LET US FIRST BE AS SIMPLE AND WELL AS NATURE OURSELVES, DISPEL THE CLOUDS WHICH HANG OVER OUR BROWS, AND TAKE UP A LITTLE LIFE INTO OUR PORES.
—Henry David Thoreau
Tenkara is mostly for small streams and intimate waters: the moss-covered hollows, the cool spring creeks, and sunny beaver pond. It’s the intimacy, unencumbered by excess gear and gadgetry, that takes us outside of ourselves. We need our quiet places, both internally and out in the world, and tenkara can help you find them.
Tenkara in the end is just fishing: a sport, a challenge, a form of play. Yet it is important because it requires us to venture out, slow down, and observe. If we give ourselves up to the pursuit, we will learn things about ourselves and our world we never imagined. As the Irish proverb says, “If you listen to the sound of the river close enough, you can hear trout.” Tenkara simply helps us listen more closely.