The time has come for me to wish to all of you a wonderful new tenkara year as time passes and the fishing season is getting closer. It is the time when fishing plans come to our mind.
Shirikawa-gō
The 2019 season of this blog, the seventh, will be in the continuation of what I have done since the beginning which means relating my tenkara experience to promote this fishing technique in the way that I have been taught by the people I was lucky to meet in Japan. I will go on publishing fishing reports, gear reviews and of course tenkara anglers interviews.
I wish to each of you a wonderful 2019 tenkara experience!
It is rare to have the opportunity to meet the people who inspire us and thanks to whom we have developed a passion for something but I am gifted to have the pleasure to go fishing with the man who made me discover tenkara: Masami Sakakibara.
With his thirty five years experience in the field of tenkara Masami Sakakibara's style is the perfect illustration of the highest skilled master. Faithful to the basic principle of tenkara "A rod, a line, a fly"
he has developed his technique instead of carrying a lot of tackle. Oni tenkara is not only simple but also very efficient and it is explicit when one sees his kebari and thinks a little about it. I think that the Tenkara-no Oni style of fly tying can be resumed by a simple motto: "design matches function".
This kebari tied by Masami-san is probably his most famous pattern. He is used to name his patterns from the materials used, in this case "Oni black pheasant kebari". What has in first place made this kebari famous among western tenkara anglers is its size as Masami-san ties it on hooks up to size 2. But function dictates design and size and this kebari is designed to be used in the sasoi technique.
Masami-san uses Tiemco "pellet dubbing", which is a natural substitute for seal fur, for the body of this kebari; a hen pheasant feather on a Gamakatsu S10 hook.
The next kebari is Masami-san's interpretation of a Mayfly, a huge ephemera, it is realistic by its size but impressionistic by its design. I think that this describes very well Tenkara-no Oni style of fly-tying.
The body is made of polypropylene yarn and that is a good product if one wants low floatation kebari. The hackle will give the illusion of life to this kebari when on the water surface.
If fishing big streams with long level lines has become a kind of hallmark of Tenkara-no Oni style he is also a very experienced and skilled small streams tenkara angler as I got to realize during my stay with the Team Oni in the mountains.
To fish in shallow mountain streams small sized , in relation with the observable small insects, and light kebari are needed to obtain natural drifts. Masami-san is accosumated to tie his small sized kebari on Tiemco 2499-SP BL hooks that as he says have great features for small streams tenkara fishing: short shank, wide gap and laser sharp point.
Masami Sakakibara's experience shows that it is possible to practice successful tenkara fishing on any water with his "simple" kebari because he has developed his technique on rational analysis of his fishing and fish behavior.
Masami-san has developed over the years a tenkara fishing system that is not only simple but also very effective. I would even personally say that the Oni tenkara style has become so effective because it has been kept simple throughout the years. While fishing with him in the mountains I understood why his nickname is "Tenkara-no Oni", the Tenkara demon. As he says himself: "A tenkara angler must be one with the stream".
If you want to learn more about Masami Sakakibara and the Oni tenkara style I invite you to check his awesome blog.
During my stay in Japan I, as tradition dictates, traded kebari with tenkara fishermen I met. The first step of my journey gave me the opportunity to meet Yuzo Sebata who made me gift kebari he tied himself.
Sebata-san is used to tie his kebari without a vise vise and with only a pair of scissors. He preferably uses Gamakatsu hooks in size Kantsuki Yamame 号 8 or 9. We have all seen on the internet kebari inspired by Sebata-san's ties but it is rare to see reproductions made with the materials used by Sebata-san including the model in the center of the picture whose body is made of self-fusing usually used tape by electricians.
The Zenmai-dou of Sebata-san is tied backwards like a sakasa kebari but the whip finish is done behind the hackle after the thread has been wound in wide turns about the shaft so as to solidify the tying.
Sebata uses cock neck, hen neck or parttridge flank feathers for the hackle of his kebari depending on what he has available when he needs to tie some kebari.
The kebari of Sebata-san are simple because they are the fruit of a long evolution and in line with a technique. Those considered in Japan, and elsewhere by the sincere enthusiasts, as tenkara masters are those who have developed techniques of their own.
I am certainly not the only one who has noticed that all the great tenkara anglers such as Sebata-san, his tenkara career is over fifty years long, have remained faithful to the basic principle of tenkara:
rod, line, kebari.
