Best Hitotsu Tenya Heads: 9 JDM Tenya Compared by Go Size, Hooks and Price

A hitotsu tenya (ひとつテンヤ) head is a weight with a big hook molded into it and a smaller trailing hook on a short cord. Thread a shrimp on, drop it to the bottom, and that’s the entire rig for red sea bream (madai). Japanese makers sell dozens of versions, and what looks like the same lump of metal runs from about ¥600 to over ¥3,000 a head.

Three things explain nearly all of that gap: whether the head is fixed to the hook or slides on the leader, whether it’s lead or tungsten, and how heavy it is. Weight is printed in go (号), and one go is 3.75 g, so an 8号 head is 30 g, about an ounce. How the rig is fished is in our hitotsu tenya fishing guide.

Fixed or Sliding: Which Tenya Head Do You Start With?

Fixed heads (固定式, kotei-shiki) are the original design. Hook and weight are one piece, so a touch on the shrimp travels straight up the line. Sliding heads (遊動式, yudo-shiki) have a hole through them: the leader passes through the weight to a separate two-hook rig, and the weight can slide away from the hooks.

Daiwa makes the case for sliding on its own 2WAY page. The fish doesn’t feel the weight of the head when it eats, and a head-shaking madai has less to throw the hook with. The same page names the weak point: off the bottom, a sliding rig shows fewer bites than a fixed one. Daiwa sells one of each in its Kohga (紅牙) family, and the fixed one starts at ¥840, the sliding one at ¥1,080.

Daiwa Kohga Tai Tenya SS TB: Fixed, 2 to 8号

TB stands for tungsten balancer. Daiwa sets a tungsten piece into the bumper at the front of the head, which it says tips the head forward, makes it sway on the drop and sharpens the feel of touching bottom. A spring-loaded pin called Ebi Lock goes into the hard shell on the shrimp’s back to stop the bait sliding. The eye for the trailing hook is turned sideways and widened so you can swap that hook yourself, and it sits in the same spot on every size.

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Daiwa Kohga Yudo Tenya SS 2WAY: Sliding, 6 to 30号

The 2WAY name refers to two ways of threading the same head. In what Daiwa calls bottom mode the hook rig keeps pointing upward, so a bream feeding on the seabed finds the shrimp. Mid-water mode keeps head and rig in a straight line, which Daiwa says shows smaller bites than earlier sliding tenya did. You get the head, the two-hook rig and a bead in the pack.

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The two ranges share only 6号 and 8号. Below that there’s no sliding option from Daiwa, and above 8号 the TB stops, so under 6号 you buy the TB and over 8号 the 2WAY. For when each weight gets used, see the section on reading go numbers in our hitotsu tenya technique article.

How Heavy Is a Go, and Which Sizes Does Each Maker Sell?

Multiply the go number by 3.75 and you have grams. Jackall prints both on its spec tables (5号 as 19 g, 8号 as 30 g, 15号 as 56 g), and the other three makers print go alone.

Only the TB goes down to 2号. Jackall skips 12号 and sells 13号, so a box that mixes brands ends up with both. Every one of the nine comes in 8号, and eight come in 10号. None of the TG heads is made above 15号; past that weight it’s lead or nothing. If you’re matching these to a rod, the lure ratings on Japanese tenya rods are printed in go as well, and our hitotsu tenya rod roundup lists them.

Is Tungsten Worth Two to Three Times the Price?

TG on a Japanese package is the usual shorthand for tungsten. Daiwa gives its reasoning in numbers: the metal it uses has a specific gravity of about 18, so the head is smaller for the weight and sinks faster, and because it’s harder than lead Daiwa says both touchdown and bites come through more clearly. Jackall sells its TG head on speed, too: reach bottom sooner, and you get more presentations out of one drift.

Lead barely gets dearer as it gets heavier: ¥100 separates Daiwa’s 8号 and 15号 2WAY. Tungsten climbs ¥1,100 over the same four sizes. So the premium is 1.9 times at 8号 and 2.7 times at 15号, and a snagged 15号 takes ¥3,150 with it. Among the three TG heads, Jackall’s is the cheapest at every size it shares with Daiwa: ¥210 under the Ebi Lock 3 at 8号 and ¥650 under the TG 2WAY at 15号.

Daiwa Kohga Yudo Tenya SS TG 2WAY: Sliding Tungsten, 8 to 15号

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Same two threading modes as the lead 2WAY, same pack contents, four colors instead of six. One difference to know before ordering: the lead version’s Plus Sinker add-on isn’t on the TG page’s feature list.

Daiwa Kohga Tai Tenya SS TG Ebi Lock 3: Fixed Tungsten, 6 to 10号

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Three sizes, six colors. Daiwa says the head shape came out of studying the tenya used by commercial fishermen and that it rocks from side to side as it falls. The trailing hook hangs on two strands of Japanese fluorocarbon twisted together for stiffness, which Daiwa describes as true to the method’s origins at Ohara in Chiba: the cord props up the shrimp’s head, and the small hook catches the bream under the jaw.

