iPad App Tenkara Japan

Not quite sure what to make of this iPad app yet. It's made by Tsuribito-Sha in Japan. I believe they publish several magazines there.

However. the screen shots are all in English. Seems to be kind of an introduction to Tenkara. More like a digital book but there must be something that makes it an application and not just a book. I assume it would mostly be of use if tenkara fishing in Japan as there appears to be a guide to streams, info about common fish there. However, one screen shot asks what is going on with tenkara overseas and refers to some activities in Salt Lake.

I found the link on the Yoshidakebari website. Clicked the link and expected to find something all in the Japanese language. But was surprised to find the screen shots are all in English. Maybe it is intended to make purchasing digital Tsuribito items easy. Still kind of a mystery. Released Aug 2014. If you open iTunes on you computer and do a search for Tenkara Japan the app does show up here too.

https://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/tenk...898187366?mt=8


I'm not quite ready to download it yet just to see what its all about.

fwiw,

D

I downloaded it and still don't know what to make of it. Perhaps Tsuribito wants to tap into the growth of the tenkara market outside Japan and this is the first step. Looks like a few magazine articles translated into English. I suppose making it an iPad app makes for easy distribution.

Today with renewed energy I decided to take the plunge and down load the app. Like tenkara itself sometimes you just have to try something first hand in order to understand it.

I found it to be pretty cool and worth the $2. The Tenkara Japan application seems intended to be like iBooks or Kindle. An app that will be a library for future titles they publish. The app itself is free. The only thing in the library box is the front cover of the Tenkara title.

Click it and its $2 to download this title. Before I downloaded the Tenkara title the app had an icon labeled Library. After downloading the Tenkara title I could no longer see the icon. But my guess is that periodically there will be an update that will list new titles that can be added to the library at a small charge. Maybe they will be about Tenkara or maybe about some other form of Japanese style fishing.

The Tenkara title that does down load is pretty cool. ;) I believe Chris is correct the content is an English translation of articles previously published in Japan , I think the magazine is called Angler.

Basically there are 5 chapters. You see the title page of each chapter in the screen shots on iTunes. You swipe the screen left or right to change chapters, and swipe the screen vertically to page through the pages of each chapter. Some chapters have animated gif images of how to cast, or an imbedded video, one chapter had an interactive flow chart that leads you to the proper tackle to choose for the type river you will be fishing.

The First Chapter : Flies Going with the Flow, is basically an 11 page interview with Yozu Sebata.

The Second Chapter : Tenkara Casting - has imbedded gifs and video, ( narrated by Takashi Yoshida, from the yoshidakebari website) Yoshida's instructions are in Japanese but there are English subtitles. It all about tips on casting, or casting practice tips. Some recommended tips on how to cast level live vs heavier tapered lines, requiring different arm or body movement. Some tips I had not heard or read before.

Chapter 3 - I Don't Understand This Part of Tenkara , is the chapter with the interactive flow chart. 10 pages of the basics of rigging tenkara tackle, casting, how to properly drift your fly, or how to drift your fly in windy conditions. etc.

Chapter 4 - Creating Koseki Sato's Flies, written by T. Yoshida. 10 pages of flies that were in Sato's book published in 1942 , but are fly patterns that go back about 100 years. It gives the basics of the several patterns: hook, body material, hackle type , etc.

Chapter 5 - Fun with Japanese Flies in Salt Lake. - I recall some forum post when this article was published in Japan I think 2 years ago. 6 pages of fishing on Utah streams with Daniel G. and Brian C. Not so interesting to me because I have already seen images from when the article was first published or already seen screen shots of the article on the Tsuribito web page when it was first published.

What is in this introductory title I thought was fun, has some content or fishing tips I have not read before or at least not read them explained the same way. The animated gif and the casting video with T. Yoshida was educational. I think it was worth the $2. Hopefully they will push more low cost titles for download in the future. Which I suspect is Tusribito's intended purpose for making the app. A way to tap into the expanding Tenkara World outside of Japan. :shock:

D