Many have noticed the cover for my new book spells tenkara out in lower-case, and a couple of people have already asked if that was done on purpose.
YES! Good eye!
I made a very deliberate decision to have tenkara written in lower case on the cover of the book, as well as throughout the book whenever I discuss the method of fishing. I see the word Tenkara with upper-case in many blogs and magazines. But, you see, tenkara is not a proper noun; it is a simple noun, like “fishing” or “fly” and it shouldn’t be capitalized. However, tenkara can become a proper noun when discussing a brand, like Tenkara USA.
I’d make the case that one should write tenkara in lower-case when discussing the method. Although I suppose we could just choose to end up with our own version of fly-fishing, flyfishing and fly fishing and never be certain which is the correct one (I always write it fly-fishing).
Daniel, I remember having a similar conversation with you about this years ago and you told me that tenkara is not a proper noun so it should not be capitalized. I agree with you–it’s just like “fly-fishing”. But over the years I’ve struggled to be consistent in spelling it “fly-fishing”, “flyfishing”, and “fly fishing”. I seem to use them interchangeably. According to dictionary.com, it should be hyphenated but I’m not sure how authoritative that is. I guess in the end, it doesn’t really matter as long as people understand what I’m talking about.