Martial Arts Of The World - Webs

sisted of sharpened prongs at both ends that could be used “to inflict paralyzing
damage on the opponent’s vital organs in accordance with the techniques
and strategic dictates of kenjutsu [martial use of the sword] and
tessen-jutsu [martial use of an iron fan]” (324). Later, after World War I,
Nakano Michiomi Sô Dôshin founded the Nippon Shôrinji Kenpô (NSK)
system. The art blends an older form of Shaolin Boxing with jûjutsu and
Daitô-ryû aikijutsu. The emphasis of NSK is on joint locks and throws that
incapacitate the opponent but do not inflict serious bodily injury or death.
Older Okinawan masters maintain a tradition of the Chinese origin of
kenpô. One such master is Motobu Chôki, who stated in 1926 that
“Ryukyu Kenpô-Karate originally came from China. Sanchin, Go-jushi-ho,
Seisan, Seyuchin [kata from various Ryukyu systems at the time of the publication
of his book] have been used there for many centuries.” Motobu
wrote, “I am inclined to believe that this art was taught by Chinese men
since there were many contacts made between Ryukyu and China from ancient
days” (1926, 17). Despite Motobu’s assertion of the historical importance
of the traditional kata, however, one of Motubu’s earliest Japanese
students, Yamada Tatsuô, founded Nippon Kempô Karate, a system
that stressed kumite (“sparring”) over kata (“forms”).
Contemporary Kenpô Karate
The kenpô variants are derivatives of the systems that were first taught in
Hawaii by Dr. James M. Mitose and William Kwai Sun Chow, beginning
in the late 1930s. Under the leadership of William K. S. Chow, the modern
Hawaiian kenpô styles added more circular motions to the art than were
taught under the Koshô-ryû Kempô-Jujitsu style of Dr. James Mitose. Professor
Chow opened his first school in 1949 under the name of Kenpô
Karate. This was the first time that the two words had been combined.
The modern era Hawaiian kempô/kenpô styles owe their existence to
the Japanese and Okinawan based Koshô-ryû Kempô-Jujitsu system of Dr.
James Mitose. The Okinawan connection is through his uncles, Motobu
Chôyû and Motobu Chôki.
Dr. James Mitose (Kenpôsai Koshô) was born in pre-statehood
Hawaii in 1916. At the age of 4, he was sent to Japan to be educated and
trained in the family tradition that would eventually culminate in his being
named the twenty-first headmaster of the Koshô-ryû Kempô System. It is
most likely that he was educated and trained at a Buddhist temple on
Mount Kinai, in a village called Izumi. According to Dr. Mitose, the Koshôryû
Kempô-Jujitsu style was brought directly from the Shaolin Temple to
Japan in the late 1500s by members of his clan. The art was modified by
successive family masters until the new Koshô-ryû (Old Pine Tree Style)
was developed. According to Thomas Barro Mitose, the current Koshô-ryû
Kenpô 257