Donna Murphy of Ontario, Canada

**BlinkYouAreDead** · Posted On: 2/07/2008 9:09pm

Has anyone heard of Donna Murphy of Ontario, Canada?

She claims to be the international representative of Koyama Tenmon Ryu, a 700-year old koryu bujutsu school from Japan. She also says her school is the Headquarters dojo.

http://www.shinwakandojo.com/page8.html

http://www.shinwakandojo.com/home.html

It just doesn't make any sense to me.

**serious face** · Posted On: 2/07/2008 9:27pm

no, but I did go to the website and that makes me an expert.

Seriously though, 30 as a student and 20 as a teacher? She doesn't look old enough... Also, why is Napoleon Dynamite on the home page?

**BlinkYouAreDead** · Posted On: 2/07/2008 9:31pm

How terrible! Her unnamed teacher has just suddenly died and so now we will never find out the truth behind her claims!

http://www.shinwakandojo.com/page21.html

**serious face** · Posted On: 2/07/2008 9:49pm

I have not claimed any merit or talent to myself because I am aware that whatever I know, teach, do and say, others know, teach, do and say it better.

Uhhhhh... is this proper marketing?

You often critiqued my improper standing bow because I pressed my hands against my crotch, and my sitting bow because I arched my back like a rabbit.

This appears to be some kind of JuJ_tsu porn?

You told me I wore my hakama like an apron, and held my bo as if it were a broom and I was ready to sweep the floor, and my brush as if it were a table knife and I was about to cut meat with it.... I remember when you introduced me to your teacher friend and you described me as “eager but worthless”.... It is such a pity that we didn’t have a much longer time to learn from you. It is such a pity that you held so tightly to the belief that there was no one left who could learn, or wanted to be taught in the right way.

So she decided to move away and create her own school? The Reconized Foreign whatever? That's strange, it sounds like she failed a course, or went to a class or perhaps two, and is now qualified to teach.

Finally the epic ending as my proof of McDojoism (TM), I present:

I don’t know if I am better now than I was back then, but if I am not it is only because of my own limitations.

Words escape me friend, words escape me... I am now going to stab myself in the eyes, to relieve the pressure.

:cwm10:

**rw4th** · Posted On: 2/07/2008 11:33pm

You'd get better advice in the Japanese styles forum.

**WeaselSpleen** · Posted On: 2/08/2008 11:14am

Originally Posted by serious face

Seriously though, 30 as a student and 20 as a teacher? She doesn't look old enough...

She looks like she's in her 40s to me. Seems reasonable enough, if she started training as a kid and started teaching in her 20s.

McDojo maybe, but not really bullshido. I don't see much personal aggrandizement or absurd claims to d34dliness, this looks to me like a "feel good" school, where people can participate in a fitness program with Japanese trappings, that does not require real competition. See this quote...
Each student is encouraged to produce a personal best, whatever that may be.

As for being the "home dojo" for the international school, she says hers is the first (and maybe only?) school outside of Japan. In other words, she got some Japanese school's permission to open a franchise here.

Nothing here seems like outright fabrication or extreme exaggeration, just soft, non-threatening training and the usual marketing/pr language to sell memberships.

**daGorilla** · Posted On: 2/08/2008 11:48am

Originally Posted by WeaselSpleen

Nothing here seems like outright fabrication or extreme exaggeration, just soft, non-threatening training and the usual marketing/pr language to sell memberships.

I find it funny that she lists "karate-doh" on the page. Or maybe it's meant to be "Karate -- DOH!".

I didn't know that Homer Simpson had founded a karate style. They probably bow by slapping their hand to their forehead.

**WeaselSpleen** · Posted On: 2/08/2008 11:49am

Originally Posted by BlinkYouAreDead

How terrible! Her unnamed teacher has just suddenly died and so now we will never find out the truth behind her claims!

http://www.shinwakandojo.com/page21.html

Well she doesn't actually say anything of the kind. Frankly, her memorial page reads like just that. She didn't say he just died. She said she just LEARNED of his death. The memorial page has some personal anecdotes and memories of someone she apparently respected, and who she lost touch with in recent years.

She doesn't name him, but based on some of the things she said about him, and some googling, my guess is she's talking about Phil Milner, who was apparently 10th dan with the "International Budo Association", and who died relatively recently. A quick google will find numerous references to him as an instructor in England.

**WeaselSpleen** · Posted On: 2/08/2008 11:50am

Originally Posted by daGorilla

They probably bow by slapping their hand to their forehead.

I LOLed!

**BlinkYouAreDead** · Posted On: 2/08/2008 8:54pm

Originally Posted by WeaselSpleen

Well she doesn't actually say anything of the kind. Frankly, her memorial page reads like just that. She didn't say he just died. She said she just LEARNED of his death. The memorial page has some personal anecdotes and memories of someone she apparently respected, and who she lost touch with in recent years.

Perhaps. It is quite strange that just after people starting asking questions about her school's history and then having her school's claims of being Japanese bashed on E-Budo, her mysterious teacher, who is still unnamed, passes away. It makes it all that much more difficult to check her claims.