Tenkara Comics from tenkara father

A couple of days ago a package arrived at my mailbox. As I opened it, I was quite overwhelmed, wowed!, astounded, ecstatic, well you get the picture. A very good tenkara no oto-san, Dr. Ishigaki had sent me a one-of-a-kind find: two volumes of a comic book devoted to tenkara! Wow! is almost all I can say. Thank you Dr. Ishigaki! This is a rare treasure that I will cherish forever.

These books are beautifully illustrated, and with very good content. Take a look at the pictures below.

http://picasaweb.google.com/s/c/bin/slideshow.swf
By Kondansya Comics

If it was not clear that fishing is a vital part of Japanese culture and life by now, then I think the existence of these books will clear any doubt. The two comic books are part of a larger series of comics devoted to fishing. The comics are called “Tsuri kichi Sanpei (Sanpei, a boy crazy about fishing). Volumes 6 and 7 are entirely devoted to tenkara, and are now part of our tenkara museum. These comics were published some 30 years ago. Each volume has about 200 pages of the most beautiful illustrations. Not only are these comics artful and entertaining, but they also have several tips and real fishing knowledge: fly-tying, rod making, native fish, casting and fishing techniques and other knowledge of the world of tenkara.

This series of comics has also been adopted by schools in the education of their young; talking about a way to get kids engaged in reading, and then really into the sport, heh?

Tenkara: fly-fishing in great hands

Long story short, tenkara just found itself in the hands of some great anglers, one may say “the biggest of big guns” at a gathering in the River Itchen, one of the most famous chalk streams in the UK.

British angling author Peter Lapsley recently discovered tenkara. By chance, the day after he received his tenkara gear, he attended a small gathering of some of Britain’s best and best known fly fishers and angling writers for a day’s grayling fishing on the famous River Itchen. Of course, he took his coolest new toy to the gathering and amused many people with it.

Mr. Lapsley said, “We all tried it, liked it and were intrigued by it; it is a most attractive blend of ancient Japanese tradition with modern materials and technology.”

Neil Patterson, John Goddard, Brian Clarke, Dr Tony Hayter

The gentlemen in the picture are (left to right): Neil Patterson (author of Chalk Stream Chronicle), John Goddard (well-known angling entomologist and designer of numerous trout flies such as the Goddard Caddis), Brian Clarke (fishing editor of UK’s The Times) and Dr Tony Hayter (author of the definitive biography of F.M. Halford and of a future biography of another great angler).

First Tenkara Outing

This last weekend Tenkara USA hosted the first tenkara outing in Northern California. And, it was absolutely phenomenal. Leaves were changing colors, weather was cool and crisp, and the fish were biting. We fished 2 streams on Saturday and 2 more streams on Sunday and all were very productive.

Thanks to all who came and made this a memorable weekend! We’ll look forward to the next one.

The Tenkara Experience – New Video

We just posted a new video of tenkara fly-fishing on our gallery and also below.

As one tenkara angler who watched it put it, this video is a “this is how I fish” type of video. This video was shot in one day in the Sierra Nevada, where Daniel, founder of Tenkara USA, casually fished and explained a bit of his tenkara fly-fishing style and techniques.

Please stay tuned for new videos coming soon, next we’ll show casting techniques with a tenkara rod and tenkara in very tight streams.