We are OPEN, yes we are… Thanks everyone for all the continued support.
Things are slowly getting back to “normal”. We have several great things planned for the next few months. If you haven’t made it back yet, now is a perfect time. We have new and review classes starting now.
A little Kenpo Karate History:
The martial arts have a long and storied history in China, but it’s near impossible to trace most style lineages completely. Though Kung Fu gets a lot of press as an all-encompassing name denoting the Chinese arts outside of the country, in China the original term was actually ‘Ch’uan-fa.’ Ch’uan means “fist” and fa means “law.” So when the Chinese arts made it to Japan during the 1600s, the literal translation of fist (Ken) and law (Po) turned the name into Kenpo.
Of course, the original Chinese arts were influenced by all types of exchanges in Japan (Ryukyuan martial arts and the Japanese martial arts). However, in 1920, something important happened. Namely, a three-year-old Japanese American boy named James Mitose was sent to Japan (from Hawaii), where he studied what Americans now call Kenpo type fighting forms. Mitose returned to Japan on subsequent occasions and eventually began teaching what he called Kempo Jiu-Jitsu or Kenpo Jiu-Jitsu (Kenpo is pronounced with an ‘m’, but some have actually changed the spelling to Kempo to differentiate their art). William Kwai Sun Chow was one of Mitose’s top students (second Shodan). Along with Thomas Young (Mitose’s first Shodan), Chow helped him teach in Hawaii until around 1949. The kind of Kenpo practiced by Mitose and the like was more of a linear style. However, Ed Parker, a judo shodan introduced to Kenpo by Frank Chow and trained under William Kwai Sun Chow, received training while working in the Coast Guard and attending Brigham Young University. In 1953, he was promoted to black belt.
Parker changed Kenpo’s form to make it a more street-wise style. These changes morphed into a new kind of Kenpo that soon became known as American Kenpo. Later, Parker began to stress more circular, Chinese movements in his teachings. And since he never named a successor to his style, there are several offshoots of his Kenpo teachings today. We at Kellogg’s are aligned with Mr. Bob White, a 10th degree and one of few highest ranking Black Belts under Mr. Ed Parker.
More to come next month!