Randa Mai (乱田舞)

Randa Mai (乱田舞), 1959–2022, was a Japanese nawashi.

Era: 1990s

NAWASHI · AV DIRECTOR

Japanese nawashi and adult-video director (25 March 1959 – 2022); self-described 'S&M entertainer' rather than nawashi. Alias loosely translates as 'wild dancer'. Versed in Shōrinji Kempō as a martial artist. Launched his career in the adult industry in the 1990s, collaborating with SM-themed magazines where his distinctive whip-and-discipline-driven style emerged. Created the influential 'Snake Bondage' (Jabaku / 蛇縛) series for Attackers and many instructional rope videos, and is often associated in later historical writing with the iconic image of the rigger atop a gyaku-ebi tsuri suspension. In the early 2000s he became a dominant force in Tokyo's shibari scene, helping fill the void left by Akechi Denki (d. 2005). From 2016 he ran the SM bar Ranbukan, also known publicly as Bar Randa Mai, in Roppongi, and he performed and taught abroad in Europe and the United States.

Students / direct apprentices: Natsuki Aoyama.

Influences (mutual or directional): Akechi Denki, Nuit de Tokyo, Yulia Vasileva.