Yes! You can see the self-tie version in action here. 

Thanks for your question! As Gigi says, that last rope can be helpful, especially if your hips are a heavy part of you. Remember that, once in suspension, all of the rope will get much tighter. That said, you could also definitely tie it with a little more tension than shown here and talk with your bottom about any preferences they have too

Caitlin Adams Thanks for the great suggestion!

Peter A No, but I do understand your confusion! It refers to an epsilon letter, as the middle part of the "ε" is often drawn with a loop. And so the drawing of the letter looks like a single column tie. When we call it a Y hanger we're referencing what it looks like in its finished form with the line running away from the hanger. It's not particularly sensible, but also very much a part of the common vernacular. Hope this helps! 

Troy Yung I think you're all talking about the same thing by saying counter tension and larks head! Really glad you're enjoying the content and we hope this helps! Also, for what it's worth, sometime later this year another basket harness tutorial similar to this one will be being released with another rope handling trick for the single column tie, so keep your eyes peeled for that!

There is a potential for the half hitches at the top to slide up. The friction/U lock that Gorgone mentions in the videos will do a lot to prevent slippage and also makes the half hitches much easier to untie. The really dangerous option here would be to use half hitches without that lock at the top!

Hi! And welcome! You can find an explanation of different types of rope and their pros and cons in a video here or you can read our rope guide on our blog (there are some vendor recommendations on there too). On our site, you'll see that all of our instructors tie with jute rope, which is the most traditional choice for shibari, and comes with a lot of advantages in terms of how it behaves, but you might develop other preferences based on what your needs and interests are. Finally, you might want to join the Discord community and ask folks for rope recommendations that are more local to you. 

Yes, that's possible. A few things to be mindful of how much bulk is in the back of this harness, which might not make it the best candidate for hashira suspension. (Something you'll notice in Tamandua's Hashira Session is that he starts with a simple harness for the body and builds a "third rope" around both his partner and the pole. This can be really supportive, and so choosing harnesses that are easy to layer on top of can be a nice choice.) Also, the way that Kinoko builds his uplines in this video would likely not translate to a hashira suspension. If you're quite familiar with the techniques for tying onto a hashira, then experiment and let us know! If hashira is newer to you, we would probably recommend starting with something simpler. (And of course, we always encourage in person learning, especially for very advanced techniques!)

At 16:25 Kinoko shows the point at which he would go back up the stem rather than tie across the butt! Hope this helps :)

We didn't film a tutorial on this specific Tengu but check out Tamandua’s Tengu for a similar pattern, and remember that shibari is like Lego. Maybe you can use his pattern as a starting point and this harness as inspiration to create something you love :)