When I first started researching tenkara I ran into some Japanese blogs with some awesome pictures of people climbing waterfalls, swimming through pools, rappelling, and then enjoying some tenkara fishing in difficult to get places. They called the activity of climbing waterfalls “shower climbing”, and in Japanese it is also called “sawa no bori“.

I’m a rock climber, backpacker, and angler, so the idea of sawa no bori definitely appealed to me. It was one of the things I really wanted to do while in Japan but was starting to lose hope. Last month a scheduled trip had to be cancelled because of heavy rains. Now, a few days before I leave Japan, we had the trip scheduled, but it was raining hard a couple of day before. Alas, the weather cooperated; it was still raining, but not to the point we needed to cancel the trip.
It was one of the coolest things I have ever done. I do hope to come back next year and do an overnight trip. There are several people I already talked about doing this trip with, so the chances are good there will be a repeat.
On this trip, I was joined by Futamura-san, one of the staff of the Mazegawa Fishing Center, and Shintaro Kumazaki, a young guys who’s been helping with projects at the center. We descended a very small stream (with no fish in it), rappelled down a 45ft waterfall, and then worked our way upstream on a different gorge.

For obvious reasons not many people visit the area, and so we were rewarded with many “Yamato Iwana”, a native Iwana (char family). Unlike the Nikko Iwana, one of the fish that is raised in hatcheries and planted in most streams, which has white spots, the Yamato Iwana have beautiful orange spots on them and are completely wild.
In a place like that, where the fish are sacred and part of a rare ecosystem in Japan, we practiced Catch & Release. I can only hope anglers that reach that stream in the future will also practice catch and release. The stream is small, and it could be wiped relatively quickly. As famous Lee Wulf once said, “a game fish is too valuable to only be caught once.” This is especially true in a place like this.


It was a very full day. We met at 7AM, started hiking around 8:30, and finished the expedition at 6PM after I free climbed a gnarly 75ft waterfall with no protection to setup a belay anchor on top. We did approximately 5km of climbing waterfalls and tenkara fishing. The picture below is one of the “easy” climbs, we all just free climbed it (maybe 5.5 rating, but with slick algae).

Besides the last waterfall of the day (no pictures of that yet), the spot below may have been one of the sketchiest. We had to traverse relatively high, with a lot of moss on the rocks, and small edges to hang on to.

Another sketchy fall, Futamura-san climbed it with no protection to belay us from the top. Futamura-san is in his 50s and is the president of his local alpine club. Very experienced climber and “shower climber”, this climb was gnarly, my first very wet climb.

And, yes, we occasionally had to swim through very cold water too! It was interesting to have no alternative to plunging in the water, and especially fun seeing everyone hesitating for a moment before doing it.

Here’s a picture of me in my full ninja outfit. It’s been joked that whereas ayu fishing (a completely different type of fishing) is the samurai method of fishing where the angler stays in the water, standing up proudly, tenkara was the ninja method as you have to be stealth in the approach and often stay low to prevent spooking fish. My full black outfit, including a split-toe shoe, and position here may give that story some credit:

In case you’re wondering what I was using in such a tight stream, I used my 13ft Ayu, with a line about 9ft long and 3ft of tippet.
テンカラUSAのダニエルによる寄稿
テンカラについて調べ始めた時、日本のブログで、すごいも滝に登ったり、淵を泳いだり、懸垂下降もして難しい場所で釣りを楽しんでいるものをいくつか見かけた。日本人はこれを「シャワークライミング」と呼んでいる。「沢登り」とも言う。
自分は岩登りするし、バックパックで野外に行くし釣り人だ。当然沢のぼりには興味あって、日本にいる間にぜひやりたかったが、雨のせいで先月はキャンセル。無理かなとも思っていた。日本出国を数日後に控えた今回、雨は降っていたもののそれほどひどくなくついに行けた。最高の経験だった。来年も来て今度は泊まりで行きたい。(本国の)知り合い数人にも既に話した。来年もまた行けそうな気がする。
今回は、馬瀬の水辺の館のスタッフでもある二村さんとクマザキシンタローも同行。彼らは水辺の館のプロジェクトを手伝っている。コースはまずとても小さな流れ(魚が全然いない)を下り、45フィート(13m)を懸垂下降し、別の谷を遡上していく。
当然ながらここに人はあまりこない(アクセスが非常に悪い)ので、天然のヤマトイワナに出会うことができた。養魚場で育てられ河川によく放流されるニッコウイワナ(白い斑点がある)とは違い、ヤマトイワナはオレンジの斑点を持ち野性味充分だ。
ここの魚は生態系の一部をなしており貴重。自分達はキャッチアンドリリースに徹した。ここに来る他の釣り人たちもキャッチアンドリリースをすることを願っている。さもなければ小さい流れゆえすぐに釣りきられてしまうだろう。有名な釣り人のリー・ウルフは、かつて「いい魚を一度しか釣らないのはもったいない」と言った。まさにこの川にあてはまる。
丸一日の行程だった。朝7時に待ち合わせ8時半には歩き始め。 最後に75フィート(23m)のすごい滝を確保支点なしで登り、終わったのは夕方6時。約5kmにわたり沢のぼりとテンカラ釣りをした。この写真は「簡単な」登り(グレードは5.5くらい、でも滑るコケがついてる)。
この日最後の滝(まだ写真がない)以外にも不安定な場所が多く、これもその1つ。結構高いところを横に進むのだが、岩にはコケが多く付いており、しがみける岩角は小さい。
また他の不安定な滝を二村さんは確保なしで登った。いったん登ったら、下から行く私達を確保するのだ。二村さんは50台で、地元山岳会のエライ人。岩のぼりも沢のぼりも経験豊富。これが自分にとって初めての怖い、ウェットな登りになった。
また、時々とても冷たい水の中、淵を泳ぐ場面もあった!飛び込む以外の選択肢がないというのは興味深いものだ。みんなが飛び込む前に一瞬躊躇するのを眺めるのも面白い。
自分の忍者スタイルの服装も写真にある。冗談でいうのだが、鮎釣り(まるっきり違うスタイルの釣り)はサムライだ、釣り師は水の上にすっくと立ち上がっている、テンカラではそうっと近寄り魚を驚かせないよう低い姿勢を取る。履いているシューズもつま先が割れているし、この体勢はまさに忍者と言えるだろう。
(テンカラUSAの顧客で)私が使っている機材が何か知りたい向きにお伝えすると、竿は13フィート(4m)の「AYU」で、ラインは9フィート(2.7m)、先っぽのティペットは3フィート(0.9m)である。



