Michael Coady

Hi Guys,

In Washwood Heath, Birmingham, there is a Jitsu club run by a certain Michael Coady, 7th Dan Jitsu, 6th Dan Judo, 7th Dan Aikido. He is aged around 66 and claims to have been a close student of Kenshiro Abbe in London and to have trained with Ken Williams and Henry Ellis.

Here's the problem, he says that he was the last person to see Kenshiro Abbe before he died in 1985 in Japan. However from what i've gathered on the internet Abbe died in 1981.

Furthermore he claims to have all of Abbe's weapons, including his Red Bamboo bo-staff that can supposedly break swords.

Additionally, Coady also claims to have trained under the tutelage of Count Dante in the USA. In fact the Washwood Heath is called the "Black Dragon Fighting Society," Coady says he has permission for this from the USA.

Ok, what perplexes me is that since ex-students of Abbe like Ellis and Turton have such a high profile, why I can't find any internet references to Michael Coady or why he is so obscure.

Please do not take my first post as a hate-mongering rant. On the contrary, I am actually a student of Coady and must say he is an amazing instructor.

However he is pretty enigmatic, can anyone throw any light on him, Dave Turton perhaps?

Well I personally have never heard of this gentleman, which in itself doesnt prove him good or bad.. However SOME of his claims seem a bit questionable

John C Keehan (Count Dante) left his 'Black Dragon' stuff to his top student Bill Aguar (sp?).. to my knowledge NO non-Americans were ever authorised as instructors.... however he may have had permission from Mr Aguar..that I have no idea about.

The last European to see Abbe before he died was Ken Williams ... and again to my limited knowledge all of Abbe's belongings were left to his daughter and the Butokukai in Kyoto, Abbe's Dojo. Abbe died in Osaka Police hospital in 1981
However again this doesnt mean that some items may or may not have been passed on by Abbe's daughter, although I am not convinced that ANY Non Japanese would be given stuff

Ken William and Harry Ellis were more into the Aikido/ Aiki-jutsu side of things ...
Abbe taught Judo, Aikido, Karate, Spears AND Butokukai Defence combat, which was the style my two Instructors John & Gordon Warfield were trained in and which Abbe gave a letter of authority to teach under the name Goshinkwai Yawara when he left to go back to Japan

Also I am not really an ex-student of Abbe.. I did attend a couple of seminars he ran many years ago ... but I was taught mainly by John & Gordon Warfield.... both now sadly dead but both were students of Abbe for many years

however Gordons daughter Sian runs the Goshinkwai as Soke, and she may have more info for you, after all I left that organisation in 1990.. nearly 20 years ago.

For more info I would suggest you google Goshinkwai Yawara and try to contact one of the following ... Sian Warfield .. Mike Gould or Dave Baker, they would know more

hope that helps a bit

Here is the site of Sian as mentioned by Dave above: http://www.official-goshinkwai-yawara.org/homepage.htm

thanks Peter

I see there is a photo on that site with ME watching John Warfield stick a technique on one ofmy old students Ray Lilley .. it seems I was 3rd Dan looking at the stripes on my belt.. so would have been pre-1985 as '85 was when I got my 4th Dan

Blimey dont I look young and handsome ... yeah right

I thought that was you Dave but wasn't sure as the resolution is so bad.

m. coady there's a blast from the past.
there was a guy by that name, in the birmingham area used to advertise a counte dante course in the exchange and mart paper, in the mid 1970's he claimed to be a 5th dan dim mak.
his course was a poor quality photo copy sort of booklet
there was also another guy, in the bolton area of lancashire, around the same time that was selling the original counte dante book. the book that used to be advertised in the back of the u.s. martial arts mags.
I can't remember his name, but he claimed to be expert in dim mak plus all other kinds of martial arts, and would train you to almost black belt for £100 or so,
he also advertised in the exchange and mart.

just remembered the blokes name from bolton, that sold the original counte dante dim mak book, I think it was walter ainscough.
perhaps Dave has heard of him, he maybe had some martial arts schools in bolton, and claimed to know all kinds of arts, including dim mak.
I think he was also taught by a wrestler in south africa ? by the name of tiger ? might be wrong on that.

