In the late 1950s and early 1960s, as Japanese SM photography was emerging through underground magazines like Kitan Club, Keiko Otsuka (大塚啓子) appeared as a captivating model. With her distinctive short bob haircut and cool, confident expression, she posed both as a bound submissive and in a dominant role, an unusually early hint of femdom in an era when nearly all bondage images featured men tying women.

Magazine Appearances

She is best known from appearances in Kitan Club (issues from 1958, 1959, and 1960), the groundbreaking magazine that helped popularize kinbaku in postwar Japan. Her most notable work is a posed bondage series from 1963: simple, naturalistic black-and-white photographs using just rope and semi-nude poses, where she alternates between tying and being tied. The set has a raw, authentic feel (no elaborate props or exaggerated staging) and subtly explores dominant-submissive dynamics.

Style & Legacy

Keiko’s style was functional and precise, rooted in the hojojutsu traditions of the time: tight bindings designed to emphasize restraint, pain, and submission, rather than the decorative shibari of later decades. She rarely (if ever) smiled for the camera, giving her an air of mysterious intensity.
As one of the few female figures in that early period to take an active (top) role on film, she remains an enigmatic legend in kinbaku circles. After 1963, she disappears entirely from records (like so many models from those pioneering years) leaving behind only a handful of grainy prints and a quiet but enduring mystique.
Unfortunately, beyond the few photos on Nawapedia and occasional mentions of that 1963 set on niche blogs, no additional public images have surfaced. She’s a truly elusive figure in a niche full of myths and lost archives.

View more from the photoset below here.