Eikichi Osada transferred to manage Wakamatsu, a 100-seat strip theatre in Funabashi, Chiba, east of Tokyo in the spring of 1991 while Hiromi Saotome turned to self-bondage shows which had now become all the rage. But while Hiromi was performing on 20th October 1991 aged 66 Eikichi collapsed from a brain haemorrhage. He was taken to hospital, unable to speak or move the left half of his body. Undergoing rehabilitation his health slowly improved and he would slip out of the hospital to tie Kazumi Ozawa privately.
From July 1992 until October 1993 Yoshikatsu (Hige) Hayakawa was editor of SM Spirits magazine for Million Publishing, and in March 1993 they published SUPER Cult Dialogue Toru Nawa vs Eikichi Osada – Toru being a lesser-known bondage master and AV director 2 years older than Eikichi and active between 1950 and the mid-1990s, predominantly then in video.
SM Spirits ran a series of monthly educational Shibari introduction course articles during 1993 featuring Eikichi Osada: in April, Tanuki (raccoon dog) Shibari, May, Kaiga (open legs) Shibari, June, General Shibari, July, Ebi (shrimp) Shibari, August, General Shibari, September, Kaiga Ebi (open leg shrimp) Shibari, and October, Gote Isu Kaikyoku (seated open legs) Shibari.
Eikichi returned to perform again in June 1993 at the opening of the SM pub Black & White with Hiromi. But following the brain haemorrhage he began to find it increasingly difficult to find models. Still eager to perform, he turned to his muse Kazumi Ozawa to stand in, now with fewer bookings and in smaller locations as she was the only one taking care of him, trying to help him revive Osada Seminar. However, Kazumi being older and not as lithe as professional models presented certain limitations and audience appeal.
In November 1993 Eikichi Osada and Kazumi Ozawa did their first public performance together at SM pub doga, a counter bar near Shibuya station where the stage was about the size of a tatami mat behind the bar and only 5 people could fit at the counter. They did one show every day for about a week, but the number of shows gradually decreased, they didn’t get as many customers as they thought they would, and it was too unprofitable.
In December they performed Osada Seminar together at SM bar Barajūjikan, Kyoto, managed by Ryuzaki Asuka.
In April 1994 Eikichi and Kazumi performed at Hotel CoCo, Otsuka, and in a film for Shukan Shokusyu. In October he did SM shows with Kazumi again, and in November with Ruri Aoi at Dotonbori Theatre, Shibuya.
At the 3rd anniversary party of Barajūjikan in September 1994 Eikichi performed alongside Dan Oniroku, Akechi Denki, Hige of S&M Sniper, and mistresses Tsubakijuyo and Asagiri Rie.
In January 1995 Eikichi performed an SM show with Ayano Katsuragi and other models taking turns at Star, Ueno, followed by a run of 10 days in the spring at DX Kabukichō, Shinjuku. Models were now slowly coming back, and in April 1995 he performed SM shows now without suspensions, undoubtedly due to his condition, at Mikado, Ikebukuro with Hana Shinozaki.
It is important to appreciate the level of Eikichi Osada and other’s Shibari skills at the time – messy and rudimentary compared to the post Matsui Kenji suspension techniques using jute taught to Akechi Denki around 1994/5. Eikichi generally shunned hemp and jute, relying on twisted or braided ø8mm cotton in 10-meter lengths dyed yellow or red with fabric-taped ends bought in boxes from a store in Kyōbashi, Tokyo.
In July 1995 he performed 15-minute shows with 20-year old Shiyuki Katsuna and Akane Sunset at Shinsei DX, Fushimi, Kyoto. However, in September he appeared to struggle at OS, Shibuya and did not perform again for another year.
Around 1996, Beautiful Girl Hentai Training a video by Sanwa Publishing was released, directed by Akira Takatsuki and featuring Eikichi Osada, Nureki Chimuo and Akechi Denki with model Shishiyuki Katsuna. Kazumi Ozawa ghost-wrote a serialised half-life story My Journey into SM published under the name Eikichi Osada for Sanwa Shuppan’s August 1996 issue of SM Mania. In September SM pub Bondage, Shinjuku opened, and Eikichi worked as an adviser for about two months, performing an SM show at the opening party with Shiyuki Setsuna, and continuing until October with Kazumi. In March 1997 Lisa Tamaki opened the SM University Hohina, accompanying Eikichi Osada as lecturers in a Kinbaku Research Course.