Walter Ainscough .. yes I remember him, more like Walter Mitty

He was Ju-Jitsu-ka of some unheard of style back in the 70's.. claimed all sorts.. but couldnt match his own beliefs when on the mat

I heard he claimed to have TAUGHT (as opposed to have trained with) Tiger Joe Robinson, a wrestler.. not sure whether that was South Africa or Australia he was from

They come and they go

Dave,

I've actually subsequently researched Kenshiro Abbe a bit more (admittedlly by clicking on more of the search results in yahoo) and most websites including Wikipedia list Abbe as having died on the 1st December 1985.

I can no longer find anything on the net (except what you wrote in response to my original message) that indicate Abbe died in 1981.

Thus, have we both made a mistake?

Yes you are correct,, I am wrong, and cant think WHY I put 1981..
I remember being phoned and told he had died..
You would have thought I would have got THAT right in my memory

I am fairly sure he died in Osaka Police Hospital in 1985 now... my apologies

However in a very small defence, I was NEVER a student of Abbe (Strange how some stories start isnt it?) I started with the Goshinkwai in the early 1970's after about 10 years doing other styles.
John Warfield was the head then and his brother Gordon was his 2nd in command, and although they were long term students of Abbe, they had other high ranking Japanese masters as well as their instructors.
Notably Michigami, Otani and Isogi

thanks for putting my memory right .. its my age you know Ha Ha

I met him only a couple of times and that was w-a-y back.. in the late 60's

He did have a bad car accident which accounted for him going back to Japan a lot sooner than he had intended

In regard to this fella being a member of the Black Dragon Fighting Society I would almost be positive in saying that he probably got any ranking/membership from that pretend Ninja Ashida Kim (real name Radford Davis who resides in Florida, USA). Kim has illegally used the BDFS moniker for years, at one stage he deleted all reference to it on his site due to legal action brought about by Count Dante's personal student William Aguiar in Fall River, Mass.
Anyone can buy rank or membership from Kim, check out his site. Regards.

thanks for that ..
it just brings back to memory the state the martial arts were in the 1970's..

because the world was 'kung fu' crazy .. score of charlatans came out of the woodwork

I was even conned myself for a short spell in the mid 1970's by a chap who wasnt bad at the martial arts, but every grade and claim he made were totally out of his own imagination.

I wrote a couple of chapters about him in my book "Martial Arts, Muscles & Mayhem'

we were literally 'greedy' for anything back then and tried everthing that was advertised.

Whe I started training in 1972 it seemed every man of Asian background who was already involved in the arts were now running around with Bruce Lee hairstyles and nearly all their kung fu styles had names that ended with the words "Kune Do". Ha ha
I see you wrote a book David? I'll look into that as I'm always keen to read bios from people involved in the fighting arts.

it was published by Jamie O'Keefe's "New Breed Books" .. I dont think there are any copies eft, but it is available as an e-book

Its just a collection of true stories from both the martial arts world and the bodybuilding world .. I was involved in the BB world as an official from teh mid 1960's to the late 1990's

Hello Dave,

can you tell me where to find the ebook? Did a search but found nothing, only the paperback which is out of stock.

Thanks
Julian

I will be talking to Jamie later this week so I will ask what is happening with my book

Personally its so old now I am not that bothered, and it costs too much to reprint for what would undoubtedly be small sales return...

maybe asking on ebay someone might be glad to get rid of it Ha Ha

They have a running joke Dave that the biggest source of Capoeira Mestres was Brazillian Airlines. You god lad who had been training for a couple of year or something and then manage to hop on a plane and suddenly its Mestre Such and Such who's started their own school.

Might come as a galloping shock to you that other martial arts try the con scheme

Jagunco wrote:They have a running joke Dave that the biggest source of Capoeira Mestres was Brazillian Airlines. You god lad who had been training for a couple of year or something and then manage to hop on a plane and suddenly its Mestre Such and Such who's started their own school.

Same was said about Japan and karate grades......get on a 3rd Dan, get off a 6th!