There are few rods available today that have the overwhelmingly positive reputation of the Nissin Oni Zerosum Oni Honryu 395 & 450 tenkara rods. Tenkara anglers that have fished them (particularly the 395) count it as a favorite; a top rod in their respective quivers. Heck, among the Tenkara Angler Staff, Matt, Tom, & I each consider ourselves one of those anglers. Personally, I feel the 395’s combination of being incredibly stout while maintaining quite a bit of finesse makes it amazingly versatile to fish. From a practicality standpoint, I actually prefer it to my Oni Type I.
Well, this year Nissin announced they were going to release two newer rods in this Masami Sakakibara “Tenkara No Oni” inspired family, at shorter, and possibly more popular 295 & 345cm lengths, each with a 7:3 flex profile. And as of these weekend, they’re now available for purchase at Tenkara Adventure Outfitters.
Per the Nissin Website (Translation by Deepl):
“Zero-Sum Oni Tenkara, produced by Mr. Sakakibara, the devil of tenkara, now comes in 7:3 tone. The new 7:3 tone allows for accurate casting and quick hand movements. Like the Zero-Sum Oni-Tenkara main stream, it has the same three features: “straight flight, good straightness,” “no blur, good resilience,” and “good rod shedding, good restorative power. The rod is available in two lengths, 295 and 345, to suit your preference and field conditions.”
Now, it’ll probably take a few weeks for the first tenkara anglers to get these in their hands for on stream evaluation, (I know Tenkara on the Trail‘s Kris Franqui already ordered both – no surprise, right? 😁 ), but I’m really interested to see some of the feedback. I think I’m most interested in how the 345 compares to the 340cm Oni Type III (or even Oni Itoshiro), which are rods of similar lengths and Oni pedigrees.
While an Oni Type III is generally considered as “soft” (a 2014 evaluation by Tom Davis put it as a “slow action, full flex” 5:5 equivalent with a 3.5 RFI), this new Oni rod should be a bit faster and tip flex if it’s a true 7:3. I’m assuming that may make it a bit more of an all-purpose rod and more capable of throwing some weight, (i.e. nymphs), if you so choose. In his review, Tom also weighed the Type III in at 56g, so the chart above suggests the Oni Tenkara 345 won’t be much heavier, despite the slightly longer length.
I guess time will tell, but I’m very excited about these rods, and I think many of our readers will be too. I’m not sure how many Tenkara Adventure Outfitters brought in with their first shipment, but if you want to have this rod in hand for the last few months of summer, I wouldn’t sleep on it. If these new models are anything like the larger honryu versions, they will be extremely popular. Check out the TAO site HERE to learn more and possibly purchase one of these new rods.
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I have a warning for folks who ordered Zerosum Oni from TAO. DO NOT EXTEND THE ROD OUT OF THE BOX! Mine has a bunch of metal shavings under the bottom cap. If I extended it before checking for this – I would ruin the joints! So first thing you do after receiving the rod – unscrew the bottom cap, remove the blank, and inspect joints carefully. My was very difficult to unscrew – I put electric tape on the bottom cap to help with the traction. If you see metal shavings – clean them carefully with the cloth. There was also some grease, so I used rubbing alcohol carefully. Do not put it on the cork – it would dissolve the cork sealer! Overall it is not the first time I see dirt under the bottom cap, but metal shavings is the first… It may be just my rod or it may be entire batch…
Now to normal things… First question I have is about the blank – is it the same as Zerosum Oni Honryu. No it is not the same. The 5-th section from Honryu is less diameter (slides through “Oni 7:3” handle). Also the tip for “Oni 7:3” is 0.65mm, and my Honryu is 0.73mm. Why this is important – assume you own Zerosum Oni 7:3 345 and Zerosum Oni Honryu 395. And you broke some section on one of the rods. If blanks are compatible – you can swap it from the other rod. Of course you still have one functioning rod, but you do not fish two rods at the same time, so effectively it is the same… This section swapping trick worked with all previous Nissin series (Zerosum, Royal Stage, Air Stage, etc) assuming you use the same blank action (7:3 is not compatible with 6:4). Two lengths of Oni Honryu have compatible blanks as well.
