44 yr old 10th Dan

[Please visit our sponsor:]

[justinm]

I was browsing the magazines today at lunch time and came across an article that made me cringe. It was about a Professor Soke xxxx, 10th Dan, so I started to read, and yet again read another uninteresting article about this hero that was the "youngest ever 10th Dan", having been awarded 5th Dan in 1995 and 10th Dan in 2002, his rank apparently ratified by 16 different 10th Dan masters and professors.

The article was really hard to read, as the text was primarily a list of martial arts that this guy was an expert in (of which i had heard of none) and the rank he had been awarded in that art, usually by another 10th Dan Professor that had created the art after at least "15 years of dedicated study".

I'm not entirely suprised that some individuals need this sort of self promotion, but I can't understand why mainstream martial arts magazines continue to print this stuff.

Justin

[John Boswell]

Magazines print stuff that sells. 10th Dan is news... whether it is good or bad, it does get attention and sell issues.

Check out e-budo.com sometime. This is a great web-site that is filled with people who do their homework on both true martial artists as well as "sokey dokey" types out there who consider themselves master's of all arts. E-budo is kind of a watchdog website and is really good for finding out what is really going on in the world of martial arts. ;)

Aiki-web and E-budo are the two main MA websites I frequent out there. It's time well spent for anyone truly interested in martial arts.

[aikidoc]

I second my student's recommendation. E-Budo has two sections that regularly deal with such fraudulent instructors/questionable budo.

There are a bunch of these organizations out there with a consistent modus operandi:

1. They feel their unlimited knowledge and talents merit much higher rank that they have (don't we all).

2. They rarely attain high rank in any recognized art but often in several arts made up by others with the same route to fame.

3. One of them will set up their own soke organization and use bylaws to promote themselves to 10-th dan soke, doctor, etc. etc.

4. They will recognize others of such ilk for a fee of course and the fraud perpetuates itself.

I believe the 10th dan doctor soke you were referring to claims to hold a 6th or 7th dan in aikido among his other titles-couldn't find anything referring to it. One aikidoka doing this held no more than a sandan in an aikido style and added some other arts making his style unique and now he's a 10th dan. That is one of the reasons why I recommend students always seriously research credentials. When I see all these lofty titles with someone, especially someone young, my b.s. detector starts screaming.

[p00kiethebear]

hmmm

Technically if you're soke of something you are "automatically" 10th dan.

I'm going to start p00kiethebearjutsu now. And I'll be the only 10th dan of it in the world. Maybe I'll get into a magazine ^_^