Ema Kuroko

Ema Kuroko is a Italian editor.

Era: 2020s

EDITOR · PHOTOGRAPHER

Italy / Milan-based kinbaku-media editor and photographer working as Ema Kuroko / @emakuroko. SMpedia lists Ema Kuroko as chief editor of Yugen Studio Magazine / Yugen SM. A 2023 Bologna presentation of Yugen Studio Magazine says Federico Kirigami and Marta Tenshiko built Yugen Studio with valuable help from Ema Kuroko, and frames YSM as growing from Ema's original SM Showa editorial project combined with original material produced at Yugen Studio. A later Yugen SM N14 post again credits @emakuroko as chief editor.

School: Independent

Associated venues, magazines, films and performances: Yugen Studio Magazine.

Bakushi Map BETA

An interactive genealogy of bakushi and kinbaku — the Japanese rope traditions that grew from Edo-period hojōjutsu through twentieth-century SM magazines into today's global shibari scene.

People: 327
Entities: 246
Connections: 1441
Eras: 9

Each record is sourced from public material — Nawapedia, ShibariStudy, festival rosters, interviews, archived studio pages — and curated by a single researcher.

Beta — structure and interface are public; data is still being expanded and corrected.

How to read it

Vertical position is time: the 1800s at the top, the 2020s at the bottom. Cards are coloured by school or lineage; lines between them carry the relationship type:

deshi — direct apprenticeship
influence — peer study, mentorship
thinner colours — venue, magazine, production
card colour = school / lineage

Click a card to open its bio, antecedents and descendants. Filters in the top bar narrow by era, entity type, or relationship.

Caveats

Inclusion is selective: a person or studio appears only when there's enough public evidence to anchor them meaningfully. Missing birth years are deliberate — many practitioners don't publicise them. Errors and gaps will exist; corrections welcome at pussynawa@proton.me.

Methodology Sources

Thanks to RopeMarks, Asiana, RomKnots, Nick Freerider, Aleksei Kalatsky, Federico Kirigami

Bakushi Map by Vsevolod Moreuton · · facts CC0 · text CC BY-SA · pussynawa@proton.me