Banshu Kebari

Insects in miniature

Kebari are artificial flies, mostly for catching ayu, the sweetfish of Japanese rivers. On a hook less than 1 cm long, makers wind feathers from several birds with silk thread to copy a water insect in beautiful colours. A fly must suit the fish, the season, the weather, the depth and the water, which is why more than 1,000 kinds have been created. This area makes most of Japan's kebari. It is made in Nishiwaki and Tamba in Hyogo.

Wound from tip to base

• Gold leaf goes on the hook first, so it will glint through the feathers.
• Feathers of several birds are wound on with silk thread.
• The winding grows larger from the tip to the base.
• A bead of lacquer is formed and gilded, finishing an insect that looks ready to fly.

From Kyoto by the old road

The technique came from Kyoto at the end of the Edo period. Nishiwaki lay on the Kyo-kaido road to Kyoto, and the skills may have come with local peddlers or with people who went to work in Kyoto. Farmers made flies in the off-season, quality kept rising, and from the mid-Meiji period Banshu flies won many prizes at fisheries expositions.