Genryu Fishing of Japan #47

A Bear Family

by Keiichi Okushi

In January 2020, the first person infected with covid19 in Tokyo came out. The number of infected people increased to about 30 in a month, and although the number of covid19 was more increasing in China and Southeast Asia at that time, I thought that it would be settled by the time the climate became hot, like someone else’s problem. However, the number of infected people did not subside even after spring and gradually spread throughout the country. In April, we were requested to refrain from going out without important purposes and to refrain from traveling across prefectures. Usually, in April and May, I often go fishing in the mountain streams in the neighboring prefectures, but that year I could only go fishing in the small mountain streams in the north of our prefecture or get out to the low mountain hike in our prefecture. I then thought it was a big deal.

Even so, the number of infected people gradually turned to a declining trend, the restrictions on going out were lifted, and we decided to go to the first genryu fishing trip in early June like every year. I talked with my group friends and decided to avoid fishing with large number of people in one group. I went to the familiar Oide-River in Tohoku Iwate with Tsuru-chan and Mr. Matsuzawa for 2 nights and 3 days. Oide-river is the genryu that we often go in the beginning of June because we could harvest good sansai(mountain plants) besides fishing. Concerning Oide-river I have written in “#9 Genryu Fishing Trip Walking Through 1300 Year Old Trail”.

On early Friday morning, Tsuru-chan, Mr. Matsuzawa and I were climbing 1300 year old trail and picked Nemagaritake (Nemagari bamboo shoots), Taranome, udo etc. on the way to the tenba (camp site) by Oide-river. It was a deeply foggy morning, but by the time we crossed the pass and went down to the Oide-river, the clouds had become much thinner, and the sun was shining little by little. Eventually, out of nowhere, Ezoharzemi (Ezoharu Cicada) started singing one by one. “Weather will be better soon," Tsuru-chan said happily with a smile.(Ezoharuzemi only sings in good weather.) After 15 minutes, the blue sky was spreading, and the forest was surrounded by a large chorus of Ezoharzemi. There is no better time than when you come to the mountains and the weather is getting better like this.

We arrived at the usual Tenba about 10:00. Immediately, we set up a tarp and prepared for early lunch. The afternoon was a wonderful day. We hiked up the main -stream and fished a little. Yes, fishing was very good. Everyone fished good size iwana. We returned to Tenba much earlier than usual. We prepared sansai (mountain plants) by the stream in front of the Tenba and started drinking while preparing dinner. At 8 pm, when we continued the drinking while fighting drowsiness, there was full of stars in the sky that promised good weather of the next day.

 The next day we woke up after 6am. Weather was good, and we were all fine. I always think that after sleeping in a mountain listening to the sound of stream we have a pleasant awakening and wonderful morning. May be because the first day of entering the mountain, our sleep time is extremely short due to the travelling the night before, and the tiredness of climbing over the mountains may lead us to a deep sleep from an early night. But not only because of that, I think it is very good for the human body and spirit to sleep in the woods listening to the sound of the stream flowing. In fact, when I come back from the mountain, I'm really in good shape for about a week.

 After having breakfast, we set out for the 30m Kashiwa Otaki (Big Water-fall) in Kashiwa-zawa, which flows into far upstream of the main stream. We skipped the area we fished the day before and started fishing about an hour walk from the tenba. Fishing was good on this day as well. There aren't many anglers in this river in early June, and fish are not so cautious. There was very little snow in the last winter, so the amount of water in the stream was very low, but iwana were very active and chasing flies well. The three of us took turns fishing and arrived at Kashiwa Otaki before noon.

 We returned to the mainstream and had lunch. We still had plenty of time, so we fished further upstream of the mainstream from noon. The fishing there was also very good. After fishing for about 1 km, Tsuru-chan suddenly shouted, "Oh, bear!" When Tsuru-chan was fishing in the waterfall basin of a waterfall of about 2 m. It seems that a bear appeared on the waterfall, which is about 7 or 8m away from us. According to Tsuru-chan, he was a young bear body length of a little over 1m, who has not grown up yet. The bear was also surprised and fled upstream. After climbing the waterfall, it was a slab gorge with steep banks. We walked a little, but after the bear ran away in a hurry, the puddles all over the places were cloudy. "I think he spoiled the stream for fishing", "I don't want to bump him again." We decided to finish fishing and return to the tenba.

 When we walked for an hour to the tenba, Mr. Matsuzawa, who was walking at the front, shouted, "Oh, there is a huge bear!" Well, bear again, when I looked downstream while thinking so, it was true that a wonderfully strong looking and big bear was walking toward us. The bear had not noticed us yet, maybe it was still 100m away. Even at that distance, he was probably a big bear whose body length was probably close to 2m. "Wow, it's a really amazing bear." I said. Tsuru-chan and Mr. Matsuzawa were taking pictures, but the bear still had not noticed us. At the distance of about 50m, I thought it was about to be dangerous distance and we shouted, "Hey, hey." The bear immediately noticed us and disappeared into the woods on the left bank of the stream. It was the usual bear behavior pattern. We though he was not a dangerous bear. We walked to the tenba with confidence.

In the evening, we started a drinking around the bonfire next to the tenba from an early time. After drinking for a while, our talks got excited. Around 6 o'clock when it was finally getting dark, "I think some animal was rustling from a while ago.", "Oh yeah, I noticed that too," said Mr. Matsuzawa and Tsuru-chan. I could not hear it because it was in the direction of the bush behind me. Immediately there was a sound of animal walking in the bush. I felt it was only about 15m away. I felt it was very strange as to whether the wild animals would bonfire and walk to the place where they were speaking loudly. "Hey, hey.", "Don't come over here.", We made a loud voice, but the sound of walking through the bushes was approaching. We were upset and stood up.

