I found these 3 DVDs advertised for sale: http://www.budovideos.com/shop/customer/product.php?productid=24110&cat=364&page=1 Is this genuine Shinkage-ryu?
Oh lordy no! Al Kilgore is making a come back! There's been quite a bit of discussion about the delusional Mr. Kilgore on several internet forums. Here's one that I believe contains links to others. Fun stuff! http://www.e-budo.com/forum/showthread.php?t=30475
My oh my. Mr Kilgore just won't shut up shop... Still, where there's money to be made, there'll always be retards collecting.
The scary thing is that he's probably sold a number of those vids. No wonder there are so many backyard ninjers on YouTube!
I had a look at their website and there is a page on history: http://www.twincitiesbudokan.com/twincitiesbudokan_004.htm It definitely seems like they are claiming to be THE Shinkage-ryu and not merely a modern school with the same name.
Yeah yeah yeah these monkeys claim everything but back up nothing... go read the KW & E-Budo threads about 'em. Maybe Mr Kilgore can be emailed to see if he is more responsive this time?
You know, I have to admit that those photos on their website look a lot more respectable than those of the average fraud. They seem to have gone to a lot of effort to get the uniforms looking more genuine as well. I bet that they would fool most people -- even those who have done their homework about genuine koryu. It used to be a lot easier to spot frauds (e.g. red gi, tasuki with keikogi etc.), but now there are far too many resources out there to copy from.
Yeah, if it wasn't for youtube I would never have learnt that the uniform of a real sword-practitioner is exclusively sneakers, jeans and a hoody. All those koryu guys just play dress-up in a vain attempt to disguise their apparent martial deficiencies.
It's definitely part of the problem. In the old days, when frauds were limited to learning from books, all they really could copy were the postures and maybe some terminology. But now, with so much video readily available on youtube, they are able to copy the movements and general mannerisms of a particular ryu-ha. They can even now copy the distinctive kiai volcalisations that a specific school would use. Of course, this wouldn't be enough to fool experienced people, but it does make it a lot easier to dupe people looking for a koryu even if they have done their due diligence. There really should be a law against frauds being able to watch koryu videos on youtube. When you apply for a visa to visit the USA, you have to tick a box in answer to questions like "are you a terrorist?" and "are you a drug dealer?" Youtube should have something similar, where viewers are asked "Are you a fraud?" before they are allowed to watch. Think that would work?
If a fraud says "yes" when asked "are you a fraud?" then is he really a fraud? I think I may have just created a new Zen koan here.
