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Sadomasochistic images in Japan grace the catwalks, the design world and the dog-eared pages of a million manga comics. They prop up a booming video, bar and fetish-shop industry, and provide income for countless girls with severe countenances and hot leather outfits. And they feature in the fantasy world of a large slice of the Japanese sexual consciousness.
S&M imagery around the world has experienced a boom in popularity in the last 5-10 years. Whether this is being carried over into the bedrooms is hard to tell, though signs suggest that it is. Nowadays sexual boundaries are often there only to be pushed ever back. Not only are more people exploring the possibilities of games of domination and control, but those that always have are becoming less shy to tell about it.
Not, of course, that any of this is anything new. The history and fetish of bondage and S&M is hard to unravel because the nature of society’s view of it has meant that it was more often hidden than documented. However what remains tells us that some people have been quietly walking the wonky line for a long time.
Many of the images of modern Japanese S&M are drawn from the violent times of the Sengoku jidai (War Period) that stretched from 1492 to 1560. Many cruel methods of torture and humiliation were developed in what has been called the ‘Dark Ages of Japan.’ In 1742 the Tokugawa government laid out the foundation of the crime laws which described four types of torture for criminal punishment – whipping, pressing stone, rope bondage and rope suspension. Later on, these were to become the foundation for the main images of S&M play.
The cross-over of these methods from those of torture and social control to aesthetic images of pleasure and interest started to establish itself in the artistic heights of the Edo Period. The depiction of punishment started to establish itself as a genre and its place as mass entertainment that was to grow into modern art forms such as manga developed in this time.
The first preserved images of a distinctively sexual sadomasochistic subculture started popping up in Japan at the end of the Edo Period around the time when Japan opened its doors to the rest of the world. A combination of the maturing of an already established genre and the influence of European art forms and sexual behaviors probably helped it develop more openly as an art form and a culture. Today it enjoys an existence in popular images probably unequalled in any other country.
S&M draws from and plays with many of the social behaviors and interactions going on around us all the time. It puts them in a consensual fantasy world where it is safe to do things that could be otherwise destructive or perhaps just socially unacceptable in the real world. The main differences between S&M play and real life violence is that S&M players firstly, have chosen to be there, and secondly, control and construct the fantasy within their own limits. And thirdly, of course, they are having a rocking good time.
S&M play doesn’t equal violence or oppression, just as violent manga images are not a reflection of a violent society. Japanese society is a good model of the non-correlation between real-life violence and S&M. It’s art for hundreds of years has been riddled with incredible images of violence yet Japan has the lowest violent crime rate of any first-world country. Perhaps the depiction and fantasy play of sado-sexual situations allows an outlet for something present within all cultures and that is dangerous in denial.
The attraction and sexuality attached to power is obvious all around us. Powerful people are often viewed as desirable (just look at the amount of action American presidents seem to receive). On the other hand, a lack of power can be desirable to many (look at the fetish attached to feminine vulnerability). At the same time (unlike real-life power dynamics) the power relationships within S&M play are not always what they seem. The dominant has to respect the agreed upon limits of the submissive and they have to work hard to satisfy.
Part II of this series in next month’s edition will take you inside the mistress bars of Tokyo, where you will meet the women who rule there and the men who kiss their feet. Find out where to soak up the atmosphere. |
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