About Ito Craft
Ito Craft (有限会社イトウクラフト) is a small Japanese tackle maker based in Shizukuishi, Iwate Prefecture, in the Tohoku north where yamame, iwana and sea-run sakura masu fishing are a regional institution. The company built its name on the Emishi, a hand-finished sinking minnow that became a reference lure for Japanese mountain-stream trout fishing, and the catalog around it stays narrow and specialized: minnows, one rod family, wooden landing nets, wading shoes and stream accessories.
The rod line is the Expert Custom, twelve spinning models from a 5'1" upstream rod to a 9'5" big-river model, laddering from keiryu yamame fishing through honryu sakura masu to Hokkaido's largest trout. Blanks are 40-ton ultra-high-modulus carbon with boron composite, run titanium-frame SiC K-guides and spigot ferrules, and are finished like furniture: reel seats and grip ends turned from zelkova, myrtle burl, ziricote or karin burl, the zelkova undercoated with Japanese lacquer, and a metal fish relief set into the grip end. Rods are sold as custom builds, with a choice of seat wood and an optional baitcasting configuration on every model, and the company has issued sold-out limited editions in claro walnut (2011) and karin burl or sambar stag (2018). Distribution is primarily domestic through Japanese pro shops, with the brand's lures and rods reaching overseas anglers through JDM exporters.
What Ito Craft is known for
Ito Craft is known first for the Emishi minnow, a benchmark lure of Japanese native-trout stream fishing, and for the Expert Custom rod family that shares its focus: upstream minnowing for yamame and iwana at the short end, honryu sakura masu at the long end. The rods have a collector following for their wood reel seats and lacquer work as much as their blanks, and the brand sits alongside the small JDM keiryu makers whose catalogs are built around one fishery done thoroughly. Within the catalog it cross-shops against other Japanese stream specialists rather than volume brands.