# Koga 'Ninjers' arrive in UK



## saru1968 (Feb 7, 2007)

Sad but true had to happen i suppose but it appears the Koga's have arrive in the Wirral, uk..

From MAP

read from about post 90

http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1081403#post1081403

and they are looking for love...

http://www.loopylove.com/profile.cfm/screenname/1116207


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## Don Roley (Feb 9, 2007)

That thread was difficult to follow. You have a lot of guys who have a lot of history together talking about an e-mail that is not public but most of them have seen and making references to a web site that they say is constantly changing its story. So you can imagine how confusing it is for an outsider.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but this is what I got from following the discussion.

- Adrain Farrington used to train with and got a black belt rank from an Ashida Kim group.

- He and another guy (Ian) started training with a Toshindo instructor by the name of Dale- a good guy and skilled by all accounts I saw.

- Farrington was kicked out of Dale's group for something (I do not know what) and Ian went with him just before he could be too.

- the two then went to another Toshindo instructor by the name of Gary Arthur (who posts under the name "Garth" in that thread) and he set them up as a training group under him and gave them rank.

- Now it seems to me that they are continuing to do the Koga ryu stuff while telling Gary what he wants to hear. They seem to be preying on his ego and well known hatred for the Bujinkan. I do not know if Gary really believes it or not, but it does seem that they are telling him things that go against other things they have written.

- As blue belts Farrington can't teach Toshindo, only run a training group. But it does seem like they are teaching on their own in addition to what they do with and have learned from Gary.

- They seem to have told Gary that Farrington was duped about Koga ryu ninjutsu and they are through with it.

- But it seems obvious to me that they are using it to attract students and they are not ashamed at all to mention their Koga ryu rank as if it mattered on places like that looking for love site.

- I think they told Gary that the "two traditions" of ninjutsu they teach is Toshindo and Bujinkan- but neither is a tradition. Togakure ryu is a tradition of ninjutsu and you can find it being taught in both the Bujinkan and Toshindo. (Leave aside the debate whether Toshindo should be using the Togakure ryu name alone for now, please.) 

- There seems to be some question if Farrington really has a black belt in Bujinkan or not and they seem reluctant to provide the type of info that would clear things up.

- Everyone now seems to hate Gary's guts for the way he has acted.

Is there any mistakes in the above? Is there something important I overlooked or am not aware of?


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## saru1968 (Feb 9, 2007)

Yep, pretty much sumed up the thread nicely.

Pity all threads can't be as concise...

I'm not so sure about the being duped but myself..because if the Bujinkan rank is from 'a high ranked individual' or indeed are net savvy to the least then How could they get duped?, the info is out there.

Yes, Gary Arthur made a few comments that he should regret and apologise for, very bad taste.

As i said over there nothing wrong with making mistakes but be man enough to own up and move on.


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## Don Roley (Feb 9, 2007)

Ok, so how did the guy making the fifth dan claims get inserted into the conversation about Koga ryu?

Is Farrington's (the Koga guy) credentials in the Bujinkan in question, or has he given the name of his instructor and that instructor backed up what he said when asked?


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## saru1968 (Feb 9, 2007)

That threw me a bit as well.

Farrington is the Shodan(Bujinkan grade)(3rd Koga), the 5th Dan was news to me. Don't know whether thats the Instructor of Farrington or one of the other 'two' out of the four people 'licenced to teach koga'.

we know of http://www.cnfsa.com/content/dojos.htm

P J FERGUSON 1st Dan Bidston UK
A G Farrington 3rd Dan Bidston Uk

so maybe it one of the other two.

I think MWDandy is waiting for the chap(Shidoshi?) to give his side of the story before it goes further but no doubt it will all come out as these things do.


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## MWDAndy (Feb 12, 2007)

Hi

I don't normally come over here and post but seeing as I was mentioned I thought I should.

I don't really want to drag this across to another forum but it's worth clearing something up to avoid confusion.

There are two seperate but related cases here.  One involves the guys who are involved with the Koga Ryu/Cape Ninjutsu Federation/Ashida Kim/Black Dragon Fighting Society et al.  Their website is here.

www.shinobikurabu.co.uk

The second case involves someone who is making a variety of claims regarding having taken and passed the Bujinkan Godan test.  There is also a secondary issue which is my main source of concern but that is being dealt with confidentially as appropriate.  Since the original thread on MAP, I have been given further information which has showed even more than before that this person's various claims are indeed false.

It's worth pointing out though that the individual in question still hasn't contacted me to arrange a meeting despite the fact that he was the one asking for such (through Gary "Garth" Arthur).

