Short Cast: Clearing confusion on "tenkara"

0:00Thanks for listening to the Tenkara Cast. This is a short cast where we talk for just a few minutes about your favorite subject, Tenkara. This episode is made possible by your purchase of Tenkara USA rods, lines, and flies. Today I'm going to be talking about something I have noticed has been very confusing to a great number of people in regards to the term Tenkara. Not about what Tenkara exactly is, but the idea of Tenkara the method of fishing, then Tenkara the brand, and Tenkara the descriptive term, as in, for example, Tenkara Rod Company. We are Tenkara USA. We are also a Tenkara Rod Company, and Tenkara is a method of fishing. So I thought I should take a few moments to kind of try to clarify a little bit about, you know, the use of the word Tenkara. First of all, Tenkara is a Japanese method of fly fishing, as you all know. It's something that has been done for a long time in Japan. Back in 2009, I introduced Tenkara outside of Japan as a way that I thought people would enjoy fishing. To do that, I created a company, Tenkara USA. Now, that can be a little bit confusing, and in hindsight, it probably was a little bit short-sighted to just think of Tenkara USA. My idea originally was to kind of have Tenkara USA and then expand into other countries.

1:43Tenkara Italy, for example, is something that we've already started, Tenkara UK and so forth. Regardless, we are Tenkara USA. We are completely unaffiliated with any other companies. But that kind of brings me to the first point of confusion that a lot of people ask me about. Are we affiliated with a Tenkara Japan? Is there a Tenkara company in Japan? is that is Tenkara the brand? So again, Tenkara is the method of fishing. There's no company called Tenkara. There's no company called Tenkara Japan as well. I think I've seen a rod with the name Tenkara Japan. It was a knockoff of one of the rods we developed early on. But there's no company in Japan called Tenkara. We were the first and the original Tenkara rod company in the United States, and we brought the method over here. So we got the method. We have Tenkara USA, which is the brand, and nowadays, of course, there's all kinds of brands marketing Tenkara with using the name Tenkara as a descriptor in there. And then it kind of brings me to the other thing that we probably are seeing more confusion than anything else out there, and that's the description of Tenkara Rod Company. One of our competitors named themselves Tenkara Rod Company. And every single week we get emails from people or calls saying, hey, I thought, you know, like I got this rod and, you know, and then we try to find out a little bit more about it. And we find out that no, it's not one of our rods, but everybody is assuming that we are the company that is making those rods because we are the original Tenkara Rod Company here in the United States. So that one is a very tricky one. It's actually, to be honest, it's one of those things that bothers me a lot because, you know, we're just seeing all this confusion. We're trying to make really good products and then people are getting their hands on a rod company that, you know, has a descriptive name, Tenkara Rod Company. And we're also a Tenkara Rod Company. So it becomes really, really confusing. Tenkara USA is our brand. We're also a Tenkara Rod Company. We are the original Tenkara rod company and somebody else has the name. So that hopefully that will clarify a little bit.

4:05You know, if you're new to Tenkara, you're doing a little bit of research. There's Tenkara in the method of fishing. There's a lot of Tenkara companies. We are the original Tenkara rod company here in the States. And our brand is Tenkara USA, unaffiliated with any other companies out there. I'm going to ask for a little bit of your help in this episode, in this short cast. if you can we'd love to kind of help people get clearer on the brands and that kind of thing but let people know that differences if you're familiar with our products what we've been creating in the last few years we're Tenkara USA and I'd love for your help in letting people know that we are our own brand and we make the original Tenkara rods here in the States but in any case, this is just a short cast. It's just something that has been kind of in my mind for quite some time. Trying to clarify the confusion a little bit about the method, the brands, and the descriptive nature of our name and other companies' names.

5:12All right, until next time on the Tenkara Cast. The one that came before I could hardly wait to greet the day Up and out the door The leaves are falling The woods are calling The trees are tall And the autumn colors And the mountains know my name The mountains know my name The mountains know my name So that was a small part of the song called Limbo by Takenobu check out his music at takenobumusic.com