Now handle. Cork length is 25cm, top swell/waistline/bottom swell are 25.4/21.4/25.8mm in diameter. For comparison Zerosum cork length is 22.5cm, curves profile 26.1/21.5/27.9mm. Royal Stage cork length is 27.5cm, curves profile 25.5/21.4/28.5mm. I would say neither of the handles I like, but I have big hands… Holding for the upper swell works (like on videos with Oni demonstrations), holding for the lower swell does not (like on Tom Davis videos).
I did measurements, this is a table for the rod and close rivals:
Length Weight RFI CCS Moment
320.5cm 61.4g 4.1 13.2 3.1 Royal Stage 320 6:4
320.1cm 58.5g 5.0 15.9 3.3 Zerosum 320 7:3 Royal Stage blank
345.7cm 65.2g 4.6 15.9 3.9 Zerosum Oni 7:3 345
365.4cm 63.9g 5.0 18.1 4.6 Light Pole 360 7:3
372.0cm 82.5g 4.0 14.9 4.8 Air Stage Fuji Ryu 360 5:5
365.4cm 84.7g 5.0 18.1 4.9 Light Pole 360 7:3 upgraded handle
372.0cm 81.6g 6.6 24.7 5.2 Air Stage Fuji Ryu 360 6:4
Moment is in kg-cm similar to Tom Davis measurements. But my measurements for CCS is 1-2 pennies more than Tom’s, this is probably because I’m measuring the exact weight required to deflect the rod to 1/3 length, there is no bag (of extra weight) involved.
In my opinion this rod should fit well for fishing with light line (2.5-3.0 level line equivalent) with a Kebary. So essentially the use case is the same as for Oni type 1-2-3-Itoshiro rods. But it should work better for American trout sizes (13 inch and more), there should be less issue with fish throwing the hook. This is a good video about Oni style of fishing: https://youtu.be/NG4uLm9wwIA?feature=shared.
About nymphs… No it is not good for nymphs. Both Dragontail Mizuchi and Air Stage Fuji Ryu 6:4 would be better. Mizuchi was designed to work with nymphs. ASF… well it is designed for small bass (not kidding). Not exactly nymphs, but it is faster and stiffer than a regular tenkara rod, and it helps. And just to clarify: here we are talking small and light nymphs, like euro-nymphing style. Not something of 0.5g or more, not double nymph rigs, and not extra weight like in Joe Humphrey book… For that I would look at keiryu rods…
If there are questions about the rod – please ask, I’ll try to answer…
PS: I have a question for the community. TAO sent me a rod in a box which is one and a half times bigger than a rod tube WITHOUT ANY PADDING. No bubble wrap, no air bags, even no jammed newspaper… Rod was in the tube, but the tube was banging in the box freely… Were your shipments the same? I’m very not happy about it (if you think it is not an issue – read there: https://tenkaraangler.com/2024/04/12/shes-a-demon/). They probably had a lot of orders for these rods and were in a hurry, but…
Thank you for such a thorough write up Igor, especially the comparative measurements and your thoughts on how this rod might be best used. Very detailed!
The metal shavings is certainly something new, I’ve never noticed that when purchasing a Nissin rod either. I hope it’s an isolated incident.
I ordered my 345 from Japan and had a similar experience with the shavings/carbon residue. I’ve always received rods like this from Nissin/Daiwa etc. The factory just doesn’t take the time to clean them and I’ve come to expect it. I disassemble and thoroughly clean every rod before it’s extended.
I agree with the fact that this is definitely not a smaller version of the 395/450. I fished mine and it’s a completely different feeling rod. It did not handle a 3.5 tungsten bead head nymph smoothly like them and does not have a positive hookset while nymphing. It’s a much softer action and is better suited for smaller water for sure.