Yuzo Sebata san Interview (2017) Tokyo Japan: Fishing Mountain Rivers

TiF Season 2 Episode 8: 瀬畑雄三 – Yuzo Sebata san’s Life in the Mountains

Below is our incredibly privileged interview with 瀬畑雄三 Yuzo Sebata san that John filmed last September with Go Ishii translating the conversations. Stay up to speed with this awesome project that Go Ishii is putting together on this page: https://www.discovertenkara.com/sebata-san/

瀬畑雄三 Yuzo Sebata san is the Father of Today’s Genryu Fishing

Although he would never say it himself – the pioneering adventures and discovery of Japan’s rich mountain culture (not to mention the AMAZING fishing that he found by taking on those risky ascents into hazardous wilderness areas) have inspired generations of outdoor fans in Japan. This is particularly true of the dangerous mountain headwater “源流”  genryu wilderness areas. The great boom in waterfall climbing “沢登り” (sawa-no-bori) and, over time, the development of many close-knit “Genryu crews” (tight groups of friends who can depend on each other’s survival skills in the mountains) can all trace a strong connection to what Sebata-san pioneered through his dedication and love of the genryu environment.

This reconnection with the knowledge, skills and culture of the mountain dwelling peoples including the matagi, shokuryoshi and kijishi (winter mountain hunters, professional tenkara anglers and tree cutters/woodworkers respectively) – and their practices such as the gathering of wild edible mountain plants (山菜: sansai) and mushrooms (キノコ: kinoko) highlights the appreciation of nature – and also living in balance with it. These mountain cultures have developed a great understanding of their surroundings and that extends to not taking more than nature can easily replace and replenish. Sebata-san wants the details of this knowledge and culture to be remembered and spread – this is his biggest remaining wish in life.

That wish extends to the knowledge and culture surrounding traditional and modern tenkara too. He deeply cares that the world must NOT ignore or forget the skills and attitudes that have been developed down the generations through centuries of life in the mountains and around their streams. His pictures and writing are some of the most prolific and inspiring in tenkara literature (whether in books or magazines). He, along with “partner in crime” the cameraman Kikushi Minamiya, created the most renowned series of VHS videos of their crazy genryu adventures around 30 years ago…

I’ve had the great good fortune to sit through all of the raw footage from those adventures (around 40 hours of it) 4 times over (and more for some tapes!) and it is absolutely fascinating (and in many cases almost unbelievable if it were not for the camera actually capturing the craziness). There are also all of Minamiya-san’s film slides that Go Ishii has been able to digitise. Together this is an incredible archive and insight into a culture and skillset that we, in the west, are almost completely unaware of.

This is our loss – but hopefully the efforts of Sebata-san, Minamiya-san and Go Ishii (and I guess maybe even with a contribution from ourselves), will give many more folks a chance to see, understand and appreciate this rich culture via a dedicated documentary film in the future…

Joining our Patreon Tenkara Project

In July we launched our TiF TRiBE Patreon Supporters page – check out what it’s all about (and read all the different Supporter Tiers info) here:

https://www.patreon.com/tenkara

We’re going to experiment with a mixture of pre-recorded and possibly live video events for Patrons of our channel – so follow along on the above link to see how this evolves over time.

Paul

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