Nawashi: El maestro de la cuerda

by Fuminori Nakamura, Laura Beatrice Stetco (Translator)

Una investigación por el asesinato de un maestro del kinbaku, una forma de atadura con cuerdas que encierra una compleja historia cultural de espiritualidad, tortura, pureza y sacrificio, revelará los rincones más oscuros de la mente humana en este escalofriante misterio del maestro del noir literario japonés.

Dos mujeres casi idénticas. Dos detectives completamente opuestos. El joven Togashi, incapaz de resistirse a sus deseos más ocultos y con una peligrosa dosis de oscuridad en su interior; y Hayama, un viejo detective, moralmente recto hasta la exageración y con un compromiso inquebrantable con la verdad.
Una investigación en la escena BDSM clandestina de Japón que, a medida que se van sucediendo los asesinatos, se descontrola. Implacable en su tratamiento descarnado de la identidad, la violencia, la sexualidad y el poder, El maestro de la cuerda es visceralmente dolorosa e inesperadamente esperanzadora, un homenaje al género negro que arroja luz sobre los elementos más peligrosos de la psique humana.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Japanese Literature, Japan, Crime, Mystery Thriller, Thriller

232 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2018

About the author

His debut novel Jū (The Gun) won the Shinchō New Author Prize in 2002. Also received the Noma Prize for New Writers in 2004 for Shakō [The Shade]. Winner of the Akutagawa Prize in 2005 for Tsuchi no naka no kodomo (Child in the Ground). Suri (Pickpocket) won the Ōe Kenzaburō Prize in 2010. His other works include Sekai no Hate (The Far End of the World), Ōkoku (Kingdom), and Meikyū (Labyrinth).

See also 中村 文則.

Reviews

[John Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you’re kinky and you know it, clap your hands….oh wait, they are tied up….

Book Information

The Rope Artist was written by Fuminori Nakamura. It’s due to be published on May 2, 2023 and is 288 pages. Nakamura won the 2002 Shinchō Literary Prize for New Writers for his first novel, A Gun, the prestigious Noma Literary Prize for Shade in 2004, and the 2005 Akutagawa Prize for The Boy in the Earth. The Thief, his first novel to be translated into English, won the 2010 Oe Prize, Japan’s largest literary award, and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Thanks to Soho Press for providing me with an advanced reader copy for review.

Summary

Two detectives are faced with a perplexing case involving identical women and a rapidly increasing body count. The victims are all tied to Japan's underground BDSM scene, specifically the intricate art of kinbaku, a form of rope bondage with a complex cultural history encompassing spirituality, torture, cleansing, and sacrifice. Togashi, a young member of the police force tasked with investigating the murder of a kinbaku instructor, finds himself struggling with his own desires and childhood traumas as he delves deeper into the case. Meanwhile, his partner Hayama, a Sherlock Holmes-like detective with exceptional powers of deduction, is committed to uncovering the truth and maintaining his unwavering moral compass. As Hayama begins to sense a dangerous darkness lurking within Togashi, he launches his own parallel investigation, ultimately leading both detectives down a dangerous path beyond their control.

My Thoughts

The Rope Artist is a departure from my usual reading, blending elements of mystery, cultural exploration, cop story, and erotica. While there are certainly turns and surprises in the plot, the book isn't exactly a traditional mystery, as many of the crimes are not shrouded in secrecy. Instead, the story offers a rich cultural exploration of Japanese Bondage (shibari & kinbaku), delving into its history, significance, and importance.

At its core, The Rope Artist is a cop story, with a focus on the detectives involved in the case and the seedy underbelly of policing. The book's erotic elements are also notable, with explicit sexual content that may be lost in translation. I don't recall encountering the word "penis" so frequently in any other story.

The story unfolds from multiple perspectives, adding depth and complexity to the plot. However, the book's detailed nature can also make it confusing at times, and I appreciated the backstories provided for many of the characters, which helped clarify their motivations and actions.

Nakamura's unique writing style is a standout feature of The Rope Artist. However, it's unclear whether his style overshadowed the content or whether the translation impacted my perception of the book. While I believe there is an audience for this novel, I don't think it will appeal to a broad general population.

