Nureki Chimuo Archive

The “punishment photographs” from about seventy years ago, now stored in the sex museum, were shot using actors from popular theater troupes. Beyond the tattooed men and women from the period pieces mentioned above, there are still more. There are six sequential photographs depicting a merchant’s wife (or perhaps a maid) who was robbed, stripped naked, bound with hands behind her back with rope, and threatened. These are also enlargements made for me by Nakahara-san, the museum director, and they are now laid out before me. This, too, is fun. It’s an old photo, so naturally it’s black and white with blurred details, yet it strangely gives off such an SM vibe that I wonder why it’s so enjoyable to look at. Staring intently, all sorts of things come to mind, sending shivers down my spine. Being bound in a wide-legged spread, suspended from the ceiling with a thick vibrator forced inside her, this excites me far more than the recent color photographs, by several times, no, dozens of times over. The man disguised as a robber wears black clothing. Over his clothes, he wears a long-tailed black coat (meaning this is set in modern times). He wears black gloves, a black flat cap (called a birdshot cap back then) on his head, black sunglasses, and even meticulously dons a black mask. In short, he was dressed entirely in black. Upon closer inspection, he wore black tabi socks on his feet. He must be someone who really doesn’t want his true identity known. This means the man in black attire is likely not an actor, but one of the enthusiasts who gathered for the photo session that day.

The way they try to hide their identities in such exaggerated outfits is part of the fun. You can feel the enthusiast’s mindset, that they’re doing secret “bad things” they don’t want anyone to know about, and you can’t help but sympathize. These enthusiasts from over seventy years ago are undeniably comrades-in-arms with us enthusiasts today. The current “punishment photos,” created by exposing faces, figures, shapes (and even genitals), inevitably feel devoid of emotion, sentiment, interest, or impact. In the case of such photographs, perhaps “what is hidden is the flower41 .” This man dressed as a black-clad robber wouldn’t have hidden his face so thoroughly if he were a hired actor. Showing one’s face and figure is the actor’s trade. The woman playing the bound role, however, clearly shows her face. In other words, she is obviously an actress. I think this actress looks like the same one I introduced before with the tattoo. But she looks like a completely different person just by changing the angle a little, so it’s hard to tell if it’s the same person. Moreover, the terrified expression of being bound and threatened by the robber is so convincingly portrayed, as only an actress could, that it makes her features even more unrecognizable. (Come to think of it, the models in these bondage photos these days don’t really have any expression, do they? No matter how rough they get with them, you can’t tell what they’re thinking. Telling me to get excited looking at that face? No way…) I wrote “a burglar who broke into a merchant’s house,” but the merchant’s house in the photograph appears to be more like a pawnshop. Across the hallway from the tatami room, the door of a large safe is visible. Or rather, it’s less a safe and more a dark iron door. It appears the entire room has been converted into a storage space. For several years now, I’ve frequently visited a studio housed in an old residence that was actually a pawnshop built during the Meiji era, helping with bondage photography shoots. Just four or five days ago, I was at that studio again for a bondage shoot. This is a phrase from Zeami, a Noh master of the Muromachi period, meaning “Value and charm arise precisely through concealment. If everything is revealed, its value is lost.” This phrase originates from the Fushikaden. It is not merely about the beauty of restraint, but rather a secret teaching of Noh: strategically concealing how and when to reveal something heightens the audience's curiosity and anticipation, thereby creating the greatest emotional impact (flower).

(Incidentally, the town where that pawnshop studio is located is, believe it or not, “Hongo.” It’s right near Nakamura-za. I plan to write about this again.) So when I saw the structure of the iron door in this photo from seventy years ago, (ah this photo shoot location is a pawnshop), I knew immediately. Among the group of enthusiasts was a pawnshop owner, and they must have gathered secretly at his house to hold this kind of fun photo session. The actress playing the pawnshop proprietress wears a traditional Japanese hairstyle wig. This suggests the photograph was taken in an era when men harbored admiration and eroticism toward women sporting Japanese hairstyles. If so, this might be a photograph from not just seventy years ago, but eighty, meaning around 1930. (I was born in 1930. A photograph of my mother at seventeen, still kept in my home, shows her smiling with her hair styled in a traditional Japanese fashion and holding a parasol. I was in her womb at that time. In other words, in the working-class neighborhoods of Tokyo in 1930, young women still wore traditional Japanese hairstyles as part of their everyday lives.) With that in mind, this photo is all the more precious. This actress’s body looks supple, her arms raised high behind her back. In other words, she’s bound in a takate kote. She’s completely naked now, with no tattoos visible anywhere. Or perhaps this photo of the robber and the pawnshop owner was taken before period-style tattoos became fashionable. The rope binding the woman in a takate kote is tied to a pillar in front of the iron door of the photoshop. This composition is interesting. The woman has her back to the camera, so her pubic hair is not visible. Her buttocks are thin and somewhat underdeveloped. Despite being slender, they have a strangely realistic appearance, exuding a mysterious aura. The black-clad robber is whipping the woman’s buttocks with something resembling a whip. The motion is terribly blurred, making it impossible to discern the whip’s shape. The man’s hand is so blurred that at first glance, it’s unclear what he’s doing. Yet this blurring lends realism, creating a sense of speed and intensity. The resulting images exhibit effects that cannot be achieved with today’s sophisticated cameras. (No, it’s not about the camera’s quality. The inability to express this kind of SM-like realism might ultimately be down to the photographer’s lack of SM sensibility.)