By now, Akechi Denki, already becoming established as a superior bondage master had come into contact with the secretive Matsui Kenji, an amateur practitioner responsible for significant evolution of suspension techniques using jute Asanawa. With this added skill Akechi quickly became the major star of the SM scene, going on to influence a generation. Unfortunately, by the time Akechi generously gave his shopfitting business to his employers and turned fully professional in 1997 the market had significantly reduced due to the dire economic situation in Japan.
Shows were slowly picking up again for Eikichi Osada. In May 1997 he performed a special version of Osada Seminar’s Prologue to Shibari at Black & White, Toshima, Tokyo with Shino Kisaragi, in June at Wakamatsu, in July at Tsurumi Shinsekai, and in August at Show up, Omiya, Saitama, all with Hiromi Saotome performing her solo ritual disembowelment seppuku show. In October he made an Osada Circle Show at Wakamatsu-cho, Shinjuku with Kazumi, and 10 more shows around that time at Tsurumi Shinsekai with Hiromi. But with the decline of strip theatre, SM shows were no longer the craze they had been, and with the advent of the Internet, the website Osada Seminar SM Private School was launched.
The heyday of Eikichi Osada’s career was now long over, and performances were starting to become infrequent again. The next SM show wasn’t until July 1998 at Loft Plus One, Shinjuku with Hiromi. In August and September Eikichi made SM shows at SM pub Bondage, Shinjuku, again with Hiromi, and in October with Kazumi. With the decline in interest in SM shows at strip theatres, the rise of the Internet, and more people wishing to learn Shibari, various rope groups were starting up, and in August 1998 Eikichi held a Shibari study group, and in June 1999 another, Shibari Association – How to Learn from Professionals.
During the next shows with Hiromi, Yukiko Izumi and Kazumi, on 17th July 1999 Eikichi Osada fell off stage while tying Kazumi. She screamed desperately at him as his black polyester wig fell off. Dizzy, he picked himself up, holding on to a stick beside him while she kicked the whip on the floor towards his hand with her free foot, but he was too far away to reach it. After the performance was over, he said he didn’t remember anything, and the manager told him to go to hospital and the show was cancelled. Following this incident, it’s clear from Kazumi’s blog diary entries and account, Hige’s account, and Hiromi’s memoirs that Eikichi’s cognitive abilities had become significantly impaired. He often appearing muddled and confused, but desperate to continue performing. It can be logically assumed he’d suffered a second, lesser brain haemorrhage. For reference, Hige, himself a bondage enthusiast had edited and been Editor-in-Chief of several SM publications from the mid-1970s until 1999, often covering Eikichi and Osada Seminar, including in SM Fan, SM Monitor, S&M Mania Life, SM Spirits and S&M Sniper.
During the summer of 1999, the English language Tokyo Journal magazine published by NeXXus Communications K.K. carried an article on an SM Kinbaku show credited as performed by Eikichi Osada. When Kazumi discovered it, she contacted the publisher to complain as the show had actually been performed by Eizo Chiba, and met German Stefan Hauser for the first time.
In her diary entry 18th January 2000, she wrote: “Osada Sensei is not good at English, so he was always nervous about gaijin disciples. He used to feel they couldn’t approach him because he couldn’t speak English. But just before last week’s show, one looked at him and his face lit up as he asked him to pull the pulley with his body language.” This is the first mention of foreigners since her diaries began.
Kazumi’s employment in research was not going well. Her employer had put responsibility for a project of 20 people onto her, then tried to dismiss her, but she fought. She was trying desperately to find the money to pay for a studio for Osada Seminar to continue to survive, which she knew it couldn’t if only she modelled. Kazumi’s employer restructured as an excuse to creditors, but she kept fighting, and Eikichi felt not being able to do shows anymore was the end of his life. Kazumi tried to rent a studio for him without telling her family, and without knowing if she would lose her job and be able to pay. However, the real estate agency, seeing the name Eikichi Osada raised the price, making it impossible to fund. Retired from the printing company, he now had no income and was at loggerheads with his wife, who took his small pension and no longer cooked for him.
Eikichi and Kazumi performed as Osada Seminar in February at Wakamatsu Theatre, and at Masters Bar and Roppongi Mistress, both in the same building in Roppongi between November 1999 and June 2000. But they were small locations, and performances only averaged two customers, even after Kazumi posted on internet forums about the shows without knowing much about computers or how to make websites.
Stephan then offered a place for Eikichi to continue, with him accepting to teach on condition he would continue to be respected no matter how old and decrepit he became. Studio 6 in Higashi-Ikebukuro was used for 6 months every Saturday from mid-April to the end of September 2000, and for Eikichi, keeping Osada Seminar going was everything. The studio was about 45m2 with 15m2 for stage and dressing room. The number of people who attended varied from 2 to 10. Some guest models came, but basically it was just a show with Eikichi and Kazumi. Studio 6 became unavailable when NeXXus Communications K.K. moved in.
Osada Seminar continued sporadically in various locations with a small group including Miki Mori and Kinbaku performances by Shiro Maruki.
In December 2000 at 75 years of age Eikichi built a frame for Hiromi in her apartment so she could practise her self-bondage shows, and the same month the Paradise TV Channel broadcast an old performance: SM Sensei Eikichi Osada Performs.
Saturday 13th January 2001, Eikichi showed up at Osada Seminar dizzy, dishevelled, and stating he didn’t know if he was going to collapse. He required help while trying to tie, and afterwards Kazumi accompanied him home in a taxi.
17th January, Kazumi took Eikichi to hospital, with him feeling faint, his mind appearing in turmoil. However, it was only a duty doctor who saw him, measured his blood pressure and prescribed medicine. He was still adamant at this stage he wasn’t finished yet and wished to continue performing his SM shows.
At the Saturday 20th January Osada Seminar meeting, highly unusually Eikichi opted to leave all tying to Shiro Maruki. Afterwards Kazumi took him home in a taxi, but because she wasn’t welcome at his house, she saw him off at the corner of the street and drove on. Eikichi collapsed in the snow from a serious cerebral haemorrhage at the door of his house and wasn’t discovered until morning. Alarms were raised the next day when he couldn’t be reached. The few members of Osada Seminar inquired at the nearby hospital and at the fire department with no information forthcoming. Eikichi’s cell phone was turned off, and they tried calling all the phone numbers at his home, but no one answered. A local liquor store owner was asked and went to check on the house, reporting the entrance light on, Eikichi’s room dimly lit, but no one answered the doorbell.
23rd January it was discovered he was in an unknown hospital. The group of friends then worked throughout the night to locate him, still without knowing his condition. The following day they located the hospital where Eikichi had been taken. Kazumi and Stefan determined to visit him on the Friday and Shiro Maruki with his model the next day where they found him wheelchair bound because he was unstable walking, and with a large injury to his right hand, probably caused by the fall on his doorstep. All encouraged him by telling him they’d keep Osada Seminar going until he could recover.
When Kazumi visited again on 28th January, Eikichi was asleep. She tried waking him, but he immediately fell asleep again. When he finally opened his eyes, he didn’t remember what had happened. The next time Kazumi visited on 1st February, Eikichi was still dizzy, and had been strapped to the bed by nursing staff so he couldn’t move around. He tried in vain to get up several times, but was delirious, stating he wanted to leave immediately to go and perform an SM show. By 7th February he was no longer bound but now fenced in on the bed. Kazumi served him pudding and helped him to walk around the room, but hospital staff asked her not to visit so regularly.
On 13th February Stefan wrote to Kazumi, ‘Let’s continue Osada Seminar in the spirit of Osada sensei until he is getting better’ hoping that the group could continue to exist. Because Eikichi was still alive, Kazumi wanted to continue Osada Seminar for him so he could come back whenever he wanted. Other rope masters came to help, but they just met visiting women and took them to love hotels. While Kazumi liked to be tied, she never wanted to be the one tying. But Eikichi had taught her a little, with her tying him. So, she decided to become a rope master thinking she’d be able to get rid of the others who were seducing women and taking them to love hotels. At that time, she admitted, neither she nor Stephan were very good at tying, but he was better at learning than her.
By April 2001 Kazumi and Stefan were doing shows at Osada Seminar billed as Dr. D. Vice & Ozawa’s SM, and on 22nd April she again visited Eikichi in the hospital, noting he seemed to show signs of improvement.
Kazumi, Miki Mori and Stephan next visited Eikichi in the hospital on 30th April, asking if he remembered them. On 8th May Kazumi learned Eikichi always seemed to be waiting for someone to visit. The following day she went but he didn’t move for a while, and seemed somewhat lost. She’d brought the music he used for their shows and put the earpiece in his ear, hoping it would cheer him up. When the song Bian, bian, bian, bian started to play, his face moved in time with the music and he looked at her with the stare he put on at his shows, almost like he was waiting for his cue to begin. The music made his eyes light up, and suddenly he regained energy. After Kazumi left, he tried to leave the hospital to go to Ikebukuro, obsessed with his SM show.
12th May, Kazumi visited Eikichi again. He was already near the door waving to her as soon as she walked in. With visiting hours nearly over, when she tried to leave, he said, “It’s not time yet.” and tried to keep her there, so the hospital staff permitted her to stay a little later than usual, and the nurse encouraged her to come back and see him again. The next day the atmosphere had changed. Kazumi put on the SM show cassette and explained her self-bondage show to Eikichi, to which he said she should do a candlelight show while hanging upside down, and she agreed to bring him some rope.
Visiting again on 16th and 22nd May, Eikichi’s appetite had greatly improved, but the following day hospital staff called to warn Kazumi against feeding him too much. With her number, he was now calling regularly from the hospital. When she visited on 27th May, nursing staff were strict about feeding Eikichi outside his regulated diet. When she played him music again from the show, he listened at first before becoming agitated, confused and insisting he had to leave immediately to perform a show in Ikebukuro.
On Kazumi’s 1st June visit, again Eikichi became excited, insisting he needed to leave to perform a show in Ikebukuro. She tried to placate him, explaining it was still eight days until the next Osada Seminar meeting, but he asked her to leave ¥20,000 so he could run away from the hospital. Even so, his legs no longer functioned, and while Kazumi tried to steady him so he could walk about 3 metres, his right leg shook, yet he still demonstrated incredible passion to put on an SM show.
Kazumi and Stephan rode the bus together to the hospital on Monday 4th June 2001, where Eikichi was at a table in front of the TV, half asleep. While eating, she put on the SM show music cassette again and turned it up to full volume, to which Eikichi said, “Hurry up and get ready! I’m going to Ikebukuro!” Seemingly very confused, when he got up from his wheelchair Kazumi and Stephan supported him from both sides as he took a couple of steps, trying to move his right leg. The nurse ended the visit by telling Eikichi it was his last night at the hospital, and that he’d be moved to another place tomorrow. Kazumi and Stephan shook Eikichi’s hand in turn, saying, “See you later. Let’s meet again.” and he waved them goodbye at the door. According to Kazumi, Stephan then said that since they had changed their names to Osada, he should do a show with his own partner and not her, saying, “I should find a more beautiful woman to do the show with.” but that they should do their separate shows together.
Eikichi Tsukada was moved by his family to an unknown hospice the following day, and died on Wednesday 12th September 2001. His ashes were interred at Zentokuji Buddhist temple, Ashikaga, Tochigi, and his family destroyed his entire collection of materials held at the family home.
When specifically questioned, Kazumi stated that Eikichi didn’t give her any permission to use the name Osada, she presumed because he wanted to return to perform. She in turn wanted to become a bondage master and wait until he came back, and the only reason she continued with the name Osada, even after he passed away, was so she could pay for the studio by tying up people there using his name for marketing, noting how Denjiro Sakurada was subsequently very angry about the unusual practise of someone taking the name, and castigating Kazumi about it.
Kazumi heard the sad news 8 days later on 20th September, and the same day Jimi Tatu posted it on his AdultRopeARt Yahoo group. Kazumi and Stephan, now going under the names Kazumi Osada and Osada Steve self-funded a memorial at Hisashi Oda’s newly opened Roppongi Jail for 23rd November attended by models Mari Aoi and Mai Ito, and guests Akechi Denki, Denjiro Sakurada, Nekura Doji, Hiroo Minowa, and Yoshikatsu (Hige) Hayakawa, splitting the ~$3,700 cost at today’s value with models and guests.
Kazumi did a few shows with Stephan for about a year after Eikichi passed away before he told her he had all the information he could get from her, and didn’t need her anymore. In 2002, Kazumi decided the studio was finished because Eikichi Osada was dead and there was no guarantor. Stephan told her he was going to build a studio in the same building and they should invite people to come to an opening party as the new Osada Seminar studio. The new studio was Stephan’s, so after the party Kazumi considered the foreign-western studio swap complete and their relationship ended.
Kazumi continues to hold annual memorial events in Japan for her Sensei, Eikichi Osada.
Sources:
長田英吉NOW
Tsurumi Shinsekai Eikichi Osada retirement Osada Seminar v Hiromi Saotome Dec 1989
Kazumi Ozawa ‘Diary of an M Woman’
Hiromi Saotome ‘After an apology to the late Eikichi Osada’, Hot Lady Magazine 20 May 1980
Shibari Technique, Bordeaux 1982
Eikichi Osada ドキュメント オーガズム
Eikichi Osada 長田英吉緊縛テクニック BIND TECHNIQUE
Weekend Super magazine
SM Spirits 1993
AdultRopeARt Yahoo group
Junichi Tate ‘Granpi Diary’
Interview and conversations with Yoshikatsu (Hige) Hayakawa 2019
Conversations with Kazumi Ozawa 2022
smpedia.com
