Koga ryu Ninjutsu in Sydney Australia

[Praying Mantis of Doom]

Hi all,

First post here so thanks for having me. I'm looking at getting back into ninjutsu and it's a bit of a mind field out there. I trained in early 90s under the Wayne Roy banner but then moved to another state for work to a regional area and the only thing close was Aikido which I've done on and off since then. I'm curious about this one group that was in my local area as I bought their video. They were local and taught Koga ryu ninjutsu and I found an archive of it here. Ninjustsu Basics 1 (VHS) : Roy Wilkins : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Does anyone remember this group and if they're still around? I know this topic can get political with all the different organisations. When I was around there was just Togakure ryu (Bujikan) but there seems to be a lot more orgs now which makes sense, the same thing happened with Aikido. I'll see if I can dig up a photo of the video from my old tapes but the guy worse camouflage tabi which I thought was cool (it was the 80s).

Peace

 

[Chris Parker]

Hi all,

First post here so thanks for having me. I'm looking at getting back into ninjutsu and it's a bit of a mind field out there. I trained in early 90s under the Wayne Roy banner but then moved to another state for work to a regional area and the only thing close was Aikido which I've done on and off since then. I'm curious about this one group that was in my local area as I bought their video. They were local and taught Koga ryu ninjutsu and I found an archive of it here. Ninjustsu Basics 1 (VHS) : Roy Wilkins : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Does anyone remember this group and if they're still around? I know this topic can get political with all the different organisations. When I was around there was just Togakure ryu (Bujikan) but there seems to be a lot more orgs now which makes sense, the same thing happened with Aikido. I'll see if I can dig up a photo of the video from my old tapes but the guy worse camouflage tabi which I thought was cool (it was the 80s).

Peace

Hi,

First things first... there is no legit Koga Ryu anything taught by anyone anywhere. So, if that's the claim, then... I'm sure you can put that all together. That said, Roy Wilkins is still listed as the Genbukan Dojo-cho for the Sekiei Dojo on the Genbukan website (there are issues with the direct link to the Australian dojo page, and the Genbukan has had something of a mass-exodus over the last few years, so it may or may not still be there, or linked to the Genbukan themselves). He has had something of a chequered history on a personal level, but I'm not going to go into that here. He was originally a Bujinkan student, who then broke away to be independent (the video you linked is from that period... he had something around 5 years of Bujinkan at the time, from memory), and later joined the Genbukan under Damian Martin, a former student of Kazuo Saito (again, without fraudbusting let's just say I can't discuss him without fraudbusting...), who took over the dojo when Damian went to Japan. At last report, Roy was a 6th Dan Renshi in the Genbukan, so hopefully (!) his movement is significantly better than in 1990 when he did that video!

 

[Praying Mantis of Doom]

Hi,

First things first... there is no legit Koga Ryu anything taught by anyone anywhere. So, if that's the claim, then... I'm sure you can put that all together. That said, Roy Wilkins is still listed as the Genbukan Dojo-cho for the Sekiei Dojo on the Genbukan website (there are issues with the direct link to the Australian dojo page, and the Genbukan has had something of a mass-exodus over the last few years, so it may or may not still be there, or linked to the Genbukan themselves). He has had something of a chequered history on a personal level, but I'm not going to go into that here. He was originally a Bujinkan student, who then broke away to be independent (the video you linked is from that period... he had something around 5 years of Bujinkan at the time, from memory), and later joined the Genbukan under Damian Martin, a former student of Kazuo Saito (again, without fraudbusting let's just say I can't discuss him without fraudbusting...), who took over the dojo when Damian went to Japan. At last report, Roy was a 6th Dan Renshi in the Genbukan, so hopefully (!) his movement is significantly better than in 1990 when he did that video!

Thanks Chris,

I noticed when I googled his name with ninjutsu that it came up with the Genbukan. I remember that organisation starting up when I was leaving Sydney and I thought it was more known for being tighter than the Bujinkan (or Togakure ryu as we used to call it). Sounds weird that they're more stringent but let people like that represent them.

It's funny because I often used to think about that group (Roy Wilkins and his Koga ryu) as they used to advertise with posters on light posts where I used to live. Sad that it was all made up but looking on different websites it seems that what you say is true regarding no legitimate Koga ryu being taught.

Great that websites like this exist and thanks for the information. I found the video in my storage boxes in my garage and it's actually quite funny to read the back as it specifically states that he's an authority on Koga ryu. Funny how people thought they could get away with fabricating a lineage back then as I think the internet might make that a more challenging task nowadays.

Thanks again!

 

[Praying Mantis of Doom]

I found it in my garage, Australia's leading Koga ryu master. I wish I could go back to those days of blissful ignorance