Probably not much of a secret, but I’m the editor of Tenkara Angler magazine. I’m not really posting this to promote the magazine, rather conduct an informal survey…
I’m curious, if you’re a reader of the magazine:
Are there topics in which you’d like to see more or deeper coverage?
Are there any topics that have been ignored that you think would add value?
What can we do better? (Don’t be shy, I’m a big boy - the mag has challenges, due mostly to my own amateur limitations )
To date, I’ve basically taken content from the tenkara community with virtually no direction or oversight. That’s the way I’d largely like to keep the magazine as I think it’s interesting to see how all the random ingredients combine in each issue. However, there is certainly the opportunity for me to research specific topics, or contact those with specific areas of expertise.
Obviously, if any of the forum members are interesting in participating in a future issue, there are more details here. I certainly plan on mentioning the 10 Colors forum as a new tenkara resource in the next issue.
I haven’t a clue how much interest there would be about this suggested topic. And even less of an idea how the information could be obtained.
What has been the growth rate of tenkara content, of any type media, in English, or other languages other than Japanese, from 2009 ~ 2017?
I got my first two tenkara rods I think in June 2010. At that time about the only place you could find any information about tenkara in English was on the TUSA forum. Over the next two years online English post about tenkara increased. More websites, more youtube videos, etc. started showing up. But you could still pretty much find everything new any day of the week.
Only 28 July 2012 I made a post on TUSA forum about the exponential growth of tenkara on English language websites. At that time one could just barely still find everything and anything new about tenkara that had been posted about tenkara in English. And that would include content posted in English on website originating in countries where English is not the native language. Today it is just impossible to even find everything tenkara related posted in English.
I think it would be amazing, surprising even, to see the growth rate of tenkara information, interest, etc posted online or even including English books, magazine articles, and so on from 2009 to 2017. Also throwing in the expansion of companies that sell some kind of tenkara products: rods, flies, tee-shirts, whatever. Heck it might even be surprising to see the numbers about the growth rate of attempts to hack tenkara websites.
In short - an article with ballpark figures showing the growth of tenkara content in English from year to year from 2009 ~ 2017, I think would be interesting to see. I haven’t a clue how that kind of information could be found or even somewhat accurately estimated. Plus, just for good measure. Contrast that with the growth rate of interest over the same period in Japan. If anything like that has been previously written about I don’t recall seeing it.
I think the TA magazine is a wonderful resource. I like the frequency in which it is published. Other tenkara magazines have been available but they have been published so infrequently that one loses interest in trying to track the next time it will be out.
I also like the lack of commercial oversight. It’s nice to see ads and information from different companies and tenkara resources.
I haven’t sumitted much because I publish topics on my blog. My brain doesn’t have enough capacity to write to different articles for different sources, and I don’t want to repeat articles from my blog, thus being redundant.
As far as the overall concept and lay out, I think you’ve done a wonderful job. I hope it continues.
Wow, that would certainly be an interesting thing to try and research. There are some web tools that could help figure out the growth rate of the popularity online, be it in search queries, actual e-content, or in social media, but once it goes to print…wow. I may play around with the concept and try to develop it some, it would be interesting to see.
I played around with it very quickly last night (in regard to search) and it looks like the term Tenkara hit its Worldwide “peak” interest in April 2014. Not so coincidentally, Patagonia’s Simple Fly Fishing book & kits (& subsequent media blitz) launched at the end of March 2014. The long term trend for tenkara is clearly still pointed up, when removing that temporary anomaly.
The points on the chart above are not actual search counts, rather search interest relative to the highest point on the chart for the given region and time. A value of 100 is the peak popularity for the term. A value of 50 means that the term is half as popular. Likewise, a score of 0 means the term was less than 1% as popular as the peak.
Sidenote, searches for テンカラ in Japan have not really increased, only moved cyclically, I assume to conicide with the fishing seasons. Google searches for テンカラ in Japan were just as strong in May 2004 & 2005 (before the 2009 American introduction) as they were in May 2015 & June 2016. Appears if anything Tenkara’s interest was slightly on the wane in Japan until 2014 (Patagonia’s influence again?) re-established a steady climb of interest back up to 2004 & 2005’s levels.
Thanks Tom, wasn’t fishing for compliments, but I do appreciate (and will take) the affirmation. You know the door is always open should something strike your fancy.
I’m glad as a reader you still perceive the lack of commercial oversight to be the case. I welcome retailers and manufacturers to submit articles (and for those contributions, I happily place a small ad of theirs in the back), but really don’t want it to be advertising driven. It’s definitely a tough line to walk, as many of the most recognizable content producers out there also have a commercial interest. I will say that they’ve been great, and with the exception of one or two, have not inserted their businesses into their articles in a heavy-handed fashion.
Interesting. The hit count for the term Tenkara on the web probably only gives a partial answer about the increase in interest. Kind of a pity Chounard’s color of tenkara makes such a splash. I don’t care how he fishes, but it’s about the farthest from the mainstream or majority tenkara techniques I’ve seen. However, more people may become aware of tenkara due to his media pull, and once they become involved they will see the methods used by others, look-see-learn, so I have faith people are smart enough to figure out what may work better for them. I might have two pieces of Patagonia gear, after finding one of their catalogs in a shop at Top Sail Beach last fall, and seeing Yvon’s full page essay urging people to vote, and vote socialism, I’ve got no use for him. It’s just my color.
Anyway, Clifford Stoll, in his book Silicon Snake Oil pointed out that not everything is on the web, to research a topic only by what is on the web you will not find out everything about it, maybe not find the most important stuff. But thanks for taking the time digging out those statistics. The up count clearly started when Daniel started TUSA. It’s a little bit like pondering who will have the most influence on the future of the English language. More people in India speak English than the combined population of the UK, USA, & Canada. The Gaijin may have the most influence on tenkara into the future. Everyone under the rising graph line owes their interest in tenkara to him. imo. Also curious that the count has remained flat in Japan. In one of the Discover Tenkara In-Focus videos Dr. Ishigaki make a statement about a goal to increase the number of people switching from other fishing methods to tenkara by 50% or some such number. Looks like he has set a far off goal.
D
A couple regular destinations section with some details on where to go by a local would be awesome. I know people are reluctant to share secret spots but I still think where to go fish is the hardest things to figure out as a beginner.
I had an article about tenkara in Maine lined up for the Summer or Fall issue last year, but the author went AWOL around the deadline. Suppose that’s to be expected every now and then.
That’s exactly what I mean except written more specifically through a Tenkara angler lens. Don’t ask me what I mean by that exactly. I’m def. guilty of sending some teaser images and not following up with a trip report. .
A good model for the outings report is what the Japanese Headwaters magazine does. Usually 2 or 3 pages, good pictures, usually something about where to eat, where to fish, and a small map that highlights the drainage.
Tenkara Angler magazine is a wonderful magazine that has great stories and instructive information for new and advanced anglers and awesome pictures and descriptions of the places fished.
Thank you for kind offer, and if I have any future questions in regards to tenkara or fishing in general, your opinion would be highly regarded. Thanks Alton
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