Hi all,
I have a feeling this subject will never be fully resolved. However, since Jim posted a link to this topic over on an old thread at e-budo, I decided to contact the North American DR AJJ Kodokai Headquarters and obtain permission from their Secretary to post their perspective regarding these inquiries into Dan's past involvement with the Kodokai. I post the following in hopes that this topic might someday be laid to rest, and that Dan's methods will eventually be judged based on their own merit, rather than on assumptions from unsubstantiated rumors about his background.
Again, I must stress that the following statements are my opinions. Questions 1 and 2: Dan began training with Kiyama in the late 1980's. Dan received some number of rank certificates in DR from Kiyama and/or Roy acting under Kiyama's direction. Question 3: Kiyama and Dan eventually ended their training relationship after some time, perhaps about 9 years, for reasons that remain private, and Dan left the Kodokai. Kiyama declared Dan "hamon", and now says of Dan that he "does not know this person." Roy, as Kiyama's student, backs up Kiyama.
Late 1980's? Yonezawa Katsumi left for Germany in 1988, at which time Kiyama Sensei was given control of North America. Goldberg Sensei opened his New York State dojo in 1991. If Dan received any ranking from either Kiyama Sensei or Goldberg Sensei, then it is something that has not been recorded in the record books here in America or in Japan.
Daito-ryu is known for being extremely anal about record keeping, and the Kodokai is no exception. The Secretary in fact looked through all the ranking and enrollment books over the past 37 years in North America, and stated that there is no mention of Dan Harden's name anywhere. What that means is that Dan did not ever train at the NA Headquarters dojo under Kiyama Sensei; did not ever travel to Japan to train with the Japanese Shihan; and was not ever registered as a member of the art. That being said, membership is only offered once a kyu rank of 6th or above has been issued, so it is possible to train in a Kodokai dojo for a limited amount of time and not be a member of the art. Only limited information is taught to non-members, and Kiyama Sensei in fact often mixes in old judo techniques and principles during training with non-members (or as warmup techniques) in order to limit the amount of Kodokai teachings that are distributed outside the "gates". Regardless, Kiyama Sensei's exposure to Daito-ryu was strictly from the Kodokai line up until about 1995.
Kiyama Sensei has always lived on the West Coast - not the East Coast. Goldberg Sensei is the East Coast Representative, and coordinates training activities for the East Coast. He sometimes hosts open seminars on the East Coast in which Kiyama Sensei is invited to teach, and where non-members are allowed to train. Training records for activities on the East Coast are retained by Goldberg Sensei, so the NA Headquarters is not able to state what extent Dan trained there, or for how long. However, Dan's name was brought up to Kiyama Sensei ca. 2002, and his response was "Who?". Kiyama Sensei is not upset with Dan, nor did not have a falling out. It was not a spiteful statement, he simply did not know his name.
He was also not issued "hamon" (expulsion), because he was never registered as a member of the art. You cannot expel someone who is not a member. The Kodokai simply does not appreciate Dan's implying a deeper relationship with them than what really existed.
While it is likely that Dan could have settled this matter very quickly by posting documentation such as pictures of himself taking ukemi for Kiyama, copies of his rank certificates, and other evidence of his past membership in the Kodokai, he refused to do so because he believed (correctly, in my opinion) that it would cast Goldberg and Kiyama in an unflattering light.
Pictures from seminars and swords given as gifts do not prove membership, but simply indicate some type of involvement. If there are rank certificates he or anyone else would like to have validated, the NA Kodokai would in fact be interested in seeing them. Be advised that seminar participation certificates were and are often given out, but these would be very hard to confuse with ranks since the text is all written in English.
As a former student of Roy Goldberg Sensei and Hayawo Kiyama Sensei, I can attest to the fact publicly that Mr. Dan Harden was a member of the Daitoryu Aikijujutsu Kodokai.
Hi Howard. Please feel free to post publicly or privately what your endorsement is based on.
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Folks, there is no reason for this to turn into another heated debate. So tell you what. As I've posted several times before on e-budo:
Contact the NA Kodokai directly. While they are not very interested in becoming involved with any of this publicly, they stated they are willing to answer any questions anyone wishes to submit to them. Dan himself is welcome to contact them if he is confused about his own past experiences. If this is going to become a heated discussion, like it always does, then feel free to take this discussion off the forums and sort it out directly with Dan and the NA Kodokai once and for all.
Here, again, is the contact information for the NA Kodokai:
http://uskodokai.org/
Simply click on the "Click here to request information." link to email them. To date, I am told this is something nobody has done yet, even though confusion over this subject continues to be spread over the internet for a number of years now!