Tenkara from what I have extrapolated from all info I have found thus far on the various forums, videos on youtube, japanese sites, western sites is using a rod that has the ability to cast a fly well. I have seen rods from Japan in sizes from 9 feet all the way to 15 feet built for tenkara and listed as such.
These rods are built with and without cork. Some with widened handles some with virtually no handle at all made of foam, cork, or a small layer of etching or material to create frictional grip. I have seen rods from japan made of carbon of different percentages, as well as bamboo still being made today.

I am new to this tenkara but I am one that when very interested in a subject will learn all I can about the subject. Thus to my wife's dismay I have been up reading to the early morning hours. Fishing every chance I get with my new tenkara gear one of the rods I include in my "tenkara gear" is my 9 foot Soyakaze. It is from what I can tell compared to all Japanese info a tenkara rod. It was just never billed as such.

As chris says without the history written it is hard to understand what originaly was tenkara. If one is going to split hairs over what is and what is not tenkara (got to be this long has to fell like this has to look like that must use one fly et) than by definition the modern equipment is not tenkara at all as it is made of materials the original tenkara fisherman and so called "masters" did not use. Go back 250 years and present them with the carbon fiber rods with fluorocarbon line of today and ask them if this is a tenkara rod. Well you see where I am going with this.

Chris is absolutely spot on when he says "it is just fishing"
The hubrus at Tenkara USA is not for me and has turned me off completely I have found I am not the only one. When one refers to the so called "masters" of tenkara defining what it is and what it is not carries "some" merit. However and I will not go into it but I have found that Daniel is making tenkara what he wants it to be picking and chosing information from the so called "masters" and using that in marketing and limiting the definition of tenkara to fit within the narrow (minded) structure of his programming of the newcomer to subscribe to his products. He is not the only game in town and he will have stiffer competition. If Orvis decides they can sell his products you can bet your sweet backside they will produce their own to compete directly with Daniel's. No matter what he says about getting into it and opening shop to "educate" the public he is a businessman foremost and is in it for the money. I predict he will grow and will do well but he is doing tenkara a diservice by trying to convince the public what tenkara is and is not. All info in distilation one will find is to sell his rods. Can you blame him. No. Unfortunately for those already programmed over there they will not learn all there is about tenkara or even that the asians do not catch and release fish it goes against their very nature. The catch and release idea is very new to them even still. Yet Daniel intimates that tenkara is all about the catch and release.

I would love to have elder tenkara fisherman from all over japan both the regular joes and the so called "masters" visit us with an excellent interpreter to give us the history and tell us how they fish and what they think tenkara is. Instead of through one interpreter "selling" a product. I have a feeling one would get a different take on the subject entirely.

When I found out that fishing "one fly" meant only one at a time (not two or more at a time) and not using only one patern it solidified my belief that we have an extremely slanted interpretation of tenkara. Dr. Ishigaki himself does not fish only one pattern so I guess he is violating what tenkara in it's pure form is if you are to believe what one will read on another forum.

I will tell you one more thing I would rather have a Japanese rod over a westerners interpretation of a Japanese rod. If I want real Italian food I want an Italian to make it. Get my drift. Not saying western interpretations don't work mind you but I want the purest form availlable.

Don't mean to offend a soul but by god we need the truth not a campaign by one sole manufacturer to tell me what it is or is not. I hate marketing and that is part of my job to sell something to a customer to make one believe it is what they want to believe it is. To make them believe it is the best product there is and this is why you should buy it from me. Don't believe our competitor they will sell you something inferior but if you buy from me you got the best there is. "Trust Me!"