Daniel and Tenkara are very unique to the fishing world. I have been fly fishing for over forty years and I have never witnessed a "new" product brought into the mix such as Tenkara. Yes there have been cane, glass, plastic rods introduced but they are all the same. Tenkara is different, different rods, lines and discipline. As a result there could only be two ways for the movement to go. One is die out, the other to expand. Expand it has, more products, more folks selling the products and more folks professing to be experts. Chris was well versed in Tenkara, he grabbed hold of the idea and was able to help Tenkara grow.

I know Chris and his idea for the use of Tenkara was to fish a long rod with wingless wets and nymphs like the anglers of merry old England. For Chris it evolved from there. He saw an infant market and started to go from there.

I saw the writing on the wall sometime ago and I was wondering what Daniel was going to do. He and Chris had become friends but Chris was promoting his products through TenkaraUSA. Daniel I'm sure made a decision that he did not relish but he is a businessman and needs to look out for his investment.

Some of you may have read my post on FAOL, well let me explain. I like to stir the pot at times and others I like to post something that will get folks to thinking about a subject. That was my intention in my post.

I have spoken with Chris on this matter, in person, and I think he holds not to much of a grudge against Daniel for kicking off the site. IMO I think that both will meet someday and they will be able to work this problem out.

Chris and I, I think have the same philosophy on the method on Tenkara and that it is a fishing instrument nothing more. Daniels philosophy runs much deeper than most and that is what he promotes through his writings.

Just a reminder I am, Tenkara asshole...

I'm glad to read that Daniel chimed in here to explain in part his reasons for what happened. I understand those reasons and as I have said before in other posts and via PMs, this is a TenkaraUSA site used to not only promote tenkara in the US and abroad, but to promote Daniel's business. When I started making the fly boxes, I wondered if it was proper for me to post anything here, so therefore I asked Daniel before doing so, even though he sold nothing like them on his website. I just felt it warranted his approval as a friend and from the perspective that this is his livelihood.

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Rick

テンカラ。小さなストリームのシンプルさ。
My Tenkara Rods:
13' Ayu, 12' Yamame, 11' with a conversion handle, and an Ito.

My Wife's Tenkara Rods:
12' Ebisu and 13.5' Amago, 12' Iwana with a conversion handle, and an Ito.

I still don't understand the problem with the posts of horn_indentity. Was there pressure from management, or did he walk away on his own? I always enjoyed his posts and videos. He sure is one helluva fly tyer, also.

Paul,
There certainly wasn't anything coming from me regarding Horn_identity. People go through different periods of activity and may choose to post less here if they wish.
I'm saddened that you perceive this forum as a "my way or the highway" type of forum. I have asked a competitor who was using it as a way to promote his name to stop posting.

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Tenkara USA, founder
打仁得流, テンカラ大使
About me and Tenkara USA

Daniel, I think the hard part that people are running into is that everything here has been really open, and the community (here) has grown from it. For the longest time this was the ONLY forum discussing Tenkara that was actually active, and rightfully so since you are the one that introduced the method AND gear to the U.S.A. So many people that are here don't see this necessarily as "part of your business" but rather as a community of like-minded anglers.

The "my way or the highway" perception probably came from the fact that no one knew of any behind the scenes communications about any of this, it was just sudden and happened. I can totally understand why this happened, and it completely makes sense. If you're selling cookies, and someone sits at your booth and starts selling their cookies in your booth, you wouldn't be very happy with that.

I do think it is a loss to this forum to not see Chris' informative posts here though.

Personally, having owned TUSA rods (I still have all the ones that i've bought) and a couple other brands, the TUSA rods are the only Tenkara rods that I still own. I believe that your equipment quality and prices are competitive enough that your sales wouldn't be hurt based on other manufacturers.

I have also seen other forums (namely ESEE knives) where they don't care what you post about, what knives you're selling or posting about and you can see that every forum member there is still purchasing multiple ESEE knives constantly (myself included). But the community there is very tight knit, end everyone (mostly is extremely helpful). That's how I had pictured this forum to be as well.

Sorry i'm too rambly. Bottom line: People should understand the "why" of it; Chris is no longer posting on this forum because he sells many directly competing products. Separating business decisions from friendships is very difficult in the best of circumstances, something I hope to never have to do!

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Yong
Amago, 11' Iwana I, 12' Iwana II