First, you have to accept that you will never understand the history of tenkara. The early tenkara anglers didn't write about it, so there is virtually no written history to begin with. Second, what is written is almost entirely in Japanese, and the computerized translations are essentially worthless. Third, most of what is available in English is provided by one company that has products to sell and is very concerned with controlling the message. The blog post that explained why their rods are tenkara rods and their competitor's aren't started off by saying "consider this a public service announcement." Need I say more?

Second, you have to understand that "tenkara" is very narrowly defined. Thus anything that strays, even a bit, isn't tenkara "by definition." There is a source that illustrates several different set ups described as historical tenkara. Some used multiple flies, some used added weight, some used floats. Ask a modern Japanese tenkara angler and he will tell you that they weren't tenkara. Why not? Because tenkara is defined as a fishing method that uses only one fly, no weight and no float - so if they did, they couldn't have been tenkara, by definition.

Third, you have to understand that the streams on which tenkara was and is practiced in Japan are different than the streams in the US, or at least in the eastern US. Japan is wracked by frequent typhoons. Most of the stream banks are scoured by frequent flooding and many of the streams have retaining walls to deal with the frequent floods. Look at any of the Japanese videos of the masters fishing, and they are often 10' back on the bank. Do that on the average eastern US brookie stream and you'd have 10' of trees and bushes between you and the water. They fish with 12' rods because there are no overhead tree limbs. They don't need to use short rods. Use a short rod here and you will be told "That's not tenkara" (by definition).

If you recall many of the early threads on tenkara on many forums (even FAOL, before this subforum was established), there were always detractors belittling tenkara and saying why it wouldn't work or wasn't as good as what they were already doing. Without exception, the detractors hadn't ever tried it. That is playing out all over again, except this time the detractors are tenkara anglers (or tenkara rod sellers) who haven't ever tried fishing a 10' wide stream with a 7' long rod; who haven't ever tried casting a 2 ounce rod all day. They're quick to tell you that it won't work, that it's not tenkara, but they've never tried it. I've tried it. It works.

Maybe it's not tenkara. Maybe it's sevenkara(tm). Who cares what you call it? It's fun and it catches fish. Truly, what else matters?

Consider this a public service announcement: It's just fishing.