 "Oh, bear!" Exclaimed Mr. Matsuzawa. A bear was walking just behind Tenba, 7.8 meters from us. "Hey, don't come!" When we shouted, the bear looked finally noticed us. When Tsuru-chan threw a firewood, the bear turned and ran upstream. "What's that? No joke.", "It may be a young bear who doesn't know about humans yet." We were relieved and continued to have dinner. However, in less than five minutes, we were horrified by the sound of pushing through the bush, bear-like sound approaching again. "No way!" Tsuru-chan threw the firewood again, and he became quiet.

 "Oh my god, a big mother bear is coming!" Mr. Matsuzawa shouted and pointed to the upper reaches of the stream. A big bear that seemed to be seen upstream in the daytime was crossing the stream about 20m upstream of the Tenba to the right bank side where we were. "Hey, hey!", "Don't come!", We screamed and ringing the pot. The mother bear immediately noticed us and disappeared into the forest on the upstream right bank. That was where the young bear just ran away. And within 5 minutes, a bear-like sound was approaching from the back downstream side of the Tenba. I felt like we were in a pinch and panicked. Tsuru-chan threw a firewood again and drove him away. However, this time it seemed that he was trying to go from downstream to upstream. May be, he was the third one. I suddenly realized. These three bears are a family. Thinking to their size of the two young bears, it was the time they would leave from the mother bear to be independent in the near future. May be, they were practicing apart from their mother during the day. Perhaps the young bears were trying to join their parent bears in the lower reaches of Tenba. One of the young bears passed behind Tenba, but the second was driven away by us and fled upstream. Another young bear, who realized that his mother and brother bears were upstream, would have been driven away by Tsuru-chan every time, trying to pass behind Tenba many times in order to join them

 "The next time a young bear comes, let’s go down the stream side and let him through." I told Tsuru-chan and Mr. Matsuzawa also telling them what I thought. About 3 minutes later, a rustling and a young bear came from the downstream side. We immediately descended to the riverbank, and the bear seemed to have gone upstream. "It would have been too bad if I was attacked by that big parent bear.", "Aren't they attack us again, are they?" we talked, but they never came again. Around 11pm, I became quite calm and sleepy. We decided to sleep, but we put all the bonfires woods on the bonfire so that it would keep burning as long as possible. We also left the lantern on. "It's best not to sleep soundly to notice in case a bear comes." Tsuru-chan said.

I woke up once after 1am. The bonfire was still burning. The light of the lantern also illuminated the area. I did not feel any sign of a bear. Insects are crying. I heard a Tora-tsugumi (thrush) singing in the distance. It was the usual genryu night. The two, who had told me not to sleep soundly so that they could immediately notice the sign of a bear, were sleeping soundly with a sleeping bag on their heads. I fell asleep thinking that various things would happen in the mountains.

It was also sunny from the morning on the last day. After withdrawing the tenba, I was walking up the trail to the ridge carrying a backpack that became slightly lighter. Suddenly, I wondered the children bears met the mother bear safely last night. Then, I hoped that the beautiful nature of this genryu area continues to be rich and that bear family will live well in this rich forest for many years. From the bottom of my heart.

Genryu Fishing of Japan #44

One miracle day in the valley of Yakuwa.

The Asahi Mountains are a mountain district of 60km from north to south and 30km from east to west across the prefectural border between Niigata and Yamagata prefectures. Ohasahidake (1870m) as highest peak, there are ridge line of Shoujigatake (1482m), Itodake (1771m), Kankozan (169m) etc. are called “Asahi Renpo (mountain range)”. This mountain district is one of the heaviest snowfall areas in Japan, and many snow gorges remain even in the summer. In the area up to 1200m above sea level, a vast primeval beech forests spread, and there are many mammals such as Asiatic black bears and Japanese serows, and birds of prey such as golden eagles and goshawks. In addition, there are big mountain streams such as the Sagae River on the Yamagata Prefecture side and the Miomote River on the Niigata Prefecture side form deep valleys. This vast and untouched virgin forests and deep valleys do not let people go in easily. Yes, Asahi Mountains has one of the deepest forests in Japan. In other words, it is a symbol of nature in the Tohoku region. 

The Yakuwa River is the large mountain stream located in the northern surface of the Asahi Mountains. Along with the Miomote River, which flows in the south surface, it is one of the two major mountain streams that represent the Asahi Mountains. I think it is also one of the most famous mountain streams in Japan and is a sacred place for genryu fishing and sawanobori (river climbing). The flow of the Yakuwa River, which gathers the meltwater of the Asahi Mountains, which is the heavy snowfall area, is deep and strong, and we can not fish or wade at the time of run off or when the water rises after heavy rain.

The Yakuwa River has a Yakuwa Dam (We think such a stupid construction.) in the downstream, and popular fishing area is upstream from the dam backwater. The distance from the backwater to the fish-stop waterfall is about 27 km in distance, with an altitude difference of about 500 m. The altitude is from 400m to altitude 900. Faithfully going through this area doing fishing from the dam's backwater, it takes about 5 days and 4 nights. From the fish stop waterfall, you can go up to the mountain path on the ridge line by climbing an appropriate stream.

The Yakuwa River was famous for being a large mountain stream that flows through untouched wilderness, but it was also the Iwana who lived there that made Yakuwa River very famous. In Japanese mountain streams and headwaters, iwana and yamame are said to be big if they exceed about 30 cm. Unlike North America and Europe, iwana and yamame (Japanese native trout) can not grow that big in the Japanese natural environment. Although there are individuals can be exceeding 60 cm and 80 cm that have fallen into dam lakes, etc., individuals exceeding 50 cm are very rare in a natural mountain stream environment. I have been fishing in mountain streams for a long time. Occasionally I saw a 50cm class iwana that stayed in the bottom of the big pool, but I never caught it. Even under such circumstances, it was said that the average size of iwana in Yakuwa River is about 33 cm, and many of the ancestors of the genryu fishing caught iwana over 50 cm and sometimes over 60 cm in Yakuwa River. One angler said that he saw more than 10 big iwana starting with a 50 cm class at the top were lined up in the big pool.

