| A History Of American Kenpo Karate By Sifu Forrest C. Doyle, Senior Instructor, Connecticut Kenpo Karate American Kenpo Karate is unlike any other martial art in that it contains the influences of five cultures: Chinese, Japanese, Okinawan, Hawaiian, and American. Its ancient origins lie in Asia, its birth as a separate style occurred in Hawaii, and its definition was established in America by Ed Parker. Kenpo’s Ancient Origins In the 5th century A. D., Bodhidharma, the Indian prince turned Buddhist missionary, crossed the Himalayas into China seeking spiritual enlightenment, leaving behind his kingdom, his wealth, and his family. Eventually he settled into the Shaolin Temple in western China. The monks at Shaolin were not well cared for. They suffered poor health and frequently fell victim to bandits. Bodhidharma proceeded to devise a system of exercises and movements which applied as both a means of physical conditioning and self-protection for the monks. This came to be known as Shaolin Ch’uan fa. Nearly all modern karate styles—Chinese, Japanese, Okinawan, and Korean—trace their origin to Shaolin ch’uan fa which is widely acknowledged as the first “karate” form. Migration to Japan The Japanese Mitose clan is credited with establishing one main root of Kenpo Karate. Their family history states that, shortly before the Takugawa era in Japan, which began in 1600, members of their clan brought knowledge of Shaolin ch’uan fa from China to Nagasaki and Kumamoto, Japan. Over the years, the original art was modified by successive Mitose masters eventually evolving into the Kosho-ryu Kempo style—Kosh-ryu meaning “old pine tree style”, kempo meaning “fist-method” or “fist law”. Kosho-ryu is more than a karate form. It is a spiritual/philosophical system in which physical training is intimately intertwined with Japanese culture and Buddhist philosophy. Fighting skills are only a part of its broader training which includes Zen meditation, yoga, scriptures, fencing, archery, flower arranging, and general education. Kosho-ryu has survived to the present. Kenpo’s Modern Origin James Mitose was born in Hawaii in 1916. When he was 5 he was sent to Kyushu, Japan to learn his ancestors’ art. Mitose studied Kosho-ryu in Japan for 15 years. During these formative years he was exposed to many other martial artists and was particularly influenced by the Okinawan kempo of Choki and Choyu Motobu. He was also influenced in some degree by Jui Jitsu practitioners. Mitose returned to Hawaii in 1936 and began teaching a fighting art that he called Kempo Jui Jitsu. (Mitose apparently is the one who introduced the changed spelling of ”kenpo”. One story has it that he simply misspelled “kempo”, another that a newspaper is responsible for misspelling, another that Mitose consciously chose the “n” spelling to emphasize his art’s roots to China. Today, kempo generally refers to styles of Japanese and Okinawan origin, while kenpo generally refers to styles of Chinese, Hawaiian, and American origin.) Mitose taught Kempo Jui Jutsu to a number of American servicemen stationed on the islands making him one of the first to teach non-orientals a martial art. He also trained with other martial artists, one of whom was Kung Fu Master William Chow. In fact, for a short while, Chow was a student of Mitose and they lived together. In time, Mitose reverted to his more spiritual/philosophical underpinnings, to teach Koshu-ryu, and eventually moved to California in 1956. Professor Chow represents the other main root of American Kenpo Karate. It was Chow who combined the flowing, circular motions of kung fu with the powerful, linear movements from Mitose’s kenpo to create what Chow called War Time Arts. Chow is also credited with placing emphasis on practical, effective self-defense techniques, rather than just focusing on traditional oriental training methods. The Birth of American Kenpo One of Professor Chow’s students was Ed Parker, who eventually became the founder of American Kenpo Karate. Parker was a native of Hololulu, Hawaii where, as a child, he hd some experience with street fighting. He sought out Chow to learn how to better defend himself. Parker’s analytical approach actually began here, when he was still a student of Chow. While learning the traditional methods of Kenpo, Parker saw, based on his own experiences, some opportunities for innovations that might make the art more effective in realistic situations. Parker established his first karate studio in 1954 in Provo, Utah where he attended Brigham Young University. After graduating fro B. Y. U. he moved to California in 1956 to establish his second school. By 1958 he was teaching many well-known entertainment personalities including Elvis Presley, Robert Wagner, Elke Sommer, Warren Beatty, and Jose Ferrar among many others, and came to be know as the “teacher of the stars”. In the course of his teaching, Mr. Parker came to realize that other adaptations were necessary because we are not all physically alike. People are different sizes, have more or less flexibility and strength, some are faster than others, and most people are able to execute certain skills better than others. He saw that adjusting and adapting techniques to students’ abilities and limitations would be far more effective than trying to make everyone perform techniques exactly the way an instructor does. He took those things from ancient tradition that contributed to effective application in the modern world while increasing emphasis on practical self-defense. As Parker explained it, “While many traditionalists challenge this theory . . . it is extremely misleading to force a student to execute a move in only one way. The student can be