Tenkara - Ancient and Modern: Tenkara, #2

By John Allen

Tenkara fishing can be seen as a streamlined counterpart to western fly-fishing. The equipment is designed to direct focus to the actual fishing and catching of the fish, not to cause a major preoccupation with the equipment. Only a rod, Tenkara line and fly are necessary for Tenkara fishing (no reel is used). 

The appeal of Tenkara is its elegant simplicity with the advantages of using the long Tenkara rod when fishing in lakes, rivers and streams; primarily the lightness of the line and delicate presentation of the fly it gives. A long rod allows for precise placement of the dry fly on the water and allows for holding the fly in place on or outside of the current, and precise rod control for manipulation of the wet fly.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Allen
• Release date: Jan 10, 2016
• ISBN: 9781780256481

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Tenkara in fishing history.

Fishing has existed as a means of obtaining food since the Mesolithic period. During the time of the ancient Egyptians fishermen provided the majority of food.  To the ancient Egyptians fishing had become a major means of survival as well as a business venture and some successful fishermen gain very high status.  Fish, fishing and the fisherman have also influenced some of Ancient Egyptian religion; i.e. mullets were worshipped as a sign of the arriving flood season.

In ancient Egyptian literature, the method that Amun used to create the world is associated with the tilapia's method of mouth brooding their young, carrying its fry in its mouth.  Hatmehyt was a fish-goddess worshipped in the Delta, particularly in the northeast at Mendes.  The fish as a divinity is comparatively rare in the Egyptian pantheon, but Hatmehyt's name means she who is in front of the fishes or beginning making her the earliest fish-goddess to exist when Egypt emerged from the primeval waters.

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The Goddess Hatmehyt.

(A drawing from a temple carving in Egypt).

Though long pole fishing started in Egypt around two thousand years ago, almost every culture on every continent has had some version of it; all using some form of long rod, a fixed line, natural bait and a hook to catch the fish. 

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Ancient Egyptian fishing, circa 1300BC.

( A drawing from a tomb carving in Egypt).

The success of long pole fishing was maybe because all you needed was to cut a suitable piece of bamboo or cane, or a supple limb from a tree perhaps, to have a rod and just carry a line and hooks with you to go fishing. 

Some cultures, however, adopted using just a long line and hand drawing it on the retrieve, so there was no need then to make or carry a rod.  Other cultures developed nets to harvest the fish, others spears, using sharpened wooden spears to stab the fish with.  Metal tipped spears and multi-headed spears (tridents) soon appeared. 

Even the Ancient Greeks depicted a God of the sea holding a fishing net and a trident.

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Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea.

As a historical comparison to modern day fishing, the first ever mention of Fly-fishing was in tablets found in Macedonia that dated from around 200AD; but the first reference to Tenkara fly-fishing in western literature was in 1878 in a book called Diary of climbing Mt. Tateyama by British diplomat, then resident in Japan, Ernest Mason Satow.  Satow was also a keen angler, fishing both western fly and Tenkara styles on his travels.  Little was known about western fly-fishing until The Treatyse on Fysshynge wyth an Angle was published (1496) within The Boke of Saint Albans attributed to Dame Juliana Berners.  The book contains instructions on rod, line and hook making, plus the dressings for different flies to use at different times of the year.  Later and probably better known references to fly fishing can be found in Izaak Walton's book The Compleat Angler (1653).  By the thirteenth century the first crude reels were starting to appear, these developed and developed to what we have now, but the traditional long pole with fixed line fishing remains in use even today. 

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Japanese Long Pole Dobu Fishing.

Dobu (or Korogashi as it is known in some areas) is a Japanese traditional freshwater fly-fishing method, practised as a sport since medieval times, circa 1100s.

There are two subtle variations of this style.  One uses a group or team of nymph style wet flies in a sinker rig. It was very popular both for pleasure and food fishing and enjoyed in western Japan mostly around Kyoto.  Craftsmen developed the fly patterns, in some cases mimicking the real nymphs almost exactly.

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Fished using long hand rod from 9 - 11m (27-33 ft), 4-5m platted or furled line, a thinner line with 3 to 4 flies; and with a sinker fly on one end and another dropper fly on the other end.

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In some regions a variation occurred.  They used a small weight to get the team of flies down in the water, normally using just a team of flies that were unweighted (i.e. no dropper or sinker flies); the modern equivalent would be similar to a set of mackerel feathers.

When used without a weight, the angler reaches out with the rod, the rod tip over the desired place in the stream, the line and flies are gently lowered into the water.  The line is played until the rig reaches the most downstream point (of the reach of the angler), drawing it around in an arc as it goes, drifting the flies passed where the fish lie. This style was mostly used to catch ayu, dace and small chub but a coastal fishing version of this also existed.

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This style allows you to drift the flies with the current and is surprisingly effective.

The weighted line style is much slower, almost static in the water approach.  The flies on their separate lines move with the water current, like a small swarm of insects; this attracts a fish, especially in still waters of the slower streams and rivers.