Even now, every year, many genryu fishing enthusiasts go to Yakuwa River in search of the dream of a large iwana. It is said that the middle stream is most likely to catch the largest iwana. Walk for 6-7 hours along the river to Kakunedaira, the site there was the old zenmai hut (Hut for fern harvesting) that would be the base camp site. From there, the upstream section of Naga-sawa, Oguni-sawa, and Heishichi-zawa is the area where there is a lot of water and the highest encounters with giant iwana. Other than that, the pool of Komas waterfall in the begining of upper genryu area, and the vast pool of Ro waterfall that stands as the largest landmark of the Yakuwa River upstream are the points where the giant Iwana live. Many anglers had seen unbelievably giant iwana in the pool of Ro waterfall and from some day they started calling that giant iwana “submarine of Yakuwa”. It is a place like a legend. Beyond Lo Waterfall, it becomes the most upstream part of the Yakuwa River. This is not the place where many anglers can easily reach. And from there till fish stop waterfall is the last paradise, where large iwana sometimes over 40cm bend our fishing rod. 

Thinking about with travelling time to the river, it would take a week if you want to fish Yakuwa River from downstream to the fish stop waterfall. However, the anglers who can only take 3 to 4 days holidays like us can only enter the upper part of the river directly using the aforementioned mountain trail. In recent years, the most popular route to the upper part of genryu area is the route via Mt. Tengusumoutori down along Iwaya-zawa to the Yakuwa River, using the mountain trail from Oizawa, Nishikawa Town on the east side of the Yakuwa River. (By the way, this Tengusumoutori mountain is named after the legend that Tengu (Long-nosed goblins) made a dohyo (Sumo wresling ring) near the top of this mountain and played sumo, and there is still flat dohyo like place near the summit.) It takes about 8 hours for a healthy person to enter the Yakuwa River using this route. By the way, there is also a route that walks further down the mountain trail along the ridgeline and descends to Yakuwa River, which is a little upstream after climbing down through a small stream called Ushi-zawa. It is a route that you can go directly to the downstream of Hirogawara upon Komas Falls, making it easier to approach the Ro Falls.

This year, on the weekend of mid-July, I challenged this Yakuwa River genryu with 5 friends, Tsuru-chan, Yagi-san, Hama-chan, Fuku-chan, Matsuzawa-san. The route is via Mt. Tengusumoutor. I had fished the downstream part a long time ago, but this was the first time I went to the core genryu part. However, the rainy season was prolonged this year, and there was not much rainfall, but it was a rainy forecast during the schedule. Once the Yakuwa River is hit by a high flow, we can not do fishing or even wade the river. On Thursday night, we split into two cars and headed for Oizawa. It was already raining by the time we arrived at the gate of climbing trail at midnight. We parked the cars in the near-by museum parking lot and slept under the roofed entrance.

It continued to rain in the morning, but we prepared for departure, wore rainwear and drove to the trailhead by cars. Anyway, we decided to leave, and after 6:00 am, we started walking. The mountain trail first continued with a gentle climb in the forest, but suddenly it became steep climb after 30 minutes of walking. Rainwear has been soaked in the rain. On top of that, a sudden climb made a lot of sweat and my body became totally soaked. As the altitude increased, the temperature decreased. We took short breaks taking care not to cool down our bodies too much and kept on climbing. After 10:00 am, we finally passed through the forest zone and went into the low shrub zone, but we couldn't see the scenery because of fog. 

 
It was already around 12 o'clock when we continued to climb the mountain trail that continued from there and finally reached the top of Mt. Tengusumoutori. Although it was not strong, it continued to rain, my body was cold, and I was exhausted considerably. From there, if we walk along the ridgeline and descend Ushizawa, we may arrive at Tenba around 17:00. The weather was bad and the time was tight. Besides, spending the night just under the tarp in this bad weather would be hard. After a short discussion, we gave up the descent and decided to stay in an evacuation hut right below the peak. We walked about 30 minutes to arrive at the Tengu hut. The hut was a surprisingly beautiful mountain hut. The interior was just renovated with flooring, and a wonderful and comfortable space promised us a night where you can sleep with peace of mind.

From early afternoon, we had drinks and cooked small meals for drinks one by one. It was a hut on a minor route at the timing just before the mountain climbing season, so there were no other guests and we were in a state of chartering. At night, when I opened the hut window and looked outside, the rain was not so strong, but it was very windy like a storm. I thought in my heart that it was right choice not to go down into the river.

The next morning, I woke up after 4 o'clock with the sound Yagi-san cooking rice. The day before, I was able to have a rest enough on the day before, so I was very fine. I tried opening the window, but it was still raining and the wind was strong. To be honest, the weather looked difficult to decide going down to the river, but when a friend looked at the weather forecast on a smartphone (the hut was near the top of the mountain, the smartphone could catch radio wave.). It was saying “The weather was fairly stable today.” When we heard that, everyone suddenly got well. Then, we finished breakfast quickly and packed our backpacks. By the time we left the hut around 5:30 am, the rain and wind stopped, and a thick fog began to spread. But morning fog is a sign for good weather. We climbed from the hut to the summit and walked along the trail on the ridgeline, aiming for the descending point to Ushi-zawa. 

Occasionally the fog cleared partially, and we could see a spectacular view of the blue sky and the majestic Asahi Mountains. Our feelings became high. “This was the most regretful pattern if we gave up and went back home.” I told Tsuru-chan. Tsuru-chan laughed and nodded many times. Following the footsteps in the bamboo grass bush for 10 minutes from the descending point, we reached the head of Ushi-zawa. However, we were able to stand on the Yakuwa River for about 3 hours after repeating the zile works and climbing downs. Although water was a little cloudy due to rain for a few days, it was not bad that we can not do fishing or wading. We were relieved and immediately went over Komas Falls to the tenba.