So, in essence, the "5th Dan" guy is being quietly investigated and dealt with.  The Koga Party are fair game and have no one to blame but themselves.

Thank you for your time.


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## Don Roley (Feb 12, 2007)

MWDAndy said:


> The Koga Party are fair game and have no one to blame but themselves.



So if I get this straight, these guys are associated with Toshindo while passing themselves off as Koga ryu teachers. Correct?

So we can expect a lot more stuff to be stolen from folks like Hayes and passed off as if it came from ancient Koga Japan.

And I suspect that at some point we are going to see a couple of guys break away from Toshindo and proclaim that they are going with the "superior" system of Koga that they also are able to teach. But of course, they can say that they have seen both Koga and Iga.

I have seen too many cases like this to suspect otherwise. People like this can't last in a legitimate situation where they have to be students instead of masters. The second they think they have learned as much as is convinient and enough to fool the masses, they will make their break.


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## Gary Arthur (Apr 8, 2007)

Posted by Don Roley


> That thread was difficult to follow. You have a lot of guys who have a lot of history together talking about an e-mail that is not public but most of them have seen and making references to a web site that they say is constantly changing its story. So you can imagine how confusing it is for an outsider.


 
Yes it is very confusing so i thought I would try to answer this and try to put the whole thing to bed.

Please correct me if I am wrong, but this is what I got from following the discussion.



> - Adrain Farrington used to train with and got a black belt rank from an Ashida Kim group.


 
No Adrian Farrington or his group have never trained with the Koga group. Adrian and another member sent off to the group about information relating to travelling to South Africa to do some firearms training, and received back in the post a 3rd dan and 1st dan respectively. I guess the Ashida Kim guys thought it would be good to have a branch in the UK.



> - He and another guy (Ian) started training with a Toshindo instructor by the name of Dale- a good guy and skilled by all accounts I saw.


 
Actually Ians background in Ninjutsu goes back further than most of us. he was originally a student of Brin Morgan and travelled to the USA in the early 80s to train with Mr Stephen K Hayes, he has also trained with Peter King and and attended some Hatsumi Seminars. He is at present still training in the Bujinkan and in To-Shin Do.

Adrian has been graded by the Shinobi Kai group headed by Peter Brown to 1st dan. Peter holds both a 4th dan in Genbukan and Bujinkan although he has not maintained his membership in either organisation for many years



> - Farrington was kicked out of Dale's group for something (I do not know what) and Ian went with him just before he could be too.


 
Adrian Farrington was asked to leave Dales group for a ceretian allegation. This allegation was never proven, and on Mr Farrington leaving other members of Dales group also left with him of their own free will.



> - the two then went to another Toshindo instructor by the name of Gary Arthur (who posts under the name "Garth" in that thread) and he set them up as a training group under him and gave them rank.


 
Actually Mr Farrington contacted me back in 2005 and asked if he and his group could attend the first UK Stephen K Hayes seminar. At that time I had met neither Dale nor Mr Farrington so of course said that they could. Mr Farrington then joined Mr and Mrs Hayes, Dale and his group, and myself for a meal after the seminar and they were no cross words and everyone seemed to get on very well with each other.

Mr Farrington and is group then again attended the 2006 Stephen K Hayes seminar but began expressing the point that although they had been following the To-Shin Do system for a couple of years they remained ungraded. I of course at this point was aware of the difficulties between Mr Farrington and Mr Dale Hesketh even though they had been firm friends since childhood, and that although an allegation had been made against Mr Farrington this remained unproven, and as we all know there are two sides to a story.

I contacted Mr Hayes and he was of course aware of the problems and suggested that these people receive some sort of small grade to spur them on, as i believe they felt like they were going no where and simply did not know where to turn. Ian, Adrian and a female visited my group a month or so ago and after a private lesson and watching them in my group, based on the level of their taijutsu I decided to give Ian and Adrian a blue belt, which is a very low rank. the female was given a yellow belt. On the 25th March I spent a day in Liverpool again going over some of the To-Shin Do. Ian and Adrian were not ranked at this time, but a couple of other members were given yellow belt.






> - Now it seems to me that they are continuing to do the Koga ryu stuff while telling Gary what he wants to hear.


 
I have visited Adrians shop in Liverpool as a surprise visit and the only advertising i could see relates to To-Shin Do and his grades in Shinobi Kai. I have also seen his letterheads prior to 2005, and for his dojo in 2006 and there is no mention of Koga Ryu on any of his litereature.



