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
) 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
