Is it Kenpo or Kempo?

(an explanation by Mr. Steven Resell from a recent discussion on Facebook)

KeMpo or KeNpo, 拳法, is simply the Japanese translation of the word “Chuan Fa” (quan fa), with the Cantonese romanization typically being “Ken Fat” / “Kyun Faat”, denoting self-defense systems with a Chinese origin.

In the West, it is often translated as “law of the fist”. However, the more literal translation is “fist method”. This should not be confused with Kenpo, the sword method, as it is written with different Chinese characters 剣法 but pronounced the same as Kenpo (fist method) in Japanese.

In Chinese, the typical meaning of the word “Chuan Fa” is “boxing” or ‘fighting technique’. From a Japanese perspective, when saying Kempo, it has an implied meaning of “Chinese Boxing” or “Chinese Fighting Techniques”.

Is it spelled with an N or M?

Then there’s the question in regards to spelling of KeNpo vs KeMpo. I’ve heard some argue that if they spell it with a “N” that it is of Chinese origin, while spelling it with a “M” denotes Japanese origin.

This is also an incorrect assumption.

It is simply a romanization “error”. It is the same characters in Japanese and is pronounced exactly the same. In “hiragana” (the Japanese phonetic alphabet) both Kenpo and Kempo would be spelled in this manner: けんぽう.

The romanization to KeMpo is from the traditional Hepburn romanization system, which was first used in the 3rd edition of the Japanese – English dictionary in 1887, and named after James Curtis Hepburn.

Why the difference between KeNpo and KeMpo then?

The “original” art of KeNpo popularized in Hawaii was by Reverend James Mitose, who taught Kosho-Ryu Kenpo Jujutsu at the Official Self-Defense Club in Hawaii.

And the primary reason for the variation of spelling from Kenpo to KeMpo in Hawaii was because of Professor William K.S. Chow. He wanted to separate himself from the earlier spelling of KeNpo as used by Mitose, and also separate his art from the spelling used by some of his other students on the mainland (who chose to call their art KeNpo).

As a side note, Professor Chow was apparently the first in Hawaii to combine the words Kempo & Karate… to form the now popular term “Kempo Karate” (Kenpo Karate), although the term “Karate Kenpo” had been used prior (to Professor Chow’s usage) in the book “Karate Kenpo” by Mitsu Mizuho in 1933.

Copies of this book were brought to Hawaii by Mizuho himself in 1933, and it had been circulated within the Karate community there during the 1930s.

Mr. Brian Adams interview on kenpo in the early days

(from brianadamsintegratedmartialarts.com)

Can you tell us where and when you first started your Martial Art training ?

I started my training in Kenpo at age 18, [1960 ] at the Pasadena CA. studio on Walnut. I was going to Pasadena City College at that time and majoring in Psychology and minoring in Sociology.  It was an exciting time . It was the 60’s. Lots of new things to explore.  Many students at Pasadena City College were enrolled at Ed Parker’s “Kenpo Karate Studios.” The night classes were huge, hardly any room to move some times. So I went to the day class [ it was pleasantly small ]. The first year I had several day time instructors. Jim Tracy was the most consistent then [ he was a technique technician } . I would from time to time have  Ed Parker , Dave Hebler , and John Mc Sweeny fill in for Jim. When the Tracy’s left and opened up their first studio in San Jose, Ed Parker became my main day time instructor.

What types of training gear did you have at the studio in those days?

The first thing I saw there was the Makawara board.  It was in the back, stuck in the ground and the top 8” was wrapped in burlap bag padding. It was tapered at the top and got thicker as it went down to the bottom and into the ground. It was a little springy when you punched it.  It was for building up calluses and calcium deposits on the knuckles etc.. we also had a inner tube filled Banana Bag [ hand held ].  

I worked the Makawara board for four months and my knuckles started the become changed, then one day it was gone. Ed said that “boards and bricks don’t fight back “ and that was the end of my gung-ho knuckle training. I recall seeing Al Tracy’s walnut size knuckles some time later and was glad I stopped when I did. Ed had kind of a pudgy hand and his knuckles were not so obvious.  In the early 60’s I saw Ed break bricks, boards and a very high stack of roof tiles.  He always broke on the first effortless try.  He was like the force of a locomotive going down hill. Unstoppable.  The only other training feature was the rice/straw Tatami matts we used to fall on.  They were used mainly for Judo rolls and for braking the “Leap of Death” dive landing and the “Back Breaker Technique” = fall on the back. We never saw or practiced any Judo through.

