Denki Akechi (明智伝鬼, family name Akechi / 明智, given name Denki / 伝鬼, 1940–2005) sat at the center of the late Showa to early Heisei kinbaku boom. In the name “Denki,” Den comes from Denjiro Sakurada and ki from Shuji Onizawa. With Sakurada and others he worked through GSG Planning, splitting time between stage shows and video, and a long line of kinbakushi took cues from his rope.
He was born 11 September 1940. In lower elementary school he was stirred watching a classmate tied to a tree; around third grade rental bookstores introduced him to SM magazines such as Kitan Club, The Decameron, and Uramado. In junior high he rented those magazines for classmates and practiced tying from the pictures. Around 1956 the family business failed and he had his first heart surgery, with doctors saying he would not live past thirty. About 1957 he tied a woman for the first time—a café waitress—worked construction, then as an independent craftsman, and from 1959 did private kinbaku.
Another heart operation in 1970 came with a warning that he had less than a year. In 1978 he connected with Denjiro Sakurada and Shin Sakurada; GSG stage work followed, including SM Bomber. The 1980s filled with live shows and videos. When Sakurada stepped back from performing in 1985, Akechi took over the shows. In July 1987 he opened Studio Phantom in Shibuya for photo sessions; from September that year he ran monthly SM experimental theatre there, twice a month from January 1988 through June 1997. Irregular outdoor member shoots started in 1989.
In 1996 he founded Bakuyukai with Takumi Miura to dig into classical rope technique. In 2000 Oniroku Dan attended Akechi’s sixtieth birthday party; that December chronic heart disease surgery paused his kinbaku work. On 1 December 2001 he opened SM club Garasha in Ikebukuro with Takagi Sao-nushi. In 2004 Yoshikazu Hayakawa interviewed him, and he appeared in Mary Aoi’s Demon. In March 2005 he attended Kinoko Hajime bondage workshops; in April he shot Treasury of Kinbaku Skills and Forms. He died of multi-organ failure at 10:36 on 17 July 2005. A memorial at Tokyo Kōsei Nenkin Kaikan on 6 September was organized by Oniroku Dan, Takasu Motojin, Denjiro Sakurada, and Yoshikazu Hayakawa; LOFT/PLUS ONE also staged a tribute.
Video credits include DD-165 and DD-170 Semenawa Densetsu Denki Akechi (Heaven and Earth volumes); 1984’s SM Document The Mania; 1985 titles such as Video Sexy Club 3, Young Masochistic Lady Kanako, Flesh Types of a Young Lady, and Natural Masochism (with Yumi Matsuda); and 2005’s Treasury of Kinbaku Skills and Forms Vol.1–2 with Miura for Bakuyukai. He appeared on 11PM in 1989. Photo books include Kate Asabuki’s Ukiyo Soushi, Hitomi Shimizu’s Tokyo Strip, and Naoko Hayashiba’s Punishment; the collection Akechi appeared in 2007. How-to work includes Secrets of Shibari (1997).
Performance markers: 1996 SM Techno Obsession at Dotonbori Theater in Shibuya; 1997 at Nakano Queen and Garaha in Setagaya; 1998 Netherlands tour with Katsuragi Ayano, Banta Ryosuke, Takao Nakano, and Kuromuchi Hyōko, including Club Doma; 1999 LOFT “Sexual Perversion on a Midsummer Night”; 2000 Disturbed Rope with Tachibana Mari; 2001–2002 returns at Garasha / Salon Gracia with Raika and Yui Koike. He also performed at the 1998 Japan Cultural Design Conference in Akita. For a time Kanna worked as Kanna Akechi; Saikatsu assisted and briefly used Saikatsu Akechi.
For adult viewers tracking Japanese rope history, Akechi is the nawashi who carried kinbaku from private practice through GSG stages, Phantom theatre, overseas clubs, and late teaching tapes—always with negotiated adult partners, and with suspension and breath risk treated as real hazards rather than decoration.