Recommendation

The Rope Artist is a must-read for fans of Nakamura's previous works or those who may enjoy books that blend cultural exploration of Japanese Bondage with police investigations of multiple murders. If either of these descriptions fits you, then this book is sure to captivate and intrigue you from start to finish.

Rating

3 Hemp Rope Bound Stars

[Sofia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honey traps made up of manipulation of people and manipulation of rope.

[farahxreads]

I was really excited for my first Fuminori Nakamura but unfortunately, The Rope Artist just didn’t do it for me.

The Rope Artist is a murder mystery centered around kinbaku, a rope bondage with roots dating back to the Edo period, when policemen would employ ropes to tie up criminals and put them on display for the public to see. The murdered victim was apparently a rope artist, and the situation became complicated as one of the two main detectives, had a personal connection with the suspect.

While the story initially intrigued me, it seemed to lose momentum after the first part, prompting me to put a stop on my reading journey around the 65% mark. To be honest, I just don’t know what to make of it. I have no qualms with some of the morally depraved scenes in the book since I believe it’s essential to the story, but my patience eventually wore thin as I awaited the expected payoff. Perhaps I wasn’t in the right frame of mind when I was reading this book but I also found it a pretty taxing and confusing read.

I'm rating this two stars. Not sure if I want to read another Fuminori Nakamura in the future.

[Kelsey Weekman · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book made me feel icky but without any payoff. Like it should have been compelling but it just seemed misogynist.

[Bernie Gourley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a hard-boiled detective novel centered around the mysterious death of a kinbaku artist, kinbaku is a Japanese art of tying up a person with rope, the practice sprung from the need to bind prisoners of war and criminals, but it came to be associated with the BDSM (Bondage, Domination / Submission, & Sado-Masochism) activities of kinky sex. The death of the rope artist, Kazunari Yoshikawa, is but the first of a few fatalities that are somehow connected, though the reader only learns how by following the story through to the end. There are several novel elements of the story that grab the reader's attention, including: sex worker doppelgangers and a man with a missing finger and no known name.

I was engrossed by this novel. It captured my attention from the beginning. The psychology on display in the story is at once fascinating and bizarre. The story is told via three perspectives. The first is a junior detective, Togashi, who is a bit libido-driven and prone to ill-considered decisions. As a main character, one anticipates some of Togashi’s decisions because one knows what drives him, he’s a sucker for a pretty woman, but what the reader doesn’t know is when and how it will blow up in his face. The other main perspective is that of another detective, Hayama, who is the antithesis of Togashi. Hayama is immune to libidinous temptations and is solid as a rock where Togashi is nervous and neurotic. (The third perspective is Yoshikawa’s epistolary confession [no one has completely clean hands in this book.])

If you like crime fiction that’s a bit edgy, you may want to look into this book. That said, a warning for sensitive readers, it is sexually explicit and, while it’s not so sex-centered as to be primarily classified erotica, sex of various types occurs throughout the book.

[hans · Rating 3 out of 5]

My 6th read from the author and honestly was a bit contemplating to get it into my wishlist to-read considering how the blurb revolves around bdsm theme but as it was centered through a murder mystery and investigative plot as well, I get intrigued still.

The narrative goes psychological related and grotesquely narrated to me— a noir and hardboiled backdrop with gripping execution through an alternate perspective of its two main detectives, Togashi and Hayama. Bit twisty for the backstory and Togashi’s characterization yet quite engrossingly plotted in part 2 with Hayama’s deductions and his ways of solving the crime. A mind-bending mystery with mostly mentally damaged characters that thoroughly explored and observed on the dark side of kinbaku art (a Japanese style of bondage that involves tying up a person); of its culture and industry as well on how one’s fetish, obsession and immortality can provokingly affected a human psyche into a haunting and depraving outcome.

This can be a disturbing and chilling read to few for how the prose and its details revolved on explicit and obscene storyline, neither underwhelming nor a page-turner to me yet reading Nakamura always struck me with a pleasure of reading his disparate cult of genre. Of death, desire and the darkest part of one’s identity— did not expect that I will get a story of the lady in that epilogue but surely I love how it ends.