As the art of Dobu became more refined, the Samurai (who were forbidden to practise martial arts and sword fighting in the Edo period) found this type of fishing to be a good substitute for their training.  The long rod being a good substitute to the sword and walking on the rocks of a small stream gave them leg strength and balance training. It is said that only the Samurai were permitted to fish in this way. They spent the time when not fishing making their own hooks, flies and fishing line all by hand.

I feel that Dobu (or Korogashi) fishing is probably the closest ancestor to Tenkara in Japanese history.  Yes the rod became shorter, casting was developed and a single fly more often used but you can still see the other similarities.  As the new Tenkara style developed it would have been adopted by the upper classes, this would of course include the Samurai.

As Tenkara developed so did another style of fishing, Ayu-no-Tomozuri or just Tomozuri.  I have often heard it likened to or even referred to as Iso fishing. 

Ayu fishing is done with a very long rod; 30ft (10m) is not uncommon length, and using live ayu fish as the bait. As ayu fish are very territorial and they are likely to attack any other fish, including the live decoy fish being used as the bait.  A ring is put in the nostrils and hook placed in the anal fin of the baitfish; this anal fin hook would be used to catch the fish attacking the bait; as the ayu is an aggressive fish and often attacks other fish from the rear.

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An Ayu fish ready to fish.

This was probably how the modern fishing lure came to be, the lure shown below isn’t that far removed from the live bait.

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The modern fishing lure…

…comes in a wide variety of colours, shapes, sizes and types.

Samurai practised Ayu fishing as long as 430 years ago using these very long rods and a single fly.  Fly-casting as in western fly-fishing is not required but the skills of the angler to know where the fish are, using the right fly and playing the fly was important. These Samurai anglers soon discovered they could dress their flies with pieces of fabric and wool and use them to fool the fish.  The Samurai who enjoyed ayu fishing would also make their own hooks from sewing needles and bend them to shape.  Tomozuri is still practised in Japan and is probably one of the most expensive forms of angling in Japan today.

Tenkara fishing originated in Japan approximately two hundred years ago as a natural evolution of long pole fishing; fishermen fishing the mountain streams and lakes now using artificial bait, a mock fly (originally a real insect disguising the hook was used); soon found to be a very effective method of catching the local fish such as salmon, trout and char quickly, and the development of the unique fly and fishing style really began. 

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The Traditional Tenkara fly with a silk eye.

In some of the museums I visited in Japan I saw drawings and paintings of the Samurai Warriors practising the art of Tenkara.  Photography was not allowed, so these are the sketches I made there.

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Though I am told there is little written account of this happening, the paintings and drawing I saw shows it happening, often with the warrior in full armour. As I have said earlier, probably more as a result of the peace that was spreading throughout Japan, it was a way that the Samurai could still remain agile and maintain their quick reactions.  Again it is suggested that the Samurai made fishing popular as a sport and not just fishing for food, and because of that it became popular with the other Japanese nobles.

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Ivory and bone carvings of Japanese Tenkara anglers?

Circa 16 th / 17 th century.

It has also been suggested that weapon-smiths, no longer needing to make weapons, started to turn their hands to making metal fittings for joining the sections of the rods together.  Because of this other craftsmen followed suit by inlaying ivory and mother of pearl into custom rod handles, making creels and small tackle boxes. 

The rods did indeed become elaborate and ornate works of art in their own rights. With highly polished lacquered handles and some with many different types of inlays added to them, the rods may have had steel, iron and even gold or silver screw ferrule joints.

The flies also were developed but remained very simplistic in their making, but some flies had gold foil added to them to make them more attractive and some flies being made to attract a specific fish. Little has really changed since then, except for the use of modern materials such as Glass Fibre and Carbon Fibre and synthetic lines like braid, monofilament or fluorocarbon.

In Japan I saw a number of Tenkara related items on display in the museums.  Bamboo and split bamboo cane rods, tackle/fly boxes, bottles for flies, as well as creels made of tree bark and even small wooded winders to hold the fishing line.  These ranged from the very ornate to the very basic.  Some were the prized possessions of the noble class, others were owned by the peasant fishermen still fishing for a living, though you could see all the items were deeply rooted in the evolution of Tenkara.

I saw in a London museum a display of Samurai armour, with one major mistake.  An 11ft (3.35m) bamboo cane (with a bright red lilian string hanging from the tip) and this pole used to hold a battle flag. I knew immediately it was really an ancient Tenkara rod, not a flagpole, but convincing the displays curator of that was almost impossible.

Over time the much cheaper furled horsehair lines replaced the lines made from furled silk but the tippet still remained made of 3 strands of natural silk-gut.  Cheap one-piece rods were more common than the ornate multi-sectional rods used by the nobles.  Throughout these changes the art of fishing still remained very

Reviews for Tenkara - Ancient and Modern

[joelfricke · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent reasource for Tenkara, I have read a few books and this is the best "one stop" summary for Tankara Fishing!