Mike the mailman was very good to me this week. Friday he delivered 弘道?富士、 Hiromichi Fuji?s book Modern Tenkara （現代テンカラ）. I?ve never been quite sure how to translate the rest of the title. It is something like ? anyone can swing (oscillate-shake) catch Amago ? Yamame (using the) Sutebari Method. (捨てバリ釣法）, and Saturday he delivered the Discovering Tenkara ? Japanese Kebari DVD.
The DVD contrast how we in the west think about flies in general and Japanese kebari in particular vs. how the Japanese think about kebari. We want to name the flies, they think of them as ?just kebari?. A misunderstanding of Fujioka website seems to the source of our thinking that in Japan the kebari are widely known by the region names of the kebari on his website.
Most of the DVD discusses misconceptions we have about the traditional tenkara flies. There are more varieties of Takayama flies than we recognize. And their versions have short stubby bodies, not the longer tapered bodies we see on the kebari we call Takayama kebari.
Both John and Paul tie different flies the way they saw them tied in Japan. There is a nice discussion with Go Ishii and Makino 牧野さん。aka Himano. He was asked to tie a kebari without having his magnifying glasses to wear. Being a year old than him I could emphasize with the trouble he had seeing well enough to tie the kebari to his usual standard. He ties the body of his kebari using the feather fluff most of us discard. I thought it looked quite buggy. Masami Sakakibara ties his yellow kebari with little to no comment. Though it is mentioned that a future DVD will feature a more in depth discussion with him about his philosophy of kebari design. Go Ishii ties a small brown dubbed body fly I liked. You can see a picutre of a similar fly in the interview of Go on the tenkara-fisher forum. They also visite Hirata's fishing tackle shop where he hand ties a fly but not the mumushi snake skin body fly he is known for.
Here is the break down. The DVD is 87 minutes in length. Plus a bonus section with two parts: John describing the camera gear they used during their trip to Japan and more of the interview with Makino and Go.
0:00 introduction
4:41 Dr Ishigaki on Kebari Design
11:23 Okumikawa Style Kebari
24:30 Discovering Takayama
26:15 Takayama style kebari ? Paul G.
35:14 Go Ishii interview and fly tying (also included Makinosan)
53:50 Masami (Tenkara no Oni) Sakakibara
54:40 Oni ties his yellow sakasa kebari
57:55 Makinosan and the ?almost? kebari
1:10:45 Hiratasan hand tying demonstration
1:16:20 John ties Hiratasan?s mamushi kebari （マムシ毛鉤 ・まむし毛鉤）
1:24:45 Final thoughts
The DVD has me anxiously awaiting the delivery of:
右田政夫 Migita Masao?s (reprint) book
正統テンカラ逆さ毛バリ（ Seitō Tenkara sakasa kebari)
Legitimate (or Authentic) Tenkara Sakasa Kebari
It seems to match the myth or misconception theme of the DVD, because appartently sakasa kebari were not always in wide spread use in Japan, as we may have assumed.
He is recognized on the tenkarakebari web site with the achievement of spreading the acceptance of reverse hackled flies nationwide in Japan.
一部の地域（飛騨地方）で使用されていた
「逆さ毛鉤」を、
全国的に広めたのは右田先生の功績だと考えます
It has been used in some areas (Hida)
The "upside down fly",
Was spread nationwide is I think achievement of Sensei Migita
A couple links about the book and Migita
http:// http://tenkarakebari.jugem.jp/?eid=139
http://homepage3.nifty.com/somame/c-seitotenkara2.htm
D
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