“Watching a person die in front of you is a particular experience. It’s gotten easier with time, but I can’t say that I felt nothing at all. I felt a dire urge to vomit, but I held it back. If there’s an afterlife, no matter how I tried to make excuses, I was going straight to hell.”

Thank you Pansing Distribution for the gifted review copy!

📍trigger warning on sexual violence also strictly not recommended to underaged readers!

[kelsey · Rating 1 out of 5]

i never DNF books, but this one made me change my mind. if i'm over half way through a book and i still hate it, then i'd rather just say that this one is not for me and move on. this one is absolutely not for me.

i picked this up because i love mysteries, and it helped that the cover was beautiful. the premise sounded interesting. unfortunately, i was wrong there.

the writing is basic, the plot is lacks any real cohesion or intrigue, and the characters are flat. i'm not a prude by any means, so believe me when i say that this book is full of laughably bad sex/rape scenes. the women are either crying or drenching their sheets (sometimes both at the same time -- they must be well hydrated), while the men come four or five times and seem to be very proud of themselves for it. every scene like this is graphic yet clinical. if you enjoy reading about shady people joylessly fucking over and over, this may be for you.

i constantly tried to remind myself that this book was written in the style of a tough noir cop story to reframe my feelings as i was going through it, but that really didn't help.

also, do yourself a favor and skip the audiobook too -- the male narrator seems to feel the need to perform all the women's moans in a way that was cringe-worthy at best.

[Alix · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Fuminori Nakamura is certainly not an author for everyone. I like his work because it’s always so twisty and fucked up. The same applies to this book. But anyone who has read Nakamura’s work knows what to expect going in. Since The Rope Artist takes place in the underground BDSM scene, there is a lot of explicit sex and the sexualization and objectification of women. I was not familiar with kinbaku so I found it interesting reading about the cultural significance of it and rope tying in Japan in general.

The story is mainly told from the POV’s of two detectives. The junior detective is a fool while the senior detective is an intelligent yet emotionally detached person. He is not one to be easily deceived or seduced. In terms of the story, I found the first half to be more entertaining because of the mystery and suspense while in the second half, it lost a bit of momentum for me. The second half was more introspective but also quite depressing reading about these depraved characters. Overall, this was an absorbing book but not as good as Nakamura’s previous novel, My Annihilation.

[Connor Foley · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

Like Hitchcock’s Vertigo but multiplied and dragged through the gutter. Explores how sex can intertwine with spirituality and violence. Gets a bit muddled in the end but nevertheless dives into the psychology of those on the fringes like the best of Nakamura’s works.

[Morgan Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was not sure how this would play out. Found the beginning to be slow and a little lackluster. But the last 90 or so pages gave me an insane, truly intense experience. Definitely Nakamura's signature style with many threads coming together in such a bizarre experience.

[Anna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Laughably bad!

[Denisse · Rating 4 out of 5]

• El poder de la sexualidad humana es incompatible con la moralidad y se ve incrementado por la imaginación.

[Bella Azam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rope artist in a simpler term is a fetish world set in a detective crime story. You got two detectives solving a murder case, of a rope artist named Yoshikawa Kazunari in an apartment bend into an awkward position as if being bound. Its a morally depraved book with tons of explicit, uncomfortable depiction of s*x, sexual violence perpetrated to these poor women who are gaslighted into enjoying them as pleasure, the aggravating treatment of women as sexual objects that grossed me out and certainly make me frown on some of the despicable behaviours some of these men done.

This story got me whirling with confusion, spewing historical contexts on the origin of the Kinbaku, an art of rope tying, factual knowledge on Cannabis, loaded information on the histories traced back to Edo period which can be overwhelming but also fascinating to read. The whole premise was interesting since I'm a fan of big ol mystery thriller with detectives and we get some fked up, equally traumatized Togashi, whom in his own twisted mind desperate to protect a woman he loves while also suppressing some dark desire within. Hayama on the other hand, is more of a collected, intelligent detective, maybe more than meets the eye as he also had some dark aura on him but his cleverness and incredible deductive skills made me like him a lot as a character.