The Tenba above Komas Falls were located on the terrace that is one step higher than the river and provided the comfort and spaciousness for six people to sleep. We quickly set up a tarp, made up a temba, and started to cook an early lunch. Around that time, suddenly the clouds disappeared, and a deep blue sky began to spread in Yakuwa's sky. The river and the valley began to shine in the sunlight. 

In that spectacle scene, we ate Udon cooked by Yagi-san in the riverside. It was so delicious.

At 11 o'clock, we prepared for fishing and went upstream. Iwana was fished from immediately upstream of the tenba, but average size of wana we fished was a little dissatisfied, because the size was 27cm up. In recent years, Yakuwa river has a lot of anglers during the season. After all, I think the fish had become sensitive to anglers. We saw some large iwana on the bottom of the big pools, but they were not atructed to our kebari. After a small hour of fishing and walking upstream, the valley suddenly opened, and a surprisingly wide Hirogawara (wide flat stream) appeared in the depths of this mountain. “Oku no Hirokawara”. It was very famouse area of Yakuwa River. Around that time, a perfect cloudless summer sky spread, and underneath it, the Hirogawara that shimmers in the sunlight was like a fisherman's Togenkyo. “This is a miraculous weather, a mountain god gift,” I told my friends. 

Hirokawara is dotted with the best points for kebari fishing. I was so happy to watch friends who cast the kebari against the current, backdrop of the rich forest and beautiful mountains. As I walked upstream, there were 4 or 5 of iwana in a big clear pool. I cast kebari as far from the downstream as possible and quietly. The largest iwana came surface and bit the kebari. It wasn't very big iwana, but I enjoyed a small fight and released him tenderly. He slowly disappeared into the depths of the pool. I was satisfied and felt I had enough today. I lay on the white sandy riverside next to the pool and looked at the mountains of Asahi and the blue sky. 

When Hirogawara continued for a while and the valley turned to the right, a big waterfall with a huge pool appeared. “It's Ro-taki (Ro Falls).” It was a much larger waterfall than I had seen in magazine photos. The waterfall that dropped a large amount of water and the deep blue pool were picturesque scenery with mountains in the background. Yagi-san caught a splendid iwana about 35cm in the pool just downstream of the waterfall. And we challenged the pool of Ro Falls, which seems to be 30m in diameter, by bait fishing. I felt that we could not catch iwana with kebari fishing in that too deep big pool. Unfortunately, Iwana floating in the upper layer could not be confirmed too. Yagi-san struggled for about 15 minutes, but the waterfall remained silent. We were just amazed and satisfied by that magnificent scenery.

Yagi-san and Hama-chan went over the waterfall saying they would fish upstream of Ro-taki, but we returned to Tenba. When we arrived at Temba about 15:00, a party of two people was making bonfire by the stream. They were the anglers from Sendai that Fuku-chan met at Yakuwa River at the same time last year. We exchanged greetings and talked sitting around the bonfire. When we were preparing dinner, Yagi-san and Hama-chan came back around 17:00. They said that they had better fishing above Ro-taki. They talked with a full of smile despite being tired. Then, in the evening, we started the party with guys from Sendai together. About mountains, fishing, stupid stories, we talked a lot until late. The calm night of Yakuwa valley, which changed from the previous day, went on. 

The next morning, when I woke up, it was raining. The sky was covered with thick clouds. The weather returned to the original rainy season sky in one day. I really wonder if yesterday was only one-day gift from the mountain god. Yagi-san cooked rice and Tsuru-chan made Iwana Kabayaki-don (grilled iwana rice bowl). We cleaned the tenba, packed our backpacks, and were sent off by Sendai guys about 7:30 to leave the tenba. Then, we had a long long climbing way of Ushi-zawa to the ridgeline. “It's three and a half hours,” someone said. "Then, the mountain trail to the cars for about 5 hours." I whispered in my heart and started climbing Ushi-zawa in the rain.

Genryu Fishing of Japan #43

Mountain Streams Disappearing Into a Dam.

by Keiichi Okushi

In the beginning of June, we went on our first genryu fishing trip to Kitanomata-zawa (Kitanomata Stream), a tributary of famous fishing river Naruse-gawa (Naruse River) located in south east of Akita prefecture. Naruse-gawa has many tributaries in its genryu part surrounded by beautiful 1200m class mountains and rich forests of beeches and Japanese oaks. Its mainstream begins from the shoulder of 1627m Mt. Kurikoma and flows north west to Sea of Japan. Upper part of Naruse-gawa has several good mountain streams for fishing spread in a fan shape. The area looks typical mountain nature of Tohoku region.

I have fished in Kitanomata-zawa twice. At that time, I parked the car by the stream and went down to the stream only in about 10 minutes by walk. It was main-stream of Kitanomata-zawa and for about 2 km from there to up-stream was the core part for fishing for one day anglers. As we went up-stream for about 3 km from the entering point, the river was divided into 2 streams, Kuwaki-zawa and Karamatsu-zawa with equal amounts of water. Both of those streams were good steady streams where we could enjoy nice fishing. If you want to fish both streams in one trip, you must stay in the stream for 2 nights or more. So, this time, we came to Kitanomata-zawa with a plan to stay for two nights in the stream and try to fish in both streams. However, according to the weather forecast, it would have been raining since the evening of the first day.