Wasn’t Ed Parker a Black Belt in Judo?

I remember when on one of our long car rides to a demonstration Ed told me he was a Brown belt in Judo. Now that story has morphed to “he was a Black Belt in Judo“.  But I will say this, Ed had a very advanced mastery over foot sweeps and entanglements from the knee down.

I heard you used to go on day time demo’s with Ed because you were a full time student and could usually be free to travel.

Yes.  Me and a few others … that were available would assist with the shows.  

Dave Hebler [became Elvis Presley’s Body Guard] ,

Steve Golden [became one of Bruce Lee’s favored students and head of the Bruce Lee Fan Club]

Jerry Meyers [went on to open a school in Pomona CA.]

Jim Grunwald  [opened a school in la Puente CA]

Tom Gow [starred on the cover of the Kenpo Basics Booklet]

John McSweeney  [became known as the father of Kenpo in Ireland]

Danny Inosanto [became Bruce Lee’s top J.K.D. Instructor and Heir to his legacy .

Also the most known F.M.A.. promoter in the world.

Deion Stickling , Jimmy Duarte, Bob Goya [classmates]

Tom Bleaker [managed Ed Parker’s school in Santa Monica and hosts Kenpo - Past, Present and Future on You Tube]

Chuck Sullivan [ has a large school in LA, CA., and was Ed’s business partner in early video Kenpo instruction movies, director of the first International’s in Long Beach Ca.}.                                                                     

One time we all participated in a large demo at “ Terry Hunt’s Health Club“ in Beverly Hills. We had lunch after ward with Jose Ferrer, Paul Newman, Mickey Hagarty [Jane Mansfield’s husband] and Blake Edwards [Hollywood producer] etc.  I did not know who most of these people were at the time. I have a picture of me doing the “Five Count” on Ed by the pool. I think Tom Bleaker took the shot.

How did things change after that?

I think Ed got a reality hit and became more business focused. He started considering some of the avenues for commercial endeavors that he had previously thought were not true to the old school Kenpo values in Hawaii… things like tournaments and the Tracy’s method of test requirements and standards [ test fees and colored belts etc. ].   Although these were brewing in the future schema of things to implement, they did not come to fruition until after I left to open my school in San Diego in 1964. 

One thing he did experiment with was the tournament. I was still a 4 Tip White Belt when Ed held an inter-school tournament at Brookside Park in Pasadena.  I won the tournament and was awarded a custom set of book ends. They were clearly poses of Ed Parker and Chuck Sullivan in combat stances.  The typical point system was not used to determine the winner but rather a point system based on the most creative personal individual style demonstrated.

During this period [ 1960-1965 ] Ed finished all of the new Kenpo forms we use today. Professor Chow had not taught Ed any forms, so he assumed Chow did not know any forms.   When I filmed Chow doing a form at Adrian Emperado’s S.F. Tournament [1966 ] , Ed said “Wow, I did not know Chow knew any forms” . I loaned Ed the unprocessed  film and I never saw it again. Also the self defense tech’s became more detailed and polished [due to the Chinese influence].

Chuck Sullivan introduced us to the Japanese style “ Thrusting Knife Edge Kick ” [ toes up ]. Prior to that we only used a”  Snapping Knife Edge Kick ” [ toes down ]. We did not wear cups in the early 60’s.  Chuck Sullivan initiated starting in a loose natural frontal standing  position when running the Technique line. Previously we would start from a front Horse stance. And another change about that time was to start out in a Neutral Bow instead of a frontal Horse when sparring.

The new Crenshaw School was Chuck Sullivan and Ed’s testing grounds for Chucks innovative teaching methods. They needed a qualified instructor when it first opened and I was available so I was hired to teach there during the week [ I was a Brown Belt at the time , 1964 ] and Chuck would teach some privates and some weekend classes. I got paid $50 a month to teach.

