New Daiwa Rods, Tenkara RT

[dwalker]

..I suspect that the tenkara market in Japan is too small (particularly the high end) and that Daiwa is focusing their developmental efforts elsewhere. ....

Chris I think we may be seeing more changes in the tenkara products from the larger companies in Japan. In my experience competing companies usually monitor closely what their competitors are doing and what one does the other makes a counter move in whatever direction they think gives them an overall competive advantage.

Maybe I am getting the translation wrong. I have learned to read Japanese in a limited way, but it?s still easy for the translation to end up being different from what was written in Japanese.

The tenkarakebari blog had 2 recent post about a new triple zoom tenkara rod, the Tenryu TF39TA (telescope adjusting) rod, seen at the Yokohma and Osaka fishing shows. The blog post had a link to a blog post on Dr Ishigaki?s blog wherein it seems to be saying that Gamakatsu has withdrawn from the tenkara market, though it is not yet settled if they will try to revive their tenkara product line. Though perhaps I am getting it wrong.

Here are the web links:
6 Feb 風来坊39TA fūraibō 39 TA
http://tenkarakebari.jugem.jp/?eid=1219


10 Feb Tried swinging vagabond (fūraibō) 39TA
http://tenkarakebari.jugem.jp/?eid=1223

風来坊39TA - fūraibō 39 TA. Is the name of the Tenryu rod. Google wants to translate it as Vagabond. Which I am not sure is correct. The first character is Kaze (wind) and the last character bō , can also translate as ?stick?. So it could be Wind something Stick or some other translation. Maybe it?s better to just call it the Fūraibō rod.

The Tenryu page
http://fishing.tenryu-magna.com/en/ayu/furaibo.html

List priced at 57,000 yen ( about $480) it is much more expensive than the TUSA Sato. And more expensive than the prices I recall for the Gamakatsu triple zoom tenkara rods that seem to have disappeared from their website.

Here is the Dr. Ishigaki blog post. And a bit of the text from the post. Subject to mistranslation. But a lot if this text is pretty straight forward.
http://aitech.ac.jp/~ishigaki/tenkara/2015/yokohama.htm

とくに今年は、がまかつがテンカラから撤退したのだ。
諸事情で
テンカラ竿は造らないとのことで、
復活するかどうかも未定とのことである。
Especially this year, Gamakatsu withdrew from Tenkara.
Various circumstances
Tenkara rod is not built,
Whether to revive also is undecided.

がまかつのテンカラテスターの小林さんに会ったが、
心なしかしょんぼりしているように感じた。
While (there) met Kobayashi a Tenkara tester for Gamakatsu,
I felt as if he is crestfallen or without heart.

その一方、元気だったのが天龍である。
昨年、赤竿の風来坊を出した。
On the other hand, Tenryu was fine.
Last year, issued a red vagabond (Fūraibō) pole.

名古屋で「風来坊」と言えば手羽先の店だが、テンカラ竿である。
Speaking of "vagabond" (Fūraibō) in Nagoya it is a chicken wings store, but it is a Tenkara rod.
(It took me a bit to figure this one out. Figuring it had to mean something much different. But it meant just what it says. Fūraibō is a chicken wing place. ) ; -)
http://www.furaibou.com/howto.htm

今年は3段ズームの風来坊である。3.3ｍ－3.6ｍ－3.9ｍのズームである。
振らせてもらったが、どの長さでも振りやすい調子である。
This year is a vagabond (Fūraibō) of a three-stage zoom. Is a zoom rod of 3.3m-3.6m-3.9m. I tried swinging it, it is a flex tone that swings easily in any length.

「でもね、先生、値段が57,000円ですネン」
"But you know, Sensei, price is 57,000 yen " ( about $480)

The Fūraibō TF 39 rod is a lower cost rod at 31,968 yen, about $270. Still expensive but a little less than the price of an Oni 1 rod here in the USA.

Today I cannot find a Tenakra rod page on the Gamakatsu website. Maybe that is evidence that Gamakatsu has dropped Tenkara or maybe there is some other reason I can no longer find their tenkara rods. However, I can still find Gamakatsu tenkara rods for sale on commercial websites.

I have always found the Gamakatsu web site to be one of the more difficult to navigate. But still I could always eventually find the Tenkara rod pages. If I recall correctly there were two pages. One page with a 3.4m and 3.8 m rod and a separate page for another model Tenkara rod that was a triple zoom rod. Multi-Flex I think they called it. I seem to recall they had models of 4m ? 4.5m ? 5m and 3.5m ? 4m ? 4.5m. In the past the Tenkara rods showed up on this search list of Keiryu rods. But not today.
http://www.gamakatsu.co.jp/products/...0010&ts=22&fw=

Have your suppliers mentioned that Gamakatsu has withdrawn from the Tenkara market? If yes, it is kind of interesting with Daiwa also seeming to cut back on developing higher end tenkara rods. Maybe Gamakatsu has made this change or maybe I've stumbled in to the "lost in translation zone" and have started a rumor about something that is not. But if true I would expect to see other companies make some counter move. Maybe tenkara is being left to smaller companies that can react quicker to market changes.

fwiw.
D