By the way, the village where there are Kitanomata-zawa and upper part of Naruse-dawa is called Higashi-Naruse, and it is said to have become the setting of the famous manga "Tsurikichi Sanpei". I think quite a few of Tenkara fishers living in foreign countries know "Sampei". “Sampei” is a story in which the boy Sampei, who lives in the countryside of Akita Prefecture, who loves fishing, challenges many types of fishing at various parts of Japan with his grandfather who is a traditional bamboo fishing rod builder and Gyoshin Ayukawa who is a professional angler. From the middle of the story, Sanpei also goes abroad to try fishing. Since this manga was also broadcasted around the world as a television animation program, I think that there are quite a few people who know "Sampei". I think that the story was not only merely depicting the fun of fishing, but also a masterpiece depicting the importance of nature conservation, human conscience, and the good old days of the Japanese countryside that Japanese people today are forgetting.

The author, Takao Yaguchi, was born in the nearby Masuda town, and seemed to have set the stage of “Sampei” in this area of Akita's typical mountain village, natural rich mountains, and beautiful rural scenery. I do not know if it is true or false, but this Kitanomata-zawa is a stream that became a model of the “Yonaki-dani (Night Cry Stream)” that Sampei struggles with the Monster Iwana in "Yonaki-dani no Kaibutsu (Monster of Night Cry Stream)" which is popular story in the early edition of “Tsurikichi Sanpei”.

Back to our trip, we drove on a motorway for about 3 hours, then another 1hour by narrow and winding mountain road, we entered Akita prefecture after crossing the pass near Mt. Kurikoma at midnight. As we turned one blind corner, a giant construction site in the whole valley illuminated like daytime brightness with hundreds of searchlights suddenly appeared in front of our eyes. There were innumerable heavy machineries, trucks, and people working like daytime. It was a huge dam construction site that began about 3 years ago. I heard that this dam construction plan had been for decades, and there had been a conflict between pros and cons for a long time, but the construction was finally started. But what a scene. I only think that it is just destroying nature desperately through the days and nights for making money. We stopped the car at a parking lot overlooking the scene and gazed at our breath.

The history of dam construction in Japan is said to be about 120 years. In the past, huge dams were built in various places to meet Japan's electricity demand. There are approximately 63,600 rivers flowing in Japan, and by now, in those rivers, approximately 3,090 dams with a height of more than 15 m, approximately 90,000 sand control dams, and a large number of small-scale dams are constructed. I do not think that all those dams were wrong. Certainly, there were times when dam power generation was needed in Japan. The problem is that politicians and large construction companies flocked to the construction of huge money moving dams, and countless unnecessary dams and sand control dams were built upstream of every river. Besides, in the history of dam construction, many mountain villages and precious nature sank into the bottom of the dam.

The negative effects of dams are not limited around dams. The adverse effects on ecosystems across the river are immeasurable, and their impact has been found to extend to the sea. For example, Mito, where I live, is relatively close to the sea, and we have been having problem since long time ago that the sand of this sea coast has been lost.

About 10 kilometers east of my town, a sandy beach called Kashima-nada (Kashima Coast) continues about 50 kilometers to the south along the Pacific Ocean. When I was a small child, there was a beautiful green pine forests spread along the coast. When I went along a white sand path in the forest, the forest was over, and the sand fence made of bamboo was lined up for many miles. When I ran up the white sand dunes, the white sands that were even whiter than the sand of the dunes spread to the beach. The contrast of this white sandy beach and blue sea and the blue sky were so impressive. It was the original scenery of the coast of Japan, old people were saying "Hakusa seishou(white sands and green pine forests)".

Now, Pine forests have been cut down in many places and have become a residential site, and such a large and beautiful sandy beach has been washed away in most places. Now in those beaches, concrete breakwaters and unsightly tetrapods (wave-dissipating concrete block) are just lined up.

"The loss of the beach is due to changes in the sea current," says politicians and scholars pandering to the government. And they line up the tetrapods, build the levees and make money again. Even elementary school students know. From the mountain stream to the middle stream, large rocks are crushed in the current and became small stones. From middle stream to lower reaches those small stones are washed and became sands and supplied to the sea. So, if you stop the river with dams or sand control dams, enough sands will not flow into the sea. Everyone would have learned about this in the science class.

120 years of dam construction has ruined Japan's beautiful coast. I think that we should make an effort to recover the lost scenery, even if it takes next 300 years.

Well, we left the dam construction site that continued to work even in the morning, we entered Kitanomata-zawa from the upstream of the site. This year, there was less snow during the winter, but there were unexpected snowfalls in March and April, and there were more snow bridges left in the valley than usual. The water in the stream was still very cold, but the energetic Iwana were actively chasing our kebari. Although it was little raining, we were able to enjoy fishing in main-stream of Kitanomata-zawa and get into the target stream of “Kuwaki-zawa”. At “Kuwaki-zawa”, Iwanana's response was even better, and I caught some good size Iwana over 30 cm.

Actually, we were planning to stay for two nights in the upper part of main-stream and fish 2 streams of “Kuwaki-zawa” and “Karamatsu-zawa” up to Sakana-dome (Fish stop waterfall), but according to the weather forecast, it would be raining from the evening till the night of next day. Perhaps it would be difficult to do fishing next day. Depending on rain, it may be difficult to return to the car parking spot. We took lunch in Kuwaki-zawa and decided to get down. We also planned to rent a cottage at a nearby campsite and enjoy dinner and drink. We picked up Udo and Aiko (wild vegetables) well on the way back. I looked forward to the tempura of wild vegetables at the dinner.

There was a signboard of the information about the dam construction in the parking lot where we had parked the car. A friend who was reading it said, "It's only five years until the dam is completed and the water is fully stored." Furthermore, according to the information, when the dam is flooded, it is said that “Kitanomata-zawa” will be drunk into dam lake to a point just before the junction point of “Kuwaki-zawa”. The area that is good for fishing in the mainstream of “Kitanomata-zawa” will be disappeared. Also, if a dam is created, it will not be possible to walk along the river, so it will not be easy to enter the upstream.

