Origin of the word "tenkara"

[Satoshi]

I myself don't do tenkara, but I have been concerned a bit about that some people say tenkara means "from heaven" in Japanese, because it is apparently wrong. Yes, "ten" means "heaven" or "sky" in Japanese, and "kara" means "from", but it is very very strange to use "from heaven" as a noun even in the Japanese language.
Recently, I found an article discussing the origin of the word “tenkara.” Although there are many theories about the origin of the word, the argument here is very convincing, and I thought some of you might be interested.

http://www1.bbiq.jp/yamame/tenkara2.htm

Though it's written in Japanese, the summary is as follows.

“The word, tenkara, is now widely used to refer to the traditional style of fly fishing in Japan. However, there used to be various different namings for this fishing in different regions. The word tenkara became popular by the essays written by Soseki Yamamoto (a famous fishing writer in Japan) after 1960s. Yamamoto learned tenkara from Hideki Sugimoto, a physician in Nagano prefecture. Sugimoto says in his letter that there is a word “tenkara-tsuri (tsuri means fishing in Japanese)” in Tohoku region (northern part of Japan), and the word is brought to Nagano by logging workers from Tohoku. The word first appeared in literature in 1838; There is a record which says a fisherman caught more than 20 yamame or ugui (a cyprinid fish) by “tenkara” in Akita prefecture (Tohoku region). In those areas, butterfly and moth (and possibly also many other flying insects) used to be called either tegara, tenkara, tengura, tenkarako, or tenkako.”

Thus, “tenkara-tsuri” is almost a direct word by word translation of "fly fishing".

Satoshi

[adam]

Thank you Satoshi, that was very appreciated AND enlightening.

[CM_Stewart]

Thank you Satoshi. I've seen a lot of theories for the origon of the word, but I hadn't seen that one.