The artist's answer to bondage, Doc Johnson's Japanese bondage rope is the perfect tool for creating visually stimulating hogties and knots with your partner(s). But don't let its aesthetic qualities fool you! This rope is as functional as it is beautiful.

Doc Johnson's Japanese bondage rope arrives in a plastic package with a new-age style backsplash, similar to the packing I see for body piercings. The rope is looped horizontally, with the last foot or so of rope wrapped in a tight circle around the rope to keep it together. The edges of the rope are tucked in under the circle, and while it's all wrapped up very tightly, it's not hard to find the ends, unravel the rope, and get started!

The pictures on EF do not do justice to the beauty of the rope itself. I bought the red rope, and it is actually a very rich, bright crimson color, not the washed-out coral color you see in EF's photos. It's made out of super-soft cotton, which gives it the added bonus of washability: you can shove it in to a pillow case and hang it out to dry. Even after 2 washings, my Japanese bondage rope still maintains its beautiful color and shape.

This rope is not only pretty, it's REALLY strong! I actually anchored the rope on my curtain rod, looping it around twice (basically, so the rope was doubled-up), and it managed to hold roughly 40 pounds of books. The curtain rod was bending before the rope even started to fray! That's pretty impressive, given that this rope--barely thicker than a lip balm tube--isn't advertised as being industrial strength.

I also tested this rope for "slipperiness," since that was a problem I had with Pipedream's pleasure tape. I had a friend tie it around my wrists in several different ways. No matter how hard I tugged, I couldn't break free, and the cotton material didn't chafe or cut off my circulation. I also got to hogtie a friend of mine who is about twice my size (about 6 feet tall, 200+ pounds), and he couldn't wriggle his way out, either. Before coiling it back up and stashing it away, I decided to try some of the fancier knots you see on bondage websites, and they looked absolutely GORGEOUS. I was tempted to leave my friends tied up, they looked so good!

Japanese bondage really is an artform, and Doc Johnson's Japanese bondage rope is just the tool you'll need to create your masterpieces.

Japanese bondage rope is so cheap and easy to use, yet so effective, that I highly recommend it to both beginners and experienced fetishists. I would also recommend that, if you own some Japanese bondage rope, you check out some of the more artistic ways it can be tied around someone. You may be surprised by how aesthetically pleasing it is!

However, I cannot recommend this toy for suspension-style play sessions. While it is soft and doesn't chafe, it is not made for suspension and may dig in to your skin while you hang, cutting off circulation. Please use an actual suspension kit for those sorts of play sessions and leave your Japanese bondage rope on the ground.

Also, I wouldn't be surprised if color this rich bled when washed. I have a red bedset at my parents' house and at college, so I didn't worry about my red rope staining my pillowcases. Still, it never hurts to be cautious!