Jackall TG Binbin Tenya Taimu: Fixed, 3 to 15号

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Six sizes in eight colors, which makes it the widest TG range here. The main hook is made as a separate part and fitted into the head afterward; Jackall’s claim is that this cuts down hook tilt, so less of the strike is lost. Jackall’s product page says TG and never names the metal. The lead sibling is sold under a different name, Namari-shiki (鉛式, “lead type”).

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What Hooks Come on a JDM Tenya?

Every head here carries two: the oya-bari (親針, main hook) that the shrimp is threaded onto, and the mago-bari (孫針, trailing hook) that goes into its head. Makers are specific about coatings and bait keepers. Hook size is another matter. Eight of the nine product pages don’t print one.

Two of those names come with a number or a geometry attached. Saqsas is a fluorine-based plating, and Daiwa claims up to 40% better penetration than its ordinary painted hooks, about 20% on average, by its own testing. Gamakatsu’s Zero Angle means the hook point is set at zero degrees, which the company says passes on the most force from the strike; the trailing hook is a pattern it describes as suited to striking at once.

Jackall Binbin Tenya Taimu Yudo: Sliding, With the Hook Sizes in Print

Jackall is the one maker that puts hook sizes in the spec table: Iseama (伊勢尼) pattern, 12号 main and 10号 trailing, on all eight weights. The leader runs through a low-friction PTFE tube in the head, and the trailing hook is tied on fluorocarbon-cored assist line that Jackall says resists twisting and tangling between the two hooks.

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Before tax, these are the same prices Daiwa asks for the lead 2WAY at 8, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30号. What separates the two is the shrimp keeper on Jackall’s hook and the two threading modes on Daiwa’s head.

Which Heads Fill a Box for the Least Money?

Tenya get lost to the bottom, so the bulk of a box is usually lead. At 10号 and 15号, a fixed head from Gamakatsu or Hayabusa lists at less than half of the cheapest TG one.

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Gamakatsu calls the Luxxe Ohgen Tai Tenya 2 (桜幻 鯛テンヤ2) the high cost-performance version of its tungsten Ohgen tenya: the Zero Angle hook and one-touch keeper carried over onto a lead head. It runs 3 to 15号 in eight colors up to 5号 and ten from 6号, after one gold finish was discontinued.

The Hayabusa Muso Madai Kangeki Tenya II (無双真鯛 貫撃テンヤⅡ) follows the first Kangeki Tenya, which Hayabusa describes as a strong seller, and adds a keeper called Ebi Rocker. Its long shank is there so small shrimp can be pinned as firmly as big ones. Five colors, one head to a pack.

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Hayabusa is the cheapest head at every size it makes, by ¥160 to ¥230 against Gamakatsu, and it’s the only fixed head of the nine sold above 15号. Put another way, one 15号 Daiwa TG 2WAY at ¥3,150 buys four 15号 Hayabusa heads with ¥70 left over. Hayabusa’s page tells you less than the others, though: it doesn’t say what the head is made of or name the hook pattern.

What Is the Daiwa Free Rig Tenya For?

Deep water and hard current. That’s Daiwa’s own headline for the Kohga Yudo Tenya SS Free Rig, and the size list backs it up: it starts at 8号 and ends at 80号, a 300 g sinker.

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The sinker hangs from a clip Daiwa calls the D-Free Rig part, molded in POM plastic so it doesn’t scuff the leader. You can change weight or color without cutting the line. Daiwa says the free-rig layout lets the bait drift more loosely than on a regular sliding tenya. The sinker is round with flat facets cut into it, a shape meant to drop cleanly, come up light on the retrieve and flash when it’s worked.

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At 25号 and 30号 it undercuts the lead 2WAY by ¥40 and ¥100. Daiwa pitches the chartreuse and gold colors at tilefish and rockfish as well as madai, and its gallery shows a bream captioned as an electric-reel deep-water catch. From 40号 up this is a different kind of fishing from light-line hitotsu tenya, so check what your rod and reel are rated for first. Our hitotsu tenya reel comparison covers the 2500 to 3000 spinning sizes the light heads are fished on.

Comparison Table

Pick by Budget

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A sensible order for a first box is three or four lead heads spread across the weights your water needs, plus one tungsten head in the size you expect to fish most, so you can feel the difference before paying for more. Still deciding between this and a sliding-lure setup? Our tenya vs tairaba comparison puts the two methods and their tackle next to each other.

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マイボートで海に出るボートアングラー（釣り歴20年・ボート歴10年）。タイラバ・ひとつテンヤ・ライトジギングが主戦場で、エリアトラウトや堤防のライトゲームものんびり楽しむ雑食派。

実際に使った道具の「正直どうだったか」を、公式スペックと実釣の両面から書いています。

Boat angler based in Japan, sharing first-hand reviews of JDM tackle.