’t understand or can’t comprehend.
Rather than publishing a photo while tilting your head in confusion, wondering why a woman sitting in seiza with her legs closed while fully clothed is better than one standing completely naked with her legs spread wide, it’s only natural to want to include the kind of eroticism you can clearly sense yourself.
Since I was involved with most of the SM magazines that were being published in large numbers at the time, I had a lot of dealings with editors like that.
(Omitted) So, let me make one thing clear from the start.
For those who prefer conventional erotic sensibilities, this will likely be a completely uninteresting photo collection that makes little sense.
(Though I have no intention of showing it to anyone outside my circle.)
The only ones who will find it entertaining are my friends who share my tastes.
That is why, in the photos I took this time, the model remains fully clothed throughout the entire process.
I won’t even roll up the hems of her clothes.
There are absolutely no pointless, extremely unnatural acrobatic scenes, such as suspending her upside down.
I’ll use no more than three or four ropes at most. Fewer ropes have a stronger presence and allow me to express a more tantalizing eroticism of bondage.
This kind of sensibility would be completely incomprehensible to ordinary people.
Of course, I don’t expect them to understand. The fortress deep within our hearts is impregnable.
Because it is a sensory world that ordinary people could never possibly comprehend.
It is a sensory world that only enthusiasts, those possessing a flexible imagination, a rich sense of narrative, and a delicate, imaginative power capable of leaps of the mind, can accept and immerse themselves in with pleasure.
Nureki Chimuo, Talking Theater Chapter 166
May 10, 2011
This photo shoot was compiled into a booklet titled “The Sunset Room.” This booklet is quietly sold at the Sex Industry Museum in Iidabashi, Tokyo. And immediately after this shoot, the second and third installments were photographed. Since I’d like to write about that as well, I’ll continue in the next installment.