There are 3 different narratives that we followed, the first one is from Togashi as he discovered a disconcerting connection between Maiko, a woman he is obsessed with to the victim and in a rush, he decided to tamper with the evidence and try to find ways to avoid Maiko being a suspect.

[Cathie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A hardboiled read. An introduction to kinbaku, hence the title "rope" artist.

There's a section in the read that discusses rope tying which gave me pause as it was an interesting perspective.

If BDSM isn't for you, then I would abstain.

This is the author's 19th novel to date, having been a writer now for twenty years. He shared the following: "Living can be sad sometimes, but I hope that you'll continue to keep me company in the life ahead."

[hana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Someone search his hard drive ASAP!

jokes apart, this just seems like something he conceived in a wet dream.....and I actually liked his previous work My Annihilation. It started off soooo damn boring and slow but the last 100 or so pages were quite good so instead of a 1, this book gets 2 stars.

[pae (marginhermit) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nakamura-san explores the realm of kinbaku, or Japanese rope bondage. The plot centres on two detectives, Mikiya Togashi and Kenji Hayama, as they look into the murder of Kazunari Yoshikawa, a master of the kinbaku art. As the investigation goes forward, the investigators learn of a network of perverse connections and sinister secrets, that might as well makes the dynamic went wrong. Well, if you've read his works before, you get the gist.

The writing is simple enough, yet so elegant, refined and captured the mood perfectly. The Kinbaku knowledge and history just told enough to give you the gist but making you Google for more (Imagine the trauma of me reading the details. Weird weird human fetish.) As per his previous works, the proses are poetic, full of character and visceral, and at times, makes you feel queasy.

Please be warned that this is not for the faint hearted. It discusses se*ual workers, weird fetishes, death and body mutilation. Kindly check the trigger warnings before started to dive in.

[Zara Lei Norman · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don’t judge a book by its artful cover and tame blurb.

If you like narcissistic narratives driven by oversexed men who scrub sex workers of their humanity and treat women as a sum of their parts, boy do I have a book for you!

I understand that the second half the book (from Hayama’s POV) is intended to cast the first half, which is — frankly — rapey, in a horrible light. I get it. I get the point Nakamura is trying to make. I understand that not every narrator has to be likeable. But really? Did we need those pages and pages of lurid, fetishistic depictions of women being assaulted and tortured with rope? JFC. Irredeemable and irresponsible. No matter how interesting the central crime or noir aspects were, I can’t get over it. We finally get an acknowledgment in the epilogue that the one slightly three dimensional female character is a victim of abuse. Did we need 300 pages of proof? I say give this one a skip.

[Wild Waters · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book had so much potential from the topics and the set-up, but it ended up being all over the place and a serious cliché read.
Let me first say, that since I don't speak Japanese, I could only read the translation and so the translator's choices as much as the probability of things literally being lost in translation, is always there. So, I can only judge from the material in the English version.
As much as there are cultural differences or specific Japanese cultural phenomena, which also play a role here, one can easily say that there is wanted and unwanted attention. The story centring around an almost-noir, a crime case, BDSM and the Japanese rope art kinbaku could have been an exciting whodunnit with eroticism and some intellectual input, that teaches the reader. But it is not.
It is a book, seemingly aimed at only male readers, who might be able to appreciate and relate to the constant obsession with lust and voyeurism, which is shown in 100% unwanted attention regarding every single female character in this story. It does not matter whether all of them surprisingly end up working as prostitutes - looks like all women do in this version of reality and thus are their personalities described.
It's not that the blurb doesn't tell you we are expecting a story, that will include sexuality, but reading about (except of 1 who still sort of thinks about it) every man (detective, politicians, club owners, priests, whoever) fingering, humping, fondling, groping, ogling and all actions of the full repertoire of everything that most women find unbearable in everyday life, as it devalues women's bodies, desires and minds and degrades their physique to mere objects for the use of men to ejaculate their way around life. I lost track of how many times I was explained in which position a naked vagina was right now. I don't shun words, but at some point it is enough. And no, I can guarantee you that a tied up woman, hanging in the air - whether enjoying it or not - will not give you a philosophical monologue about life and death. And a mere touch of a stranger's hand or his attention gets a woman so wet in seconds, that she cannot control herself (no matter whether we speak about ordinary sex, kinks or special sexual interests). This is the stuff of teenager's fantasies, people who have no experience in life at all, but our author is an adult and all of his characters in the book weren't born yesterday either.
All men and women in the book were the same character. All interesting aspects of kinbaku sounded super pretentious, as did the tellings that led to a murder and why was the conclusion and the details about what actually happened so unartfully dumped on the reader by sudden confessions in diary form, by-the-by conversations and such?
I was flustered, how we got there. Wasn't this supposed to be a noir? The author left a nice note (dated from 2021) about this book he remembers so fondly and the shine of light he wanted to convey - excuse me? Did I actually read the book, he was talking about? I studied philosophy, so maybe I am just overthinking or did not consider the right school of thinking connected to the deeper meaning if this story? It will stay a mystery, I guess, and I will never find out, who the supposed readership of this story was, and how many of those men - including the translator who deemed it valuable enough to translate it into English - thought this was super cool, entertaining and recommendable.