taught a specific, exclusive way at first only if it is used as a point of reference. Once referenced, moves should then be modified to harmonize with the physical makeup of each student . . . according to a student’s natural inherent qualities.” Today, innovation and adaptability are features that distinguish Kenpo from other styles of karate. Ed Parker was never satisfied with patented answers. He believed in an analytical approach, dissecting motion, leverage, angles of attack, and extracting principles from physics, geometry, algebra, as well as life’s experiences, to develop a scientific basis for organizing and studying his discipline. Ed Parker was one of America’s foremost karate pioneers. He died on December 15, 1990 at the age of 59 without naming a successor to lead his American Kenpo Karate style. The Tracy System The other main style of Kenpo in America is the Tracy System. Al Tracy was a student of Parker’s for four years until 1961 when he and his brother Jim moved from Pasadena to San Francisco and opened their own school. For years, there was a great deal of similarity between Tracy’s Kenpo and Parker’s Kenpo. However, in November 1990, the Tracy System, in Al Tracy’s words, “. . . terminated its roots and ties from the family tree of Professor Chow and Ed Parker.” According to Tracy, “A continual goal of the Tracy System is to retain as much as possible, the heritage of the founders of Kenpo and the system from which they came . . . Tracy’s has tried to preserve as much as possible the original system of Kenpo taught by James Mitose and William Chow.” In other words, a stronger link was established to the Kosho-ryu Kempo and William Chow lineage than to Parker’s adaptations of them. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Kenpo, Kempo, Kung-fu, and Karate: What Do They Mean? The Chinese and Japanese languages share certain written characters in common. However the pronunciation may differ giving different meanings between the two languages to the same written symbol. In other cases, different symbols are substituted for the same pronunciation, also giving different meaning. The original term used in China for Bodhidharma’s discipline was ch’uan fa (fist law) or ch’uan shu (fist art). Here the second Chinese character, below, has two pronunciations and two meanings, shown below right. Japanese Chinese Ken Ch'uan (fist) (fist) Po Fa (law) (law, art) The Japanese incorporated these same characters into kanji with the same meaning, but have different pronunciations for the symbols: KEN (fist), Po (law), shown above left. The English spelling and pronunciation KENPO came into use in the 1930’s by James Mitose to indicate the art’s Chinese origin. Today, KENPO is used to refer to related Chinese and American styles while KEMPO is used to refer to Japanese and Okinawan styles. The Chinese use the terms “kung-fu” (Mandarin dialect) or “gung-fu” (Cantonese dialect), “wu-shu” and “kuo-shu” to refer to the martial arts. Kung-fu or gung-fu literally means “disciplined technique, skill, time, ability, strength” and is also a generic term for exercise. Outside of mainland China, it is the favored term to describe the Chinese martial arts. “Wu-shu” (martial arts or military war) is the term preferred in mainland China. “Kuo-shu” was the term used by the National Republic of China under Chiang Kai-shek starting in 1928. This was adopted for political reasons, to bring the arts under the direction and influence of the government. With the communist takeover in 1948, the name was changed back to “wu-shu” to sever any connection with the National Republic of China, then situated on Taiwan, and because it was preferred by Mao Tse-tung. Today, kung-fu and wu-shu are the most common terms used in America to refer to the Chinese martial arts, now encompassing several hundred distinct styles. “Karate” is a term that originated in Japan and Okinawa. It was written using the Chinese characters, shown below. Kara means “T’ang” (referring to the T’ang dynasty in China, 618-960 A. D., and pronounced “tong”) or more literally, “China”; Te means “hand”—T’ang Hand or China Hand. Kara (T'ang or China) Te (Hand) In 1923, Gichin Funakoshi, the “father of modern Japanese karate” and founder of Shotokan style, substituted the Japanese symbol for “empty” for the Chinese symbol for “T’ang”. These two symbols have the same pronunciation but different meanings (homonyms). Since then, karate has had the meaning “empty hand”. Kara (Empty) Te (Hand) This quote from Karate-do, My Way of Life, Funakoshi’s autobiography, explains the reason for the change, “The ‘kara’ that means ‘empty’ is definitely the more appropriate. For one thing, it symbolized the obvious fact that this art of self-defense makes use of no weapons, only bare feet and empty hands. Further, students of ‘karate’do’ aim not only toward perfecting their chosen art but also toward emptying heart and mind of all earthly desire and vanity. Reading Buddhist scriptures, we com across such statements as ‘Shiki- soku-ze-ku’ and ‘Ku-soku-zeshiki’ which literally mean, ‘matter is void’ and ‘all is vanity’. The character ‘ku’ which appears in both admonitions and may also be pronounced kara, is in itself truth.” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The information presented here is believed to be authoritative. It was developed from a variety of resources including Ed Parker’s Infinite Insights series, Al Tracy’s The Tracy System of Kenpo, Funakoshi’s Karate-do: My Way of Life, and several Black Belt magazine articles. Some editorial liberties were taken. If you know of additional sources on the history of Kenpo, William Chow, or James Mitose, please contact the author. |