It will be five years until the mountain stream of "Tsurikichi Sanpei" disappears to the bottom of the dam. "I want to come here once more to stay in Kitanomata-zawa and fish up to sakanadome" said one of my friends.

Genryu Fishing of Japan #41

Snow Bridge in mid July

by Keiichi Okushi

This year, rainy season ended much earlier than usual year. In our main genryu fishing field Tohoku, generally the rainy season ends around middle to end of July, but it ended by the end of June this year. As soon as July came, the summer had come. The sun was shining and glittering strongly every day. I do not like the rainy and humid climate of the rainy season, but when the rainy season had ended so soon, I was concerned about the shortage of water. Not to mention growth of agricultural crops, I was also worried that the genryu in the summer would not be drought.

In mid-July, on the three consecutive holidays including the marine day, I went to Arakawa flowing on the south side of the Asahi mountain range with 2 friends, Go-chan and Ubi-chan. Arakawa genryu area is a beautiful mountain stream that runs through white granite river-bank, and the stream is surrounded by mountains of 1,500 meters to 1,800 meters and untouched forests of beech. For me Arakawa is a stream that I have fished many times already, but it is the first genryu in Asahi Mountains for Go-chan and Ubi-chan. Tenba (Camp site) is only 2 hours walk from the car parking, and we can use the climbing trail up to the tenba.

In this fishing trip, we planned to stay at this tenba for 2 nights and aimed to go to the upstream waterfall called “Magari-daki” that I have never been before. A little while ago when I visited Sebata-san at Bansho in Tadami, as I talked about this fishing trip, Sebata-san said, "There must be still snowy bridges remaining in mid-July and it might be impossible to go to Magari-daki." However, we did not have much snow this year, so I thought that it would be fine in the middle of July as expected.



When we arrived at car parking lots by Arakawa, as the weather forecast was very good for the three consecutive holidays, there were 5 or 6 cars were parked in the parking lots at the gate of the climbing pass already. Early in the morning, when nobody had gotten up yet, we started walking up the mountain path. Arakawa's climbing path continued upstream along the river, so there was no hard climb. We walked breathlessly in the deep forest where stunning beech trees are scattered. We crossed three suspended bridges that gradually became poorer, and when the sun appeared over the mountains, we arrived in Temba.

Around the time the Tarp and the Blue Sheet were set up in the tenba, 2 anglers were coming down to the stream. We exchanged greetings. They said "We will stay for one night, so we would like to go to the tenba of about an hour and fish around there." I said “OK, then we will fish lower part today.” “We will take care walking not to spook fish” they said and walked to up stream.

We had a break for a while and prepared for fishing. Go-chan said he would like to fish near tenba and have a little nap today. I could understand him because we only slept for 2 or 3 hours a night before. Ubi-chan and I decide to fish up to Masudome-no-taki (Trout Stop Water Fall) which is about 1km up-stream from the temba. Arakawa in this section is surrounded by un-touched deep forest of big old beech trees, and stream flows slowly with a large amount of water.

I thought fishing might be a tough condition because it was already July and many fishers walked and fished around this area, but contrary to expectations, the fish showed good reactions to our kebari. There were nice sized iwana of 24-27 cm vent our rods at every good point. Apparently the two leading fishers seemed to have walked so as not to rough the fishing points. Ubi-chan and I enjoyed fine fishing up to Masu-dome water fall. We had lunch under the water fall and walked back to the tenba.

When we arrived at the tenba another 2 guys lookd ike fishers were resting by the tenba. I said hello to them, then one guy told me “You are Okushi-san, aren’t you?”. He was a genryu fisher that I once met in the keiryu and talked for a while. They were wanting to stay at this tenba, so we welcomed them to set a tarp by our place. Luckily there was enough space for one more tarp. I said, “Let’s drink together tonight.” “Yes, of course.” they answered with smile.

"Photo by Uberto Calligarich"

We started bonfire around 5:00 and prepared for dinner. That evening, Go-chan cooked lamb-chop steaks with salt, pepper and rosemary. We called 2 guys and had beer together. Lamb-chop steaks were so good. We also cooked more foods and enjoyed talking until about 9:00 pm. When noticing, the starry sky, that was promising good weather of next day, was spreading in the night sky.

Next morning, we woke up at 6:30 am. When we were having breakfast, 2 young guys looked like Sawanobori (Stream trekking) were coming over. They told that they were on a day hike sawanobori and do some fishing too. We said we would probably catch up sometimes later, and we saw off them. There were many people because of 3 consecutive holidays. Well, thought that day's fishing was difficult, but I thought it was OK if we could see Magari-daki, and we left Tenba after 8:00 am.

"Photo by Uberto Calligarich"

The morning mist hung over the river where the sun light was not reached yet. We aimed up-stream and walked in this fantastic scenery. It only took us 30 minutes to Masu-dome waterfall where we finished fishing yesterday. Masudome waterfall is only about 8m but it had a large amount of water and there was a huge pool under the waterfall. There was also another 8m waterfall right after Masudome waterfall. I told Go-chan and Ubi-chan how to climb over the waterfalls, and I traversed right side of the pool and climbed Masudome waterfall and waded across the rapid stream and climbed the next waterfall. Go-chan and Ubi-chan climbed the waterfalls safely. We really enjoyed this waterfall climbing.

Gorge finished just upstream of the waterfall and the vast Hirokawara (Wide and flat shallows) spread before our eyes, and over there the spectacular scenery of the Asahi mountain peaks were spreaded under the shining sun and the blue sky. There were no clouds to obstruct this majestic scenery shone on the summer sun. Ubi-chan and Go-chan both were taking photos. This was the landscape I wanted to show them. I said, “Real Arakawa genryu is starting from here.” Since we have a predecessor, we took walk forward for a while.

