MOSTLY BAMBOO: EIGHTEEN BAMBOO, FIBREGLASS, AND GRAPHITE FLY ROD MAKERS IN JAPAN. By Yuki Bando.

2020 1st edition. 8vo paperback (152 x 231mm). Ppvii,357. Beautifully illustrated with b/w photographs, and with a colour section of photographs of rods at rear.

This is an excellent compendium of accounts of contemporary Japanese makers of flyrods and their work - written in good English. Chapters include: Why Tonkin? Why urethane?; Be the pioneer / Kakuhiro rod; A man of Japanese tradition / Kagerow bamboo rod; To be long, or not to be long? That is the question; Make the game difficult / Genius rod maker; Catch shaku, that's my job / Kawatsura Fly Rod; First pedigree: Japanese Payne / K. Murata Rod Co; Enter ye in at the straight gate / Ryuno Rod Custom; A painter / Awol; Gone fishin' / J. Yokota Rod Maker; All by myself; Sacred bamboo / Harada Takezao; Beyond the material / Fagus; The true fly rod maker / Campanella; No border, no gender; A good girl grows up in disciplined house / Takachi Trout Rods; Red dress among dark suits / Chako Rod; The spirit of inventor; A trout bum becomes a bamboo rod maker; Asama Rodworks; House of invention / Maekawa Craft; Experiment to the future; Honda spirit / Bum Rod; A scientist / Takemoto Rod; Doctrine of the mean / Solid Octagon; Showcase (colour section); Last words.