Martial Arts Of The World - Webs

Japanese men and women practicing Kenpô, ca. 1955. (Hulton Archive)
256 Kenpô
outside of Naha, Okinawa. It is believed that they brought with them the
knowledge of several quanfa systems, which they taught on Okinawa. Two
distinct styles of kenpô developed within Okinawa over the course of time:
Jû-no-kenpô (soft style) and Gô-no-kenpô (hard style).
Modern Systems of Kenpô
Nippon Kempô and Goshidô Kempô are modern Japanese arts that combine
Okinawan kenpô roots with jûjutsu and kendô (modern Japanese fencing).
Both arts have blended techniques from the older Japanese arts to
form new and effective modern self-defense systems. Blending weapons
techniques with empty-hand arts is not a new idea in Japan. As Oscar Ratti
and Adele Westbrook note, it is “possible to detect techniques clearly inspired
by the use of swords, sticks, parriers and whirling blades” in several
Japanese empty-hand arts such as jûjutsu, aikidô, aikijutsu, and kenpô
(1973, 344). As Karl Friday demonstrates in his study of the Kashima-Shinryû,
the traditional ryûha (Japanese; systems or schools) developed sciences
of combat that provided frameworks for both their armed and unarmed
disciplines. Other continuities are manifest in the modern karate hand
weapons known as the yawara stick descendants of the Hindu vajara. The
vajara, according to Ratti and Westbrook, was held within the fist; it con-