Week 5: Box Tie

Munenawa 胸縄 (chest rope), gote shibari 後手縛り (tie with hands in the back), ushiro takate kote shibari 後ろ高手 小手縛り (tie with hands high in the back), TK (short for Takate Kote), box tie, etc. It has many names and even more variations; the chest harness with hands in the back.

Its long history put it among the most classic ties of the Japanese bondage style. The box tie is restrictive without holding the wrists tight. Instead, it prevents the elbow from moving out, keeping the hands behind the back. This restriction comes with risks that require a good understanding of the body to adapt the rope structure and mitigate possible problems.

It is often used as a reference tie because its structure will contain most of the Japanese bondage style building blocks. Therefore, when tying it, you practice everything you need.

This week’s goal is to practice the basic box tie, experiment with it, decompose its structure and explore different variations.

We will continue to expand our exploration of pattern variations in Week 18 as well.

Day 29: One Rope – Create the basic box tie with just a single column tie around the wrists and one wrap on the chest.

Day 30: Arm Positions – Experiment creating the same tie with different arm positions, lower position (toward the butt) and higher position (toward the neck) if your flexibility allows it.

Day 31: Second Rope – Create a stronger structure and continue the one rope structure by adding a second wrap on the chest and exploring with cinching between the arms and torso.

Day 32: Chest Wraps – Create a box tie that wraps on the torso instead of the arms.

Day 33: Diamonds – Make a box tie that uses  the horizontal wraps to pull the front stem open into diamond shapes.

Day 34: Kimono Tie – Create a tie that brings a rope under the forearm to add support by making an X on both sides.

Day 35: Cuffs – Add cuffs to a box tie, replace the wraps with cuffs, and make a box tie using only cuffs.