Donna Murphy of Ontario, Canada

[BlinkYouAreDead]

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]

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]

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]

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 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:

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

:cwm10:

[rw4th]

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

[WeaselSpleen]

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]

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]

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]

They probably bow by slapping their hand to their forehead.

I LOLed!

[BlinkYouAreDead]

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.

[BlinkYouAreDead]

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.

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

She says Koyama Tenmon Ryu was created in the 1300s. That would make it even older than Katori Shnto Ryu, the oldest documented martial art. Isn't that just a little bit extreme? It certainly sounds like extreme exaggeration to me.

She claims to hold "menkyo chuden" which according to the people living in Japan on E-Budo, would only be a middle level license, not a teaching one at all.

She also said she was appointed "metsuke," and claims it means "international representative" but it can only mean in Japanese that she was either appointed as "a way of seeing without focusing on a single point" or as "an inspector in Edo period Japan was responsible for watching over Daimyo."

Her website is filled with incorrect Japanese, which is surprising since she mentions that the only other place to study Koyama Tenmon Ryu besides her school is in Japan. If she had 30 years of training and 20 years of teaching, the you would think that she should be able to at least get basic Japanese words spelled correctly, even if she had learned in the US.

But none of the guys in Japan over on E-Budo have ever heard of her school. With over 700 years of history, someone certainly would have heard of it by now. They even said: "She is pretty clearly a fake."

Take a look at the "Bad Budo Forum" over on E-Budo to see what I am talking about, however you have to become a member to be able to view the contents of that section.

[eyebeams]

E-budo is wacky. Members play at research, but of course Ninja business gets a free pass, since the admins practice Takamatsuden arts. There are many knowledgeable people on e-budo, which doesn't keep them from doing sloppy-ass work which amounts to having LULZ at site design.

Anyway, I decided to do actual research and came up with the following:

* Donna Murphy's name is actually (or was) Donna Murphy del Cueto.

* Presumably, she is/was related/married to Guillermo Murphy del Cueto, a Daito-ryu instructor who runs this dojo: http://www.niagara.com/~zain/html/fujiyama.htm He claims affiliation with the Dai Nippon Daito Ryu Aiki Bujutsu Rengokai and posted a greeting at Daitouryu.com. (http://www.daitouryu.com/syoudoukan/.../kenshou04.htm) He's also affiliated with a local Daito-ryu teacher of my acquiantence named Mike Chinadi.

* Daitouryu.com is supposedly linked to Saigoha Daitouryu. This is *not* the fraudulent Saigo-ha school common in Canada, but a small Japan-based organization. (Confused yet?) It is not a terribly well-known branch.

* Mr. del Cueto links to Murphy's site on his own site.

* The Koyama-ryu was supposedly a real Aizu clan martial art and thus, linked t Daito-ryu. Don't know about Koyama Tenmon, though "Tenmon" is the name of an era (1532-1554). I have no idea whether there's a contemporary Koyama-ryu.

My hypothesis: It's modified Daito-ryu that's using a different name for some reason.

[eyebeams]

She says Koyama Tenmon Ryu was created in the 1300s. That would make it even older than Katori Shnto Ryu, the oldest documented martial art. Isn't that just a little bit extreme? It certainly sounds like extreme exaggeration to me.

It's lifted from Daito-ryu, which makes this claim. Nobody believes Daito-ryu either, but it's a traditional claim.

She claims to hold "menkyo chuden" which according to the people living in Japan on E-Budo, would only be a middle level license, not a teaching one at all.

It depends on the organization.

She also said she was appointed "metsuke," and claims it means "international representative" but it can only mean in Japanese that she was either appointed as "a way of seeing without focusing on a single point" or as "an inspector in Edo period Japan was responsible for watching over Daimyo."

Yeah, that's wacky. Koryu use many odd, nonstandard titles and terms. I have no idea whether this would be one of them, but it seems doubtful.

But none of the guys in Japan over on E-Budo have ever heard of her school. With over 700 years of history, someone certainly would have heard of it by now. They even said: "She is pretty clearly a fake."

The funny thing is that I looked up Koyama-ryu on e-budo itself.

Anyway, she seems to be linked to a guy who claims to teach Daito-ryu and refers people to her. She has a badly designed site. I have no idea about how it all ultimately fits together, but it seems to be more complicated than pure invention.

[eyebeams]

Doing some further research, this Rengokai group is headed by an Ichikawa Yoshinori and a Hanemura Sensei, who I can't find anything about aside from some scattered refs on e-budo, but at this point their relationship with aiki gets too complex for me to delve, but it may be some melange of a dodgy Japanese group with a dodgy Canadian group, and Murphy is derivative of the result.

[BlinkYouAreDead]

Anyway, I decided to do actual research and came up with the following...

My hypothesis: It's modified Daito-ryu that's using a different name for some reason.

Man! That was some great stuff you came up with. Thanks for that.

Donna Murphy's name is actually (or was) Donna Murphy del Cueto.

How were you able to find out her true name/identity? That was a pretty neat trick.

She has a badly designed site.

Her website is so messed up. There are a lot of pages that don't link to the others. I only found them by individually typing the the URLs as they follow a numeric pattern.

It is quite sad in that she talks about "rightfulness, truthfulness, honor" and the like, but aparently doesn't have any herself as her claims appear to be completely flalse. What kind of role model for children, which she actively targets, is that?

Hmm, there must be some more to this story...