March 18th from 12-5pm (Tying spots sold out but an audit spot is available.)

The box tie (aka takate kote, TK, or gote) is one of the most common ties in rope. There are many, many variations of the tie but the basic structure is pretty fundamental to most of them. Akechi Denki, who is considered one of the grandmasters of Japanese rope, said, “Shibari begins with the gote and ends with the gote. The gote brings everything together that’s important in shibari.” Hajime Kinoko has said that 80% of what you need to know in shibari is in the TK and by studying the TK and mastering it, you are mastering most of the building blocks for all other ties.

In this class, we will be studying those fundamental building blocks as we go over the box tie in detail. We will cover the two most popular ways to tie the first rope, two ways of tying the second rope and then talk about a few variations of the third rope and why it is good to know a few variations for different uses as well as how to tie an upline into various parts of the tie. We will also be covering a lot of bottoming skills for being in rope.

Along the way we will also pay close attention to common nerve injuries and how to avoid them as much as possible. This class is for those who are very comfortable with single column ties and keeping even tension between wraps. We will not be doing full suspensions so all you will need is 4-5 full lengths (8m-30ft) and 1 half length (4m-15ft) of rope.

Tickets are $60 per tying pair and are available by emailing me at russ@twistedview.net. Payment will be by Venmo, CashApp, or PayPal. If you need any financial assistance please email me and I will be happy to help you. This will be limited to about 6 couples to ensure that everyone understands the ties and should run 4-5 hours. If you don’t have a partner, there will be one or two spots to attend and learn the material.