EclecticGuy

テンカラ – Tenkara

Yesterday, my son Nick and I drove 4 hours (each way) to the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum in Livingston Manor, NY to see Dr. Hisao Ishigaki give a presentation and demonstration on tenkara fishing (Japanese fly fishing). How I learned about this event and tenkara fishing is an interesting story in itself!

Followers of my blog might have seen a comment made last Thursday (May 21) by CM_Stewart on my Horse-hair Fly Line post. “Chris”, as it turns out, is an early practitioner of tenkara here in the US. He is interested in horse hair lines for this fishing method and through that interest, found my post. In his comment, he mentioned tenkara fishing.

Since I am fanatically interested in anything related to fly fishing, I followed up with some serious googling to find any information on tenkara I could. Unfortunately, there is very little information available in English on the Web, but with a little persistence the story can be put together. I corresponded with Chris via comments on my post and then through email to get more information on tenkara and his experiences making horse hair line. Chris mentioned that Dr. Ishigaki was giving a tenkara presentation and demonstration in 2 days at the Catskill Museum that he was planning to attend. The event was billed as the first presentation and demonstration of tenkara in the United States and would be a historic moment in fly fishing. How could I pass that up?!

What I learned prior to the event is that tenkara is a type of fly fishing that uses a long (12′ to 15′) nimble rod, a light line the same length or slightly longer, and a fly. There is no reel and no guides on the rod. The fly line is attached to a short section of line attached to the tip of the rod. Here is a photo I took of Dr. Ishigaki with a beautiful bamboo rod built by his friend.

In many respects, tenkara is similar to early western fly fishing with loop rods. One big difference is that the loop rod, being constructed of wood, is quite a bit heavier than an equivalent tenkara rod, which is made from bamboo. The availability of over 50 types of bamboo in Japan allowed the rod maker to create very light, long rods with excellent action. These are not split bamboo rods like those developed in the US during the 19th century, but rather, sections of whole bamboo fitted together. Anglers in the west evolved fly fishing equipment to allow casting a fly with a shorter rod and reel to hold extra fly line. Japanese anglers in the high mountain regions continued to use the nimble rods and tenkara technique – which is perfectly suitable to the small streams and relatively small trout and char found there.

Being an avid rod builder, I searched for sources of tenkara blanks with which to build a rod. Existing commercial rods are telescoping graphite tubes that extend to 12′ to 15′ and include a simple cork handle – no guides, no reel seat. My search was not successful – at least for information available in English. I did discover Tenkara USA - a new company that just opened for business last month. TenkaraUSA is the only US company specializing in tenkara equipment and promotion of the style. So, I corresponded with the owner of Tenkara USA to see if they offered or would consider offering tenkara rod blanks. Daniel Galharod – the passion behind Tenkara USA – replied that he was attending the Catskill event and would have rods there to demonstrate. He also said that he had been thinking about custom tenkara rods and would continue the discussion when he returned home after the weekend. Yet another reason to head for the Catskills – to meet Daniel and try out some of his rods!

On Saturday morning, Nick and I got up bright and early, watched the first half of my youngest son’s soccer game, and then headed west to the Catskills. We arrived 15 minutes before the presentation. I met Chris at the door and we compared horse hair lines and talked about tenkara and loop rod fishing for a few minutes before the presentation started. I recorded the audio (which was translated from Japanese by Misako Ishimura, who happens to be the chair of the World Fly Fishing of Japan!) and took photos and a few short videos of the event.

The presentation was very interesting and informative. I will be writing more about some of the history and tenkara technique I learned from Dr. Ishigaki in several follow-on posts. Here are a couple of highlights;

Dr. Ishigaki demonstrating 1 of the 4 tenkara techniques. I’ll post more on these later.

Joan Wulff was the first volunteer to try tenkara after the demonstration. It was a special event indeed!

Here’s Nick trying out tenkara. Dr. Ishigaki thought he was a natural and thought Nick should come to Japan and study tenkara! 

After the demonstrations, Nick and I spent some time with Dr. Ishigaki and Misako to thank him and to give him a replica of a an 18th century fly I tied for him. The hook was eyeless and the finished fly had a 20″ horse hair braided snell (3 hairs). Dr. Ishigaki appreciated the gift and returned the favor with 2 Japanese flies tied by his friend. Finally, I asked if he would like a horse tail line made especially for him. He said he would like one, so I will be making a special tenkara horse hair line for him!

You can see some more photos – especially of the streamside demonstration on my photo site.