Her bare buttocks were spanked, and the woman twisted her face in pain, her lips contorted, casting a glance at the man behind her. Her eyes held a hint of sensuality beneath that look of frustration. The way her hands are positioned, behind her back, is clearly visible, and the shape of her wrists is so appealing. It’s truly an enticing photograph. They’re raised so high it looks painful, making it masochistic. I really do feel it, that takate kote positioning. The presence of the arms and wrists, bent and twisted behind her in a slightly irregular shape, is truly wonderful. This wrist is far more erotic and sexy than photos showing genitals exposed in a wide-legged pose. (People who don’t get this shouldn’t be editing SM magazines!) Probably just one rope, and I like that it’s not cluttered with extra stuff. The pose of the man in black spanking the woman’s butt looks so amateurish it’s funny. He’s trying desperately to look the part, but it just doesn’t come together. Rather than a robber, his pose feels more like the leader or caretaker of this photo shoot. There’s something awkward about it. The shoot’s feverish yet relaxed atmosphere comes across so naturally it makes you smile. (I bet it was fun) I think. I feel a bit envious too. Frankly, what’s interesting is that I can’t quite figure out why a man whose goal was robbery would go out of his way to strip a woman naked and tie her up. The robber is probably trying to get the woman to open the lock on this iron door. Inside the vault are many valuable items. Jewelry, antiques, and such, held as collateral. The man broke in to steal it. But the pawnshop owner’s wife was so alluring that he ended up stripping her naked and tying her up. And now he’s tormenting her for his own amusement. That’s the only way to interpret it. He’s a burglar with a sense of humor. “Where’s the key to this storehouse? If you open the door, I won’t harm you. Now, hand over the key.” “No way. Everything stored in the warehouse is precious items entrusted to us by our customers. If thieves were to take them, we couldn’t possibly continue the business.” “Hmph, you said it plainly enough. But it’s only natural you’d say that. I knew that’s how you’d react, which is why I stripped you naked like this.

I’m a man and you’re a woman. And you’re naked and bound. If you don’t open the storehouse, you know what I’ll do, don’t you?” “Oh, please don’t be violent! My husband will be home soon. I don’t know where the key is. Please leave quickly!” “I’ve checked and confirmed that your husband has a meeting tonight and won’t be back until late. Hey, madam, if you keep being stubborn, I can make things difficult for you like this.” “Ah, ah, what are you doing? Stop, stop! Don’t put your hand there! That, that…. don’t do that!” “If I just said ‘Okay, I’ll stop’ when told to stop, I couldn’t run this thieving business. Hey, you got a cute ass there, madam! Spread your legs wider!” There’s also a photograph showing this woman’s ankles spread apart and bound with bamboo. There’s also a photo showing a woman face-down on an armchair, pinned down by a man. The positioning of their hands in this scene is perfect. The man’s hand is blurred and not clearly visible, which gives it a strangely realistic quality that’s quite arousing. There is also a photo showing a bamboo stick pressed against the woman’s lower body. This image is blurry and unclear, but the whip the man is holding might be this bamboo stick. There’s also a photograph showing a gag made from a spotted-patterned tenugui towel. In any case, the fact that it’s not clearly visible is what sparks the viewer’s imagination. “Huh? Don’t… don’t lick there! Stop it, stop it, stop it! Ahh, what a dirty thing to do!” “Hehehe… You keep saying ‘stop, stop,’ but your lower belly’s twitching and convulsing, isn’t it? You’re enjoying this. Once we’ve gotten this far, I can’t hold back anymore. I’ll put the storehouse on hold for now. First I’ll take care of you, madam.” “Oh no, help me!” If I get carried away and write lines like this that sound like some kind of play, that editor from that SM magazine would surely sneer and say something like this:

“See, I knew it. Nureki Sensei ties women up because he wants to have sex with them. Yet he keeps spouting lies, saying he gets pleasure from the ropes themselves, that just seeing a woman in all her bound forms satisfies him. In the end, he just wants to have sex with the women he ties up. He ties them up because he wants to have sex. But he wants to look cool, so he tries to cover it up with nonsense about the beauty of bondage.” I don’t know how to explain it to someone like this. Explaining the psychology of enthusiasts who find satisfaction simply in tying others is truly difficult. No matter how much you explain that some women find satisfaction simply in being bound, those who don’t understand will never grasp it. For fellow enthusiasts, they can understand each other perfectly with just a few words, but this level of understanding is simply impossible for people who are not enthusiasts. That’s why I only discuss SM topics with fellow enthusiasts. No matter how openly curious an ordinary person might approach and speak to me, I’d say “I don’t understand anything” and run away. Not knowing anything at all, well, that’s actually true. (I really don’t know why I’ve come to like ropes so much.) A sexy landlady is left in charge of the pawnshop when robbers break in. They strip her naked, tie her up with ropes, and threaten her with lewd words while tormenting her relentlessly. Up to this point, they use an actress to make it seem somewhat real (though of course, it’s just acting; it couldn’t actually happen. If they did it, it would be a crime and wouldn’t feel enjoyable.) The erotic developments that follow all enter the realm of fantasy or delusion. In other words, we act out the first part of the play, then indulge in a world of delusional pleasure. When it comes to actually doing things, there are all sorts of restrictions. Many troublesome things arise. It’s more enjoyable for us to enter a world of fantasy, where we can freely do whatever we want. If I were to actually insert my penis instead of just fantasizing about it, my body would be pressed against the woman’s body, and the “restraints” that I find so appealing would disappear from my view. The ropes I’ve used to bind her would cease to exist. That’s unacceptable. I want to see them. For enthusiasts, the presence of “rope” is such a crucial element.

Even after binding her with rope and robbing her of the freedom to resist, the enthusiast’s desire is not to violate her immediately. Instead, he wants to stand slightly apart from that female body, to admire it, to become aroused, and to remain lost in rapture forever. A reader who frequently reads my “Talking Theater,” someone using the pen name Mika Suzume, wrote: “Sex after being tied up is like a bonus.” I was impressed by how well-put that was. It truly is a bonus. Therefore, it’s not necessary. If the main product itself is satisfying enough, then extras are unnecessary. But, I guess people who don’t get it just won’t get it. You’d probably think they’re a species that says utterly ridiculous things, like sex is just a bonus. If you tied me up and didn’t take advantage of me, what was the point of tying me up in the first place? You worthless pervert. I’d despise you. I’ve been thoroughly looked down upon by editors and people who make “SM videos” who think that way. Even if they pretend to be convinced and act like they understand on the surface, I can tell they secretly despise me, thinking, “What the hell is this guy talking about? What a pervert.” I fully understand that such desires are abnormal and belong to a minority. That’s why I think it’s only natural to be looked down upon. You probably won’t believe me, but I’ve experienced a great deal of terrible discrimination and contempt. Therefore, I have made every effort to protect the privacy of members, especially those from the Kinbiken era. There are many enthusiasts with whom I’ve had deep connections for over a decade, yet I still don’t know their real names, where they live, or what kind of work they do. However, it’s not all bad. I’m experiencing a profound, human ecstasy and a world of blissful pleasure beyond the imagination of normal, sensible people. They secretly despise the sexual acts of ordinary people who simply rub genitals together and thrust in and out for the sole purpose of release, though they don’t show it on the surface. Oh? The conversation has veered off in a strange direction again. Where did it go wrong?

Oh, right. It was about those “punishment photos” from seventy or eighty years ago that I found at the sex museum. These types of “punishment photos” should still be in the archives, so I’ll ask Director Nakahara again to make enlarged copies. And gaze upon them, immersing myself in a world of fantasy and delusion, playing alone. Tomorrow, I’ll be assisting with another “SM video” shoot, spending the entire day, from morning until night, tying up a young, beautiful model. This isn’t fantasy or delusion; it’s my actual “job” to tie her up. Binding and untying, binding and untying, binding and untying again… The model I’ll be tying up tomorrow is, by common standards, ten or twenty times more beautiful than that actress from a travelling troupe eighty years ago, the one with small breasts and a puny behind. She’s an undeniable beauty: large breasts, a full behind, a well-defined waist, and long legs. And without a moment’s hesitation, she spreads her legs wide open, generously and energetically revealing what should be hidden. Seeing that, the director is delighted. But, but… Enthusiasts are utterly hopeless creatures. They dream of, fantasize about, and become hopelessly aroused by photographs of actresses, those women who seem to have the grime of travelling performers ingrained in them, being bound and tormented. The sepia-toned photograph, worn and scarred, carries a potent scent of SM. This is by no means mere nostalgia. I believe it touches upon the very essence of the sensory world of SM: a realm concealing infinite pleasure….