It never ceases to amaze me how far some people will go to gain some fame in the eyes of others. To me, the person staring back at me from the mirror is the one I care about most. If I do not think I am something, the opinion of the rest of the world doesn’t matter even the slightest.
And yet, time and again I have run across people who know they lack skill in martial arts but still promote a lie to convince others. The mindset is alien to me and I can’t wrap my head around it on some level.
Damion Ellis is a member of the same organization I belong to, the Bujinkan Dojo in Japan. He lusts after rank, even that which he does not deserve.
Supposably, back in the late 80s he set himself up as a teacher in the Bujinkan, even though he had no training and was showing something completely different to his students. Some of the teachers in California let him know their displeasure and he seems to have stopped for a while. He rote a letter (pictured above) saying that he would never in the future portray himself as a teacher of the Bujinkan. Thinking that he may have turned over a new leaf, some of them let him become a student. Ten years ago, in 2007, he was 7th kyu, a rank barely above white belt.
Now, thanks to some forged recommendations, he is what some call 15th dan in the Bujinkan.
To get rank above 9th, you need letters of recommendation from people tenth dan or above. Ellis submitted some forged letters to get rank. This was found out, and a note was made to the effect in the list of high ranking people kept by the central authority of the Bujinkan.
Well, it looks like that note fell through the cracks as Ellis told them on his last trip how he had been teaching since the 80s, etc and was given 15th dan in recognition for his time in the organization. There is no test for things like this in the Bujinkan and high rank is usually given for things like how long you are in, not how good you are. And in this case, even that is a lie.
The thing about the Bujinkan, we don’t have to remain silent about things like this. We can talk, and warn people, and that is what I am doing.
Damion Ellis is a hollow man. He is someone that wants respect for his skills from others without having those abilities. Honestly, I don’t understand that type of thinking that puts the opinions of others above what you know about yourself. But I have run across it time and time again with those that lack anything inside them that makes them a real person. Having nothing of substance they can look to in themselves, they have to take comfort in what others mistakenly believe about them.
I don’t think this is the only incident I will ever here of. The Bujinkan isn’t that well organized. Now there has been a move that somewhat decentralizes the organization and will allow people to pocket the money people pay in fees instead of passing it along to Japan. There are people that think only about money when they do martial arts. They put out video learning courses even though Masaaki Hatsumi has made it clear that you can’t learn his art from videos, only a real teacher. In at least one case, I have found men who have used the ID card from these teachers (thankfully not the official card from Japan- yet) to try to set themselves up as teachers and gone on to seduce 13 year old girls. Those that do things like sell video courses don’t care about the art, nor the students they lead astray. They only care about status and money. And if promoting people puts more money in their pocket, I expect to see even more people walking around with silly levels of rank without any ability.
I never give my rank for a reason. I put down my experience instead on this web site. If 15 years in Japan isn’t enough, if the fact that when my Japanese teacher went on trips it was me he asked to take over classes isn’t enough, then maybe you don’t have the eyes to tell good from bad and won’t fit in with my merry band of misfits. But there are a lot of people sucked in by the talk of a high rank. It is an open secret that rank really means nothing in the Bujinkan. It is more like a pat on the back to encourage people. And this case of someone pulling the wool over the eyes of the administrators underlines the point even more.
I am satisfied with my training in the Bujinkan. If I can ever make it to Japan, I will eagerly go to classes with some very skilled Japanese. There are people in America I would love to learn from. But the Bujinkan as a whole can’t be recommended. Just because someone is in the Bujinkan is no guarantee that they are any good. That may anger some in the Bujinkan, maybe because it threatens their status. But I can say this out loud and this case proves that there are many people in the Bujinkan I would never send my students to. It is a sad state of affairs, but we have to accept the truth and warn people to be aware that the guy teaching Bujinkan might be a complete moron despite any rank they may have.
People need to be aware that Damion Ellis and people like him are out there. There are many good instructors in the Bujinkan, but for some reason the idiots are far more conspicuous with their massive efforts to promote themselves.
I hang out with some pretty heavy hitters like Rory Miller when I can. I like to learn from people with a lot of experience actually busting heads instead of just time in the dojo. I can’t count the number of times I have been told that until they met me, these heavy hitters said that their opinions of Bujinkan teachers was pretty bad. It it weird that I feel pride at their praise of me and shame at what they say about the quality control of my organization at the same time.
I will not recommend people train in the Bujinkan if they ask for decent self defense. I will recommend individual instructors in the Bujinkan. There are some damn fine people in the Bujinkan, but I can’t say that for everyone. It is time for people to be aware of that and not surrender their judgement to others.
(Note- here is the Facebook account of Damion Ellis. A quick look shows that he has many Bujinkan friends despite his deception. People don’t know, and I suspect that some don’t care.)
https://www.facebook.com/DamionMEllis