Two fishers we met yesterday came down as we walked a little. Talking, yesterday they took a tenba near there and fished up-stream. “Fishing was good.” They smiled fairly. Talking with them, I learned that they are the same locals as me. We talked for a while and said good-bye. Around 9:00 am, we reached the confluence of Nabekura-sawa where a huge snow bridge lied down even in mid-June. The snow bridge had disappeared without a trace, but the mainstream was deep pool for about 30m that we can not wade or traverse, Ubi-chan and I decided to climb over the 40m high right-side riverbank, but surprisingly Go-chan swam and broke through the pool.

We started fishing from the up-stream of this big pool. We fished some iwana but size was not satisfied, we knew it was because there were still 2 sawanobori guys up-stream. We walked again and then we found 2 guys about 100m up-stream. We soon caught up with them. It was around 10:30. They said they were just finishing fishing and go down the stream as they had to go home by the evening. Finally, there was nobody up-stream of us in Arakawa genryu. Now, as soon as I thought that Arakawa fishing was going to be real high right, the river suddenly became little muddy. I think it was the sign that a snow bridge broke down somewhere up-stream. "In July, there must be snow bridges left." I remembered Mr. Sebata-san’s words.

As we fished and walked for about 30 minutes, the turbidity disappeared. After passing a large tributary called Ohobi-zawa, the flow of mainstream became rapid, and the contrast of white granite of river banks and green forest, pale blue sky showed us a beautiful scenery of Arakawa genryu. Iwana to catch got bigger, and they bent our fishing rod comfortably.

"Photo by Uberto Calligarich"

After few minutes, we faced Ex-Sakanadome Waterfall. It was only 2m high water fall, but there was no clue, I climbed the right bank acrobatically and put out the rope for Ubi-chan. As we walked for a while, the valley became the deep gorge and the compressed flow became deeper and stronger. When we turned one blind corner of the valley, there was a huge snow bridge caught upon 30 meters high valley hill. It looked like breaking and falling down any time soon. That was too huge and too unstable snow bridge. The current under it was very deep and rapid. We had to give up wading up the stream there. However, it was quite an inspiring sight.

"Photo by Uberto Calligarich"

We had lunch at down-stream of that place and slowly went down the stream. The sun in summer was as strong as ever, the temperature went up but the walking in a pure flow was very pleasant. In the pool by Nabekura-zawa, high school students boys and girls sawanobori (stream climbing) group was practicing swiming supported by instructors by a rope. They said they were wading up Oh-Obisawa from now on and stay overnight in the mountain and coming down the climbing path tomorrow. We waved hands and said, "Take care and enjoy!". Everyone turned about and waved hands with a smile.

This time, we could not reach the target waterfall. Moreover, it was only 200 meters from the waterfall. It was disappointing, but fishing was very good and we really enjoyed breathtaking sceneries. Also, we met more fishermen and sawanobori climbers than usual during this trip, and everyone was very nice. On the last day, we met the local elementary school students who were led by the teachers. They were on a beginner river hike tour and everyone looked enjoying the walk very much. They all said hello to us with smiles. It reminded me the smiles of the high school students who were waving hands at that pool Nabekura-zawa a day before. I was thinking that Japanese young people were still not that bad.

"Photo by Uberto Calligarich"

Soseki's Modern Tenkara and Various Tenkara Techniques in Different Districts

Soseki’s Modern Tenkara and Various Tenkara Techniques in Different Districts

Submitted by Eiji Yamakawa

Yamamoto Soseki was well known to Japanese tenkara fishers. He introduced tenkara to mountain-stream anglers through his many books and articles. Based on one of his articles of a fishing magazine (Ancestry of Tenkara, The cutting edge of mountain stream fishing 1988, page 68-73, published by Weekly Fishing Sunday), this report has been prepared to introduce Soseki’s tenkara technique and various tenkara techniques in different districts in Japan. Although that article is a bit old, I think this report provides you with some interesting information on Soseki and many types of tenkara techniques.

Twenty years ago, when the above-referenced article was published, every mountain-stream angler knows that “tenkara” is a name of a technique for fishing mountain-stream fish with a fly. However, just twenty to thirty years before that time, tenkara was a fishing technique that was performed only in limited districts and had been handed on from one generation to another in respective districts by only a limited number of people. The fishing technique and the name for tenkara had a large variety among those districts. This variety will be described latter.

Tenkara in Kiso

Tenkara had long handed on in Kiso district in Nagano Prefecture since old times. Its techniques and fly patterns were well known as an orthodox mainstream of tenkara. The fly patterns in Kiso had the collectively theorized components for practical use to fish amago, which was called “tanabita” in that district.

Dr. Sugimoto, who ran an internal medical clinic in Fukushima in Kiso, was Soseki’s master of tenkara. After Soseki learned tenkara by Dr. Sugimoto’s book, he visited him to have his face-to-face training. It was summer in 1964.

According to the technique of traditional tenkara there, they fished the mid deep to near surface region with a fly immersed in the water, and it was very difficult technique especially to beginners. That technique was all the same as bait fishing except using a fly instead of a real bait. The most difficult point is in how to detect a fish bite. You needed to have a good skill to hook a fish upon a glance at a fish turning around in the water.

Why had that difficult technique been handed on? In those days, it was practical to immerse a fly in water. There were two reasons for that: first, a natural material fishing line looks so transparent in water that it is difficult for fish to find it; second, a natural material fishing line has unevenness in thickness, and the water prevents as a cushion the fishing line from breaking due to an instantaneous large force when hooking a big fish.

When a nylon fishing line was put on the market, it replaced the conventional natural material fishing line. It was light, strong, and chemically stable.

On response to the emerge of the nylon fishing line, Dr. Sugimoto conceived a new tenkara technique, improving the traditional tenkara technique.

His new technique had two major features. One was to lure a fish out to the surface and to hook it there. This thrilling technique was created owing to a fine but strong nylon tippet. The other was a simple style of fly. In the water, an unsophisticated fly is easily found out to be an artificial bait, and therefore, a fly has to look like a real bait. However, on the surface, fantastic flies have the following advantage.