> - They seem to be preying on his ego


 
Well I guess we all have an ego, and yes I do want To-Shin Do to succeed in this country. However please bear in mind, that although people might think otherwise, I am not a administrator or anything special here in To-Shin Do, nor do I wish to be. it is my belief that each To-Shin Do group in the UK should run itself free of the control of other group leaders, and abide simply by the rules laid down by the Hombu. As such I believe there should be no UK leaders or head instructors. I teach one class a week, sometimes two and my business is working as a magician under the name of Avalon magic. You can find me in the yellow pages, although you won't find a similar To-Shin Do listing. I feel that the UK is big enough for everyone regardless of mistakes that people may have made in the past.




> and well known hatred for the Bujinkan.


 
I think hatred is a bit strong. there are things that I am not very impressed with in the Bujinkan, but I have no reason to hate the Bujinkan, although i am not particularly happy with some of the comments made by 



> I do not know if Gary really believes it or not, but it does seem that they are telling him things that go against other things they have written.


 
Please tell me what other things. Sure there was a web site that Adrian sent me as a rough and on that he did mention his 3rd dan in Koga Ryu, but as he said it was put there as a bit of a joke. this website was not in the public domain. I then made the mistake of sending this website to MWD Andy in confidence explaining that not everything on there should be taken literally but unfortunately MWDAndy placed it on the forums. Now it looks like Mr Farrington is teaching Koga Ryu style. As I said my mistake. Please note that Mr Farringtons web site now makes no mention of Koga ryu.



> - As blue belts Farrington can't teach Toshindo, only run a training group. But it does seem like they are teaching on their own in addition to what they do with and have learned from Gary.


 
As far as i am aware the only other stuff they are teaching is Shinobi Kai Ninjutsu. As I said Mr Farrington nor any members of his group have ever attended a Koga ryu Seminar.



> - They seem to have told Gary that Farrington was duped about Koga ryu ninjutsu and they are through with it.


 
Please view the Koga ryu site, they offer firearms training. I do believe Mr Farrington was a bit of a fool for sending off information in regard to that group, but there again I wonder how many of us here have atended fuma ryu classes, or sent off info about other groups for a laugh. I am not saying this was his reasoning but we have al made mistakes.



> - But it seems obvious to me that they are using it to attract students and they are not ashamed at all to mention their Koga ryu rank as if it mattered on places like that looking for love site.


 
As I said I am yet to see any posters, flyers etc with Koga Ryu on it. I did receive an e mail from Dale Hesketh recently telling me they had put up some posters on To-Shin Do but not Koga Ryu. As for that love site, there really is a bigger story there.



> - I think they told Gary that the "two traditions" of ninjutsu they teach is Toshindo and Bujinkan- but neither is a tradition. Togakure ryu is a tradition of ninjutsu and you can find it being taught in both the Bujinkan and Toshindo. (Leave aside the debate whether Toshindo should be using the Togakure ryu name alone for now, please.)


 
As I said, I have had no information to prove that they are teaching anything more than Shinobi Kai or To-Shin Do. I know that a black belt from Shinobi Kai taught a seminar to them a few months ago, and that Ian still trains in the Bujinkan with a high grade. So far I have seen no seminars advertising Koga Ryu.



> - There seems to be some question if Farrington really has a black belt in Bujinkan or not and they seem reluctant to provide the type of info that would clear things up.


 
Mr Farrington AFAIK holds no black belts in the Bujinkan, only in Shinobi kai 



> - Everyone now seems to hate Gary's guts for the way he has acted.


 
Yes, I am afraid thats what has happened, and to be honest I have been close to resigning from To-Shin Do over this. Mr Farrington from what i understand only teaches To-Shin Do and Shinobi Kai Ninjutsu and nothing else. However if anyone has any proof that Mr Farrington has given out flyers,diplomas with Koga ryu advertised then please contact me. So far I have received none. And based on the fact that Mr Farrington teaches in an area with two 15th dans in the Bujinkan and its fair share of Ninjutsu related art one would think that by now I would have received one or one would have been brought to the attention of the forums. This has not happened.

It is of my opinion that Mr Farrington has been unfairly judged in this regard. For the record Mr Farrington is a successful businessman that runs a shop. He has no aspirations to runs a dojo fulltime due to his work commitments and at this time only holds a blue belt in To-Shin Do.



> Is there any mistakes in the above? Is there something important I overlooked or am not aware of?


 
Probably after all a lot of this is third or fourth hand and there is more to this that cannot be posted here but I guess some will jump to whatever side of reasoning they desire. But I believe that in the above I have acted correctly in allowing a group of people to move forward in their training.

