Written by Martin Montejano
It seems like one of the most common points of interest when tenkara is brought up in a conversation with anglers are the flies associated with it. Most of the time the questions brought up are focused on one style of fly in particular - the sakasa kebari. I would wager that it’s the one that most people think of when they think of tenkara, but it’s not the only kebari out there. In fact, there are a multitude of styles of traditional kebari from different regions in Japan. Some of these kebari may have a familiar profile to other fly patterns more commonly used in rod and reel fly fishing, while others are a little more unique in their design. In this post, we plan to cover a little about the history and design of kebari, as well as some of the more unique patterns found in Japan.
"Kebari"
Let’s start at the somewhat ambiguous term of “kebari (毛鉤).” If you search for the meaning of the term, you may find several translations, but what you will see is that most of them revolve around the “hair-hook” translation. If you search around the internet, you may also come across the term “kebari-tsuri (釣針漁),” which translates to “fly-fishing” and was the general term used before “tenkara” came about. If you’re interested in reading more about this, we published a more detailed post a while back, which I will link below…
I will be brushing over a few points from the aforementioned article, as it pertains to the history of kebari.
Simple Designs
When we look at kebari patterns, we often see simple designs. This may be, in part, due to the origins of tenkara. The commercial anglers (known as “shokuryoshi”) were resourceful. Being that they spent most of their time in the mountains, fishing for a living, they had a very pragmatic approach to things, and often had to make do with materials they had on hand. Many traditional kebari comprise of two or three materials - often just sewing thread, a feather from either a chicken or game bird, and sometimes another material to fill out the body of the fly, all wrapped around a sewing needle that was heated and bent (until hooks with eyes became readily available). It's also worth noting that many of these kebari were tied without the use of a vise to hold the hook. Instead, the angler would use their hands to masterfully craft their flies.
The simple design of the majority of kebari may stem from a limited supply of materials, but it also offers a benefit to those who fish in the type of water in which the style was developed. High gradient streams offer fish a brief window of time to decide whether an object being swept downstream is food or debris, and the profile of a kebari is meant to check all the boxes that a fish may use to identify an insect. With that said, kebari tend to be more representative of bugs in general, as opposed to a design that imitates a specific bug.
Made to Move
There are different styles of kebari in which their designs benefit from a little imparted movement while being fished. It’s hard to say whether or not the materials used in these kebari were chosen with a specific presentation in mind, or if the materials were chosen by what was convenient and readily available to anglers in a region. Either way, imparting some animation to the kebari adds to one of the core concepts of tenkara - That is, the concept of “sasoi.” This is a term you will often see in texts pertaining to tenkara. The idea is that you impart movement to the kebari as an “invitation” or “enticement” to draw attention from the fish and entice a strike.
Again, this may stem from a limited selection of materials available to the shokuryoshi, and also from the nature of the waters in which they caught iwana, yamame, and amago to sell to the inns. An angler may have had a few different variations of the same style of fly in their fly box, but I guarantee it didn’t look like a modern fly angler’s selection where the fly box is populated with multiple sizes and colorways for each life stage of every aquatic insect filling out every available slot in the box.
Instead, their focus was on representation instead of imitation, and the ability to be able to animate the fly through manipulation of the rod and line.
Less "Matchy"
Even though the majority of kebari may not be designed with an exact imitation in mind, you may still find some resemblance of certain types of aquatic (and, sometimes, not so aquatic) insects in some of the patterns. Take a futsu kebari for example, with its stiff hackle tied in perpendicular to the hook shank, you may see a profile that closely resembles a mayfly.
On the left, a futsu kebari - On the right, a mayfly
Another pattern that may hold a resemblance to larger mayfly species is the “Oni” kebari. While this one is tied with soft hackle, it has much the same profile, and may offer a little more movement on or in the water.
On the left, an Oni-style kebari - On the right, a larger mayfly
While the colors aren't a match, what's important is the general profile and size of the kebari.
Since we mentioned a kebari used by one of the “masters” in tenkara, we might as well continue the trend and talk about the Ishigaki kebari. A simple fly, tied with just thread and a few wraps of rooster feather bares some resemblance to a stonefly nymph.
A Ishigaki-style kebari on the left, and on the right a stonefly nymph (courtesy of Nick Feller). Again, we're looking at similarities in the profile of the kebari. While it's not an exact imitation, the thread body of the kebari mimics the slender profile of the stonefly, while the hackle can sometimes look like legs.
