Mobile phone strap artist Hirotsugu Itsuji is bound for glory. Or at least his bondage-themed soft toys are, according to Cyzo (February).

Itsuji's hand-made Bondage Strap toys are the hottest fashion accessories in Tokyo's trend-conscious gay quarter of Shinjuku Ni Chome.

His cutesy animal and fruit stuffed toys are bound in intricate bondage knots, and come all ready to be tied up to your cell phone. In fact, so popular have Itsuji's rope-bound products proved, they've currently sold out.

"They're all handmade. And I can't get production to keep up with the demand," he tells Cyzo. "I got a company to make them for me at one time, but the end product wasn't too good. I thought it was better to have a high quality product if I wanted my art to lead to something better in the future, so I do them all myself."

Apart from people, Itsuji says he'll give anything a bondage look. Among the more than 300 different types of objects he's wrapped up in rope have been stuffed animals and dolls across all sorts of genres, with tortoises and bunnies his best sellers. His knots have impressed even professional bondage exponents.

"One guy looked at my work and said the bondage techniques were incredible for an amateur," he says.

Itsuji got his break in bondage toys by daring to be different.

"There's no fun in bringing out something that's plain ordinary, right?" he asks rhetorically. "And that's where I came up with the idea of tying up toys with a bit of string and hanging them off mobile phones."

Despite the underground success of his work, the artist says he has no particular interest in the world of sadomasochism.

"I'm totally into the normal stuff," he tells Cyzo. "I've actually tried bondage a few times myself, but each time I was getting tied up, I came to the conclusion that I'm not really into that kind of thing. I was really disappointed. I don't really get why some people find tying others up to be a turn-on." (By Ryann Connell)