Gary Arthur


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## Gary Arthur (Apr 8, 2007)

MWDAndy posted


> The second case involves someone who is making a variety of claims regarding having taken and passed the Bujinkan Godan test. There is also a secondary issue which is my main source of concern but that is being dealt with confidentially as appropriate. Since the original thread on MAP, I have been given further information which has showed even more than before that this person's various claims are indeed false.


 
Actually the individual in question claims that he did not pass the Godan test. He claims that he was struck twice by Hatsumi Sensei and so failed only to be told that he should not worry by a leading black belt in the Bujinkan that he would have a word with Hatsumi Sensei and get him a fifth dan. At this point this individual left the Bujinkan and did not train for many years feeling that the whole thing was a bit of a joke and that that he had been used. It was years latter that this person started training in To-Shin Do.

Agian more to this story than meets the eye, and on a forum i do not think its appropriate to mention certian individuals, but needless to say the person in question still apparantly trains in the Bujinkan with a very high grade. 

Gary Arthur


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## Bujingodai (Apr 9, 2007)

If all Gary did was explain his position, after only 2 posts why is he banned already?

Is it because he is not a Kan member?

I'm just curious


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## Kreth (Apr 9, 2007)

Bujingodai said:


> If all Gary did was explain his position, after only 2 posts why is he banned already?
> 
> Is it because he is not a Kan member?
> 
> I'm just curious


He's been banned previously for using multiple accounts. Nice insinuation, though.


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## Cryozombie (Apr 9, 2007)

Kreth said:


> He's been banned previously for using multiple accounts. Nice insinuation, though.



I was gonna say... wasnt he posting as Gary Arthur and as Gina Arthur, or Gina Davis, or Gina Somthing at the same time for a while?


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## fish-iod (Apr 10, 2007)

i am new to this website and the art of ninjitsu i would just like to know what is wrong with koga ninjitsu


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## jks9199 (Apr 10, 2007)

fish-iod said:


> i am new to this website and the art of ninjitsu i would just like to know what is wrong with koga ninjitsu


Look around this forum or do a search; it's been pretty well covered by others who are much more knowledgeable than I am.

The quick & dirty of it is that the only credible source of Koga-ryu ninjutsu died many years ago, and there is no supported indications that he taught it to anyone else.  In fact -- there's pretty good evidence that he deliberately and intentionally chose not to teach Koga-ryu ninjutsu to anyone.


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## Motz (Apr 10, 2007)

Before my (watered down, mixed with Yoga ) Pilates class tonight (at the Wirral Tennis Centre where Mr Farrington apparently teaches) I noticed a poster for a seminar entitled "A Day of Ninjutsu Techniques" (may not be exact, can't remember entirely) by Sensei Mark Lutman of the Shinobi Kai. Messrs Farrington and Ferguson are listed as contacts

*Clarity Edit*: The seminar is billed as "Shinobi Kurabu presents ... Shinboi Kai", so no mention of Koga-ryu or ToShinDo here.

I'd be interested in going along (a friend of a friend apparently trains with the Shinobi Kurabu group and said friend is attending with her), but I won't be seeing my teacher (Bujinkan) beforehand to ask his opinion. Anyone here trained under Mr Lutman long enough to vouch for him?

*fish-iod*: The crux of the Koga thing is that no-one claiming such lineage in the past few decades has been able to present satisfactory evidence of it. Searching this forum should give you a decent idea of the arguments from both sides - Don Roley's posts on the matter are particularly informative.


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## Bujingodai (Apr 13, 2007)

Kreth said:


> He's been banned previously for using multiple accounts. Nice insinuation, though.


 

Umm, I am not insinuating anything. This board is moderated by Kans, not open for discussion. I happen to hold a yellow card myself so I am not calling anything, more just asking why he was banned.
You explained it, thank you. It was interest thats all.

Jeff I would never have anything bad to say about the Bujinkan


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## Kreth (Apr 14, 2007)

Bujingodai said:


> This board is moderated by Kans, not open for discussion.


Of course it's open for discussion. The neos and Koga Kiddies just seem to have a lot of trouble explaining their legitimacy.


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## Bujingodai (Apr 14, 2007)

Well understood point. The vast majority of them are "interesting" to say the least. Others well, I would say are not inspired to even try. 
I invited you out to an event a few years ago where you would have met a few of the more serious independents. I was going to pay for your seminar fee and such. But something got in the way of that near the end.
Regardless. Not all independents are light saber toting whackjobs.

But I  get your point.
But no insinuation from me on the matter. If he was banned for just cause then well he deserved it.


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## saru1968 (Apr 16, 2007)

Bujingodai said:


> If he was banned for just cause then well he deserved it.


 
Bad use of Hensojutsu on Garth's part.


Thinking back on it maybe it should be Genderjutsu

:lol:


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