Post by phil on Nov 12, 2013 12:33:42 GMT
A lovely video of Masami Sakakibara tying this elegant dressing:
Paul of Discover Tenkara showed me some of Tenkara no Oni's fly patterns during the Tenkara Open Day on the River Nidd. We both agreed, I hope Paul, that Masami's fly dressings have a unique style, evident I would suggest in this video. Such a simple pattern yet accomplished with great care and attention to detail. I love how Masami cuts back through the wound hackle.
Such style, I think, comes only through long practise and familiarity with the materials one uses. If we all dressed the same pattern with exactly the same materials and compared them, a Takeyama Sakasa Kebari for instance, then we would notice beyond the immediate differences of form, perhaps a more subtle difference, that being the style of each fly reflecting something of the essence of the tyer.
It's a concept still evident in oriental philosophy and culture that includes Japan, namely, Qi (Chinese) or Ki (Japanese) meaning very broadly energy or vitality. It describes not a rarified sense of the mysterious as some would have us believe but rather one of deep familiarity with and embeddedness in nature. A quality that can be discerned in all things and all disciplines, such as a master carpenter, a dancer, a cook, for instance, where the thing that they do cannot be separated by any contrivance from their being. It is the difference between doing and being, or perhaps more accurately, the doing and the being become fully integrated. The work of the master carpenter can be recognised because it carries the essence of the carpenter in every cut, chisel stroke and application of finish.
I remember my struggle to grasp the techniques and applications of sword play in both Japanese and Chinese martial arts. My teachers would admonish me at a certain point in my practise to forget the technique, to stop copying them and instead, express myself without any pretense in the movements of my sword.
This video, for me, captures the essence of style that makes Masami's fly dressing uniquely his. I seek not to copy his style or way, but rather find my own.
I think each time we visit a river to fish we do so to engage, whether we know it or not, with nature in one of the most direct ways still available to us, to capture and to hold in our hands for a moment something wild and beautiful, that helps us to remember ourselves in this world of things.
Tight lines and happy tenkara
Phil
Paul of Discover Tenkara showed me some of Tenkara no Oni's fly patterns during the Tenkara Open Day on the River Nidd. We both agreed, I hope Paul, that Masami's fly dressings have a unique style, evident I would suggest in this video. Such a simple pattern yet accomplished with great care and attention to detail. I love how Masami cuts back through the wound hackle.
Such style, I think, comes only through long practise and familiarity with the materials one uses. If we all dressed the same pattern with exactly the same materials and compared them, a Takeyama Sakasa Kebari for instance, then we would notice beyond the immediate differences of form, perhaps a more subtle difference, that being the style of each fly reflecting something of the essence of the tyer.
It's a concept still evident in oriental philosophy and culture that includes Japan, namely, Qi (Chinese) or Ki (Japanese) meaning very broadly energy or vitality. It describes not a rarified sense of the mysterious as some would have us believe but rather one of deep familiarity with and embeddedness in nature. A quality that can be discerned in all things and all disciplines, such as a master carpenter, a dancer, a cook, for instance, where the thing that they do cannot be separated by any contrivance from their being. It is the difference between doing and being, or perhaps more accurately, the doing and the being become fully integrated. The work of the master carpenter can be recognised because it carries the essence of the carpenter in every cut, chisel stroke and application of finish.
I remember my struggle to grasp the techniques and applications of sword play in both Japanese and Chinese martial arts. My teachers would admonish me at a certain point in my practise to forget the technique, to stop copying them and instead, express myself without any pretense in the movements of my sword.
This video, for me, captures the essence of style that makes Masami's fly dressing uniquely his. I seek not to copy his style or way, but rather find my own.
I think each time we visit a river to fish we do so to engage, whether we know it or not, with nature in one of the most direct ways still available to us, to capture and to hold in our hands for a moment something wild and beautiful, that helps us to remember ourselves in this world of things.
Tight lines and happy tenkara
Phil
