My Shibari/Kinbaku passion was initially born thanks to my beloved friend and founder of the legendary Barcelona Club Social Rosas5, Kurt. I was deeply impressed by watching how that Helvetian looking man, who sometimes wandered around with a grumpy attitude, lit up and smiled when he spoke about his journeys to Japan and his so admired Sensei, Osada Steve. I felt I could spend the rest of my life listening to his tales about the Far East, losing the sense of time. My frequent journeys to Spain gave me the chance to build a strong and deep friendship with Kurt.

Although our encounters were short, they were very intense. One day in 2010 Kurt told me he was happy because Osada Steve had accepted his invitation to travel to Barcelona to teach Shibari workshops for a few weeks and to stay for the Club’s anniversary celebration. I was so happy for him that I asked him to enroll me in all the workshops class hours. This happened again the following year. Thus, without even realizing it, I started learning this wonderful art at the hand of someone as special and generous as Osada Steve is. In time, I got to know him better and learned about his life. One night, after the lesson was over, Kurt made me promise, with Steve as his witness, that I would travel to Tokyo to experience for myself all those stories that he had told me year after year. I feel that I never had a chance to really thank Kurt for all he did for me…

Nowadays I feel glad being able to assist my Sensei in translating his Osada-Ryu projects into Spanish. But, even more important than that, I’m now in Tokyo honoring that promise I made to Kurt and Steve. I feel that besides being his last wish, my friend Kurt sowed the seeds of a passion that ignited a flame inside me. Even today I treasure as priceless my first set of ropes, the one I received as a gift from his hands. The same set of ropes that I took to Yukimura Sense’s workshop, and that still accompany me with that spark of energy that he drove into them…

Tsubaki