Tying Kebari and Fly is a craft integral to being a complete tenkara fisher. It's not as important as being able to cast accurately yet it is a skill that can help you catch more fish and have the best time on stream. I think there are a couple of people that I want to mention that are important to tenkara kebari.
Yoshikazu Fujioka is the foremost authority on tenkara kebari. He is a Japanese fly and tenkara angler living in Kyoto that has been producing a web site since 1997. I know this because we became friends that year as we were detailing our love of fly-fishing small streams and we began to correspond during that year. His work is the best on the subject and Fujioka san is a talented artist by trade.
Toshiro Todoroki is also an expert tyer. I have learned a lot from his web site and fishing kebari that he has sent to me. I suggest taking a look at his web site.
Toshiro Todoroki: Kebari and Fly
Many years ago, I completed a project of tenkara fisher kebari. I asked more than thirty people around the world for a kebari. I wrote something like this, "I am studying the kebari that tenkara fishers use. May I have one of your kebari out of your fly box, preferably one that you fish." And what I recieved back is truly amazing. I used four shadow boxes to present each kebari on a small cork. Each kebari was a choice and from the box of a tenkara fisher. The sakasa style kebari (forward pointing hackle) was the prevailing type. There were more than a few tied on keiryu hooks from Japan. I collected from famous and serious tenkara fishers. Out of that whole collection, it is amazing to me that Jason Klass sent a few that were absolutely perfect. I'll be honest, you don't need perfect kebari to catch fish, as a matter of fact, Hisao Ishigaki, litterally the best and most well-known and longest tenkara fisher currently promoting the sport, his kebari are rough at best...
List of Kebari articles on Tenkara-Fisher
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