Kempo Karate is an old martial art. It is Chinese and it is Japanese. In its more recent morphing it has become Hawaiian, it has become American, it has become Combat. In the next few pages and essays we will discover the origins of Kempo and Kenpo Karate, who the founders were, as well as what Kempo is not and where is Kempo Karate going and who is taking it there.






We will start by answering some questions and clearing up some current misconceptions on the martial art style. Kempo has always had a rough and tumble reputation as being a serious martial art style or one that has some bad and nasty techniques. The reputation is deserved as that was its founders intent and purpose from its inception. It was always intended to be a fighting art. Kempo is an effective tool designed to be foul to get the problem at hand over with as soon as possible, whether it be an attack or someone who must be eliminated in an offensive nature. The offensive nature meaning offense / defense sides of a confrontation.

Since in the old days of the original Chinese Temple in the Shaolin provence of China there was no UFC or Karate Tournaments that dealt in the sport aspects of competitive fighting, the purpose of design of Kempo was abundantly apparent to all. It was a war art. It was a martial art in the original meaning of the term martial art (martial defines as war).

Today the term martial art has become a generic watered down version that has no meaning today other than to describe some sort of physical one on one combination of movements that have been organized hopefully in some sort of systematic orientation.

Kempo too is beginning to suffer such degradation in that many schools and teachers are combining any material or “martial arts” whether related by region, meaning, ethnicity, skill set, or sport, using the Kempo name as a catch all. This happening is becoming so common place as to give prospective students a feeling or perception that Kempo is what you make it.

This reminds us of what happened after the death of the legendary actor and martial artist Bruce Lee. The art that Lee founded in the early sixties is called Jeet Kune Do or JKD for short. After his death there were people coming out of the walls supposedly offering JKD and “new forms” of JKD were being made and conceptualized on a yearly basis. There were literally hundreds of articles on the Bruce Lee art that had nothing to do with the Jeet Kune Do that Lee knew and taught. It was only since 2008 that the Lee family broke its endless silence that they finally stated publicly that these other arts or concepts were not or ever part of Bruce Lees Jeet Kune Do, and that JKD was indeed only made up of three martial arts studies by Lee. So there is Original JKD, JKD Concepts, and there is JKD bs that may or may not have anything to do with the first two arts.

So now back to the issue at hand. What is Kempo and what is not. Lets look at the foundation of the original art. For this we ask that you click on the page Kempo Origins.

Who are the main people or instructors in the history of Kempo Karate.
We will list them now and you can click on our page Kempo Lineage to see the instructor and founder information in more detail. We will have two Kempo Lineage lists as today there are basically two to three branches. The problem is with finding the true teacher of Mitose as he never really told anyone who it was in writing.



As a founder of a Kempo system myself I manipulated the Kempo of the nineties and progressed Kempo back to its origins. Progressing backwards, yes that was the term that I used and it will make more sense as you understand what Kempo is and is not. For me, my goal was to:
1. Make Kempo simpler than it had become. I felt and you may or may not disagree with me here, that the Parker system while a beautiful art that I love watching, was just too move intensive for my purposes of bringing that art back to its roots.

2. Change Kempo’s stances back to its Chinese roots of more upright natural stances.

3. Eliminate as much of Kempo Kata or prearranged fighting sequences as possible. While Kata serves a purpose in the arts, Kata as its being used modernly turns its back on the true roots and meaning, and I feel more or less just gets in the way of learning how to defend yourself. This is up for debate and I can see many sides to this, but for my purposes eliminate I did.

4. Shoes and culture. Many cultures and peoples have many traditions and customs regarding footwear. Even some regarding footwear inside or outside of training. Many complications. Warriors throughout world history tried to protect their feet. As for Kempo, the founders wore footwear of some sort or another during training. Thus I feel that footwear is an important aspect to Kempo and we will allow and encourage its usage.

5. Weapons and Kempo. In Kempo as in many other arts it was traditional that you must learn the basics and pay your training dues before you were ever allowed to touch much less train with a weapon.
I whole heartily understand the principles and philosophy behind this tradition that most arts still observe to this day. I chose to eliminate the more Japanese / Korean (and many other cultures) requirement that the student who learns weapons must first become shodan or first dan / first degree black belt.

While the things, changes, revisions, or reversions reverstions, are not monumental, they had not been done until I did them. And now the final changes that departed from true Kempo tradition or origins in some ways.

6. As a descendant from the Bruce Lee School in California and a Certified Instructor in Jeet Kune Do, I began the Combat modifications that had never been done before.

A. Strong Lead towards opponent
B. Change the traditional combat stance from the back stance to an upright forward stance in all maneuvers.
C. Eliminate empty hand Kata for weapon Kata, using Okinawan weapons (Okinawan farm implements).
D. No more chambering of punches or hand strikes.
E. No more chambering of Kicks
F. No kicks above waist level - original Kempo had no high kicks

So while no Bruce Lee or JKD moves were added to Kempo, the style or system theory and application of movement was inserted to the Kempo movements and techniques in a way that made the moves more natural and easy on the body so that regardless of age, illness, impairments, the Kempo man or woman would still be able to do real Kempo for the rest of their lives. This I feel preserved original Kempo while adding a new aliveness. I then took Aiki Ju Jitsu moves and applied the same principles. Since Aiki was the original art of the Samurai It was firmly rooted into Kempo and Kenpos mostly stand up takedowns and jointlocks. That was the Japanese influence upon Chuan Fa. It is generally understood in Japan that Kempo means Chinese Art with a litteral translation of Fist Law.