Honestly, the list could go on, and even though tenkara anglers aren’t always choosing a pattern that “matches the hatch,” there is still merit in using one's own observations and knowledge of insects in an area to influence what kebari they choose to tie on the end of their line.
Kebari Less Common
At this point I want to share a website that serves as a great reference point for different kebari from all over Japan. On Mr. Fujioka’s website, “MyBestStreams” you can find a wide range of traditional patterns organized by regions. You may notice that any given region listed will have multiple different designs and styles. Along with that, as you navigate the website you may see a few styles of kebari from a couple regions are a bit more ornate than others.
In the first “Traditional Japanese Fly Tenkara” section, you will come across a gallery of kebari from the Kaga area. As it’s suggested in the writeup, during the Edo period (1603 - 1868), Ayu fishing in the Kaga area was considered samurai’s privilege. Being that the Edo period was a peaceful time in Japan, many of the samurai filled their spare time with practices in different artforms that reflected their culture and philosophy. Fishing had its place among the high class, and as Mr. Fujioka says, it was “encouraged as one of the training of samurai’s mind and body.” The samurai would tie these flies both for catching fish, but also with an artistic goal of tying a uniquely beautiful fly. Keep in mind, too, that this was most done without the use of a vise.
One unique characteristic of this style of kebari is the “Kindama” at the head of the fly. While it may look like a bead, it doesn’t add much weight as it is made of a mixture of lacquer and either red lead primer or polishing powder before gold leaf is applied to the outside of the ball.
You may also see these characteristics carrying over into some kebari from the Banshu area. On the page “Traditional Japanese Fly Kabari 1” You’ll find a very detailed description regarding the history of this style of fly. While its origins lie in fishing for Hae, Hasu, and Ugui, it seems that the style also became adapted for Yamame and Iwana later on, as mentioned in the commentary found under the “Banshu Area” gallery on “Traditional Japanese Fly Tenkara 2”.
Different Applications
The kebari from the Kaga and Banshu areas were originally used to fish for different species, and with that came different approaches to how an angler would try to catch those fish. Another style of kebari that you’ll find on the website is from the Mutsu Morioka area.
Known as the “Morioka” or “Nanbu” kebari, these kebari were fished with a method referred to as “Nagashi Tsuri.” As Mr. Fujioka describes in the text on his site, a float made from the wood of an angelica tree was fastened to the end of the rig. Above the float, there was a team of four (maybe five) kebari tied on short sections of tippet that were spaced out in intervals of about 12-16 inches apart from each other. The angler would cast this rig out and across, and “float flies down a river with line tight.”
Even though the flies shown on the mentioned webpage were commonly fished in a way different than we are used to as tenkara anglers, there is mention of a term “ippon kebari” which seems to denote fishing a rig with one fly. While it’s not clear whether this is the correct meaning of the term, it suggests that some of these flies were designed to be fished by themselves.
More "Matchy"
Earlier in this post, I mentioned that the majority of kebari are more representative, as opposed to imitative. There are a few examples of certain patterns from different areas that more closely resemble certain bugs. One common imitation you’ll find on My Best Streams is that of a caddisfly.
While the Arakawa area has a kebari that shares a similar profile to that of a caddisfly, there is another, very unique pattern that you’ll see when looking at the gallery for the Zaou Togatta area on the “Traditional Japanese Fly Tenkara 3” page. This particular kebari resembles that of a fluttering caddis, but one cool feature about the material used to tie the wings is that it tends to turn a little more translucent under the water, giving the appearance of a caddisfly that is emerging from its cocoon.
Continuing on the same webpage, you will find a pattern from the Nikko area that is referred to as the “Gorocho” kebari. To keep it relatively short, this is one example of a pattern tied to imitate a specific insect. The area around the Yugawa River in Nikko is home to a caddisfly referred to as “Gorocho” (Stenopsyche japonica), which may be a term used for large caddisflies in general as opposed to one specific species. Either way, these kebari are an example of more specialized design meant to imitate a certain insect in a region. It’s worth noting that the “Gorocho” kebari was created with some influence from western-style fly fishing, which you will see in several other kebari showcased on the MyBestStreams.
As you may have noticed throughout the article, there are more modern iterations of kebari that use many different materials that were not available to anglers in Japan during the early development of the style we know as “tenkara.” Over time, as Japan became connected with the rest of the world, several ideas and styles of flies were meshed together, creating some truly unique patterns. With so many different variations and adaptations of kebari it seems the limiting factor in tying these simple flies is one’s own creativity.
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