[Elena · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was... a book I've read...

I found it interesting at first, especially how we were only following one detective who was doing his own thing, and then, all of a sudden, here comes Hayama with his insane deductive skills to actually tell us that, while Togashi had been dicking around (no pun intended...?), he had actually done his job and figured out most of the case.

The second part, however, became such a mess. I was so confused about what was happening and how everyone was connected. It doesn't really help that the case was basically solved through a 30-page long deranged confession instead of Hayama actually going out and investigating and thinking about what happened on his own. A lot of the characters are prone to monologue either about their sexual fantasies or their interpretation of human nature, the divine, and the state of society.

It read really fast, I'll give it that, but I was left so confused by the end. I am just gonna briefly mention that, unsurprisingly, this also reeked of misogyny.

[Yackie · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I did buy this book because it was pretty. And after reading it, it’s still pretty, but I am not sure what the point was.
The potential was there. But maybe it’s because it’s a Japanese book that was translated and I’m unfamiliar with the structure of Japanese mystery books but there was no mystery here. I thought the initial set up was interesting and then the end of part one was wild. But after that they just spill out Yoshikawa’s whole entire deal. Like it’s not unveiled to the reader it’s literally just letters he wrote about the whole thing.
I just felt like there was no point to this book.

[Reisse Myy Fredericks · Rating 4 out of 5]

A contemporary crime noir that threads globalism into the charged practices of BDSM, this novel reminded me of “Hotel Iris”—but with villains at the fore. What’s striking is how it explores a man’s slide into nationalism through traditional bondage, linking folk ritual to political ideology, while refusing to conflate bondage itself with harm. Instead, Nakamura draws a careful line: the cruelty here lies not in the art but in its distortion, the use of subjugation and imbalance as tools of power.

[Ingibjörg Iða Auðunardóttir · Rating 2 out of 5]

þessi greip mig aldrei

[lysareading · Rating 3 out of 5]

RTC

[Cecilie Lykke · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book truly belongs in the category: wtf did I just read. But that’s one of the things I love about Nakamura’s books, you never know what you’re gonna get.

[Andrew Schultheis · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up

[Ally Perrin · Rating 2 out of 5]

She stared at the ceiling. For some reason, I got the sense that she was really looking towards the sky. Watching the gods.

[Megan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Literally so horrible that I finished it, which almost makes me want to give it 2 stars bc that takes talent

[Nicole Wong · Rating 2 out of 5]

Usually I like my Japanese crime fiction but this one wasn’t for me.

[Hans Bakker · Rating 5 out of 5]

A supurbly written and original book! A mix up in styles and perspectives. Funny and inteligent. One of my highlights of this year!

[Daniel Herman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uncomfortably strange noir in the deeply not world of ritualistic S&M. Worth it, however.