With this new technique, a fly is shown off to fish through a bail of the water. The fish sees upwardly the fly though water from deep in the water, in other words the fish looks toward the bright place from the dark place. In the morning and evening, the situation is especially enhanced, thus a fantastic fly is more effective.

Dr. Sugimoto focused on this point and came up with a fly only having a simple hackle and body, setting up the “Wing Vein Theory” which insists that the veins of the wing are important in flies because only the veins can be seen if you see the wing of a mayfly by transmitted light.

Tenkara in Other Districts

The fishing is inherently distinctive in different districts. The same kind of fish has different names, and the fishing techniques are different. Those respective techniques have been handed on in respective districts, and tackles and fishing rigs have been locally developed, and are thus locally distinctive. However, most of the differences in techniques and tackles seem to have been lost due to printings and visual materials. Printings and visual materials such as TV help a fishing technique of some people or some district to prevail as a standard technique.

In the northern area of Tohoku (meaning “north-east”) district is the technique in which three to five flies are tied like tree branches, and the flies are dragged on the surface. This technique is called “Mosquito Fly Fishing”.

In Nikko, Gorocho fly has been well known as a fly for the mountain stream fishing, and it is famous as a pattern of fly instead of as a fishing technique. As the name of the fly implies, this fly is made similar to a gorocho (a dialect word representing an adult aquatic insect of some kind).

The features of mountain stream fish especially iwanas depend on the rivers where they live, due to a stream size, properties of water, bottom stones, vegetation in the river basin, brightness, and so on. Therefore, their feeding habits can also differ in different streams. Thus, the following situations can occur. Earth worms are effective in A river, but in B river they are not at all effective, instead aquatic insects are a must. Of aquatic insects, caddices are effective in C river, but mayflies are effective in D river. The same thing goes with flies, and we have to prepare unusual flies for rare use in addition to our favorite flies for regular use.

Regarding this troublesome issue, there are two different convincing assertions A and B, and they make this issue more troublesome. To make this difficult issue simple, let’s discuss bait as an example. Assertion A insists that the bait that the fish usually have is better, and to the contrary, assertion B insists that an unusual bait is better. You can buy either assertion. Although the two assertions are opposite to each other, both can make sense and are persuasive to unconfident anglers.

The same thing goes with flies, and thus you have trouble to decide what kind of pattern to use. The best pattern depends on uncertain conditions such as weather and water level in addition to the aforementioned constant conditions such as properties of water, bottom stones, and vegetation of the river bank, which relates to the kind of bait inhabiting there. In this regard, you can learn a lot from the visual features of traditional flies that have locally long been handed on. From this point of view, Gorocho Fly is distinctive in Nikko district.

In Yamanashi Prefecture is a technique called Taiko (meaning “drum”) Fishing. The reason why it is called by that name is that an angler changes points while drumming the water surface with a fly. It is quite an exciting technique. A fly is not shown to fish for a long time, instead it is repeatedly shown for a very short time to confuse the eyes of a fish. After showing off the fly that way, the fly is presented on the water for the fish to bite. Such a manipulation of fly reminds us of an image of a dragonfly dipping its tail in the water to lay eggs.

In the southern part of Kyusyu Island is a technique that is totally opposite to Taiko Fishing in Yamanashi Prefecture. In this district, yamame is called madara (meaning “spotty”) or enoha (meaning “leaf of nettle tree”), and there is a tenkara technique called Hashirakashi (meaning “to sweep quickly”). The presented fly is manipulated so as to scratch the water surface quickly.

In Shidara County in Aichi Prefecture is a tenkara, which has long been handed on. That tenkara is basically the same as Kiso tenkara, but Kiso tenkara is thought to be older.

In Fukui Prefecture is also a tenkara technique, and Soseki actually saw this technique in the Itoshiro River in 1965. The angler was old and nearly blind due to cataract but waded very lightly, jumping from one stone to another while casting at short intervals. His line system is the same as that of Kiso tenkara. He casted and picked up after he presented a fly and counted “one, two, three”. With this technique, a fish is most likely to bite the fly at the moment the angler counts “three”. It was a repetition of counting “one, two, three” and not very exiting, but the angler caught far more fish than Soseki, Soseki was a beginner at that time, though.

In Totsukawa Village is a bit different technique. It is a technique using a level line. It is called Tobashi (meaning “casting”) and has been performed by forestry work workers. The line system employs a 10lb to 14lb nylon line and about one meter of a thinner tippet tied to the end of the level line. In addition, an ear of a dead pampas grass is tied on at the upper part. Its weight helps casting, and it works as an indicator as well.

Mr. Takekabu in Owase City has taken over this orthodox technique of the level line tenkara and is developing the technique. His technique is better to be called Takekabu Style than to be called level line tenkara. His level line is eight to ten meters long, which is much longer than typical level lines. He can easily cast this long line without any indicator or weight.

The tapered line is easy to cast due to its tapered shape, but a long level line needs more skill and more physical strength to cast. The reason he still sticks to his style is that hooking rate is very high with his style. Judging from Soseki’s experience, you can hook typically seven out of ten fish but miss three fish. However, Takekabu Style is said to hook all the ten fish.

Why there is such a difference? It is because you can stay away from the spot owing to that long line, and a fly can be presented on the water surface naturally enough. However, it is not good for bushy small streams, and in addition you have to have a good eye sight.

Deep Mino and Hida district is a Sakasa Kebari. Since its hackle is tied in the opposite direction to normal flies, and it looks like swimming in the water when the line is tensioned.

Is Tenkara Difficult?

Tenkara has long been said to be difficult, and Soseki believed the same way at first. But through his experience, twenty years for bait fishing and another twenty years for tenkara, he said tenkara was simpler and easier.