Also, the Japanese belt ranks went up to 10th degree Black Belt and Kenpo’s only went up to 6th degree Black. In order to get more uniformity between styles Ed created the I.K.K.A  and the governing body promoted Ed to 10th Black.

The Kenpo taught between 1960 and 1965 was the basis for all future Kenpo innovations . By the time Ed passed away he had taken Kenpo to very highly sophisticated state and he modernized it for today’s world and named it “American Kenpo” to distinguish his Kenpo from the old Hawaiian roots it sprang from.  He will go down in Martial Art history as an innovative genius.

I heard that testing and promotions were a lot different back in the early 60’s?  Can you tell us more?

To start with , we had no colored belts except Brown and Black.  As I recall , there were two ranks of white belt; and they were distinguished by a brown stripe for the first rank and the next white belt rank was a second stripe on the end of each belt. So each end could have up to two stripes on each belt end. And somewhere around 1961 or 1962 the tips as they were called got expanded to four tips . There was not any official test at that time. 

I remember one day seeing my name on a typed sheet of paper on the dressing room bulletin board.  It read: “Names of individuals promoted to one Brown Tip “.  So that’s how I discovered I had been promoted. There were no specific test requirements. Just a very large butcher paper sheet on the wall listing about fifty different self defense situations. There were headings like “Right hand lapel grab, Left hand lapel grab,  Right punch,  Left hand punch, etc.

Very few tech’s had a name. So we had to rely on our memories.  Many years later [ late 60’s ] Ed succumbed to pier pressure from other schools and from the Tracy Bros. who had upgraded you might say to a more organized commercial sales tool. Yes it was colored belts and the naming of the techniques for an easier word association for memory recall. When I left to open my first school in San Diego CA . [ 1964 ] Ed had still not  changed over to the colored belt system; nor had he developed a test requirement  chart format for each rank.

I was not happy with the existing Helter Skelter method he used so I made it a priority to create my own chart system for students for clarity and so that there was no favoritism in rank promotions.  I kicked it off at my new school in 1964.  All I had to do for my Third Brown was to perform Form Four and take a kick in the stomach.

Tom Bleaker and I were tested together at the Santa Monica school together.  Also I recall that we had just six ranks of Black Belt at that time. Karate ranks were still in their beginning stages of development in this country; and I don’t think any one had ever heard the term “Grand Master“.

Have the Kenpo forms changed much since the time period you learned them [ 1960 - 1965 ] ?

YouTube “Kenpo Form” videos I have seen often skip the original details I learned from Ed. Lately students have been asking me about the detail in the forms because they have seen the You Tube videos that are sometimes very different than the forms I teach. So I have videoed myself [ at age 80 ] doing the main Kenpo forms I learned in the early 60’s and that is what you’ll see on the videos posted below, just to show students of Ed Parker’s American Kenpo how it was done in the 60’s. Just for the historical record.

I’m not judging today’s versions of the forms but just showing the ongoing evolution of “American Kenpo“,  just for the record.  I know the reason for some of the deferences in form interpretations. The “Tracy’s” were too busy to leave their new enterprise to come back to Pasadena to learn most of the new forms Ed was developing when they left for San Jose. Ed gave Danny Inosanto permission to film the forms on Super 8 camera for the Tracy’s.  I know from personal experience that it is very difficult to learn any detail from a Super 8 film.  I’m sure that’s one of the reasons why there are many differences in the forms between Kenpo schools. And of course there is one’s own interpretation.

(link to watch kenpo forms videos)

https://brianadamsintegratedmartialarts.com/kenpo-karate-forms

Fact-check

 

The Medical Implications of Karate Blows by Brian Adams

How did your book “The Medical Implications Karate Blows“ become the first I.K.K.A. Black Belt thesis? 

I’ll  give you a little back ground first .  After I opened my school in San Diego, I was often asked about the legendary“ Dim Mak “Poison Hand“ [ Delayed Death Touch ] lore from China that was circulating in the Martial Arts community. I started doing my own research project to find out if the stories were true. I enlisted several M.D.’s and specialist to help in the search for scientific verification of these stories. I borrowed a stack of medical texts about 5