Isean

There were merits on both sides. I don’t know how open either side would be to admitting that given the level of animosity.

However I’m going to address the thoughts that occurred to me as a consequence of the argument rather than the argument because maybe it’s one that bears exploring.

Now, learning an instrument takes time. You have to admit that. I’ve done it myself. Learned the instrument, learned to read music and gotten good enough to play by sight. I wasn’t a great musician by any stretch. Competent, but I’d never be near the professional level. I taught myself, I enjoyed it and to an extent I found it easy but! It took time, lets be clear about that, it did take time. Much longer than it took to grasp tying someone’s wrists.

However, once you get past that… What took and would always take a lifetime playing an instrument is interpretation and expression. What took and will always take a lifetime tying is interpretation and expression.

I think that holds true for anything you can consider an art. No matter how simple or difficult it is from a reductionist point of view it’s perhaps something you can’t express, the thing that makes one thing art and the other craft that makes a difference.

Consider, there are a great many people play classical guitar, but very few giants like Segovia. There are a great many who practice rope in Japan but very few giants like Nureki, Yukimura or Akechi.

In a sense the comparison is not fair though as anyone can be taught a few chords just as everyone can be taught a basic kata. In the discussion I saw the challenge was to learn one tie against learning a Beethoven string quartet.

To take another example, how much skill does it take to wet a brush and daub paint on a canvas? Not a lot and anyone can do it.

What? There’s more to it than that? The devil you say!

I think it’s obvious not everyone can take that simple action and refine and command it to the point that they can paint a Vermeer, a Picasso, a Van Gogh. There’s more to it than that.

And there’s more to Shibari than memorising patterns.

What makes something art ultimately?

Maybe one kind is where the artist takes the simplest technique and creates something beautiful with it.

Noctuelle tied bound gagged in Kimono, intense kinbaku scene.

Clover kinbaku tied on Tatami in Kyoto Ryokan

NawaTeNeko tied by WykD Dave, Photography by Clover Brook Directed by Sugiura Norio

Novellus exhausted after intense kinbaku session

Scarlot Rose in Beautiful emotional rope bondage

The intersection of dreams… and something else | Inoublietta