The majority of popular sports in Japan today were imported from the west. However, while searching for an interesting topic for this post, I found an unusual connection between Japanese and western sports. This would be fly fishing. Today, fly fishing is usually thought of as a largely American or British past time, that emerged as a popular activity in Scotland and Northern England in the 19th century. Since 
then, the hobby has spread to many other countries. In Japan however, the method of tenkara fishing ("from heaven") is very similar to it's western counter-part, yet dates back almost 430 years. During the Edo era, tenkara was a popular hobby of samurai, who were not allowed to publicly practice martial arts. The sword becomes the rod and the action and strategy of fooling the fish becomes more important than actually catching one. With only a small amount of materials needed and the solitude and connection with nature, I can see how the Zen aspect of tenkara would be appealing to the samurai.
then, the hobby has spread to many other countries. In Japan however, the method of tenkara fishing ("from heaven") is very similar to it's western counter-part, yet dates back almost 430 years. During the Edo era, tenkara was a popular hobby of samurai, who were not allowed to publicly practice martial arts. The sword becomes the rod and the action and strategy of fooling the fish becomes more important than actually catching one. With only a small amount of materials needed and the solitude and connection with nature, I can see how the Zen aspect of tenkara would be appealing to the samurai.
It's no surprise that fishing is an important past time in Japan. Afterall, fish is essential for food here, but with tenkara, eating the fish is of little concern.
2 comments:
Yes... a lot of fishing going on in Japan as a sport. Good eating, too (sometimes). Some of your classmates wrote about fishing as well though none of them mentioned the samurai/Zen connection...
that is so interesting to learn about the connections of fly-fishing in the west and its connection with Japan. It's almost like it went in a full circle. I believe fishing in Japan is still that overlooked treasure since they have such a long fishing history. It's also interesting to see a company trying to open up that world to angler, TenkaraUSA
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