Shibari (縛り, literally meaning "bondage") is a Japanese style of sexual bondage or BDSM. Shibari involves tying up the bottom (or uke) in intricate patterns, usually with several pieces of thin rope. Shibari differs from Western bondage in that, instead of just immobilizing or restraining the bottom, the bottom gains pleasure from being under the pressure and strain of the ropes, squeezing the breasts or genitals. The aesthetics of the bound person's position are also important: in particular, Japanese bondage is notorious for its use of asymmetric positions to heighten the psychological impact of bondage.

Although some of the techniques of Japanese sexual bondage originated with the military restraint technique of Hojojutsu, sexual bondage techniques are far gentler, and great care is taken to avoid injury.

Many rope artists have derived their own flavor of Japanese-inspired bondage which often mixes some Shibari techniques with other forms of bondage.

Shibari is greatly influenced by the Sengoku period of Japan. One of Japan's darkest historical eras of torture and execution, it is still remembered for cruel means and methods that include the use of fire, knives, tattoos, rocks, boiling water, divining blocks and rocking horses, etc.

Eventually (in 1742) the Tokugawa government created a foundation of crime laws, which included the seven different types of punishment (Labour, slavery, exile, death, etc) and the four kinds of torture (whip, pressing stone, constriction by rope, and hanging by rope). It has to be noted that all four official methods of torture from this period are still considered the mainstream torture patterns in the S&M art today.

Traditional Shibari is based on fairly specific rope patterns, most of them derived from Hojojutsu ties. Of particular importance are the Takate Kote (a type of arm box tie), which forms the basis of most Shibari ties, and the Ebi, or "Shrimp", which was originally designed as a torture tie but today makes the bottom vulnerable for more pleasant forms of play.

Generally, traditional Shibari is practiced with ropes of 7 meters (23 feet) in length. Due to the generally different physique of Western bottoms, 8 meter (26 feet) ropes are commonly used in the West. The rope material is usually hemp or jute (neither sisal nor manila hemp are usually useful), prepared according to specific techniques to achieve a pleasantly soft yet sturdy rope. Other materials are also sometimes used, although most synthetic ropes tend to be too slippery for Shibari techniques.

For historic reasons, Shibari uses very few knots, sometimes none at all, or only a larkshead or an overhand knot. This requires rope with high friction.

According to several sources, bondage as a sexual activity first came to notice in Japan in the late Edo period. Generally recognized as "father of Shibari" is Ito Seiu, who started studying and researching Hojojutsu in 1908 and turned it into an art form. Shibari became widely popular in the 1950s in magazine form (some sources to some extent credit influence from John Willie with popularizing Shibari). In the 1960s, a tradition of bondage as a form of performance art developed in Japan.

In recent years Japanese style rope work has become popular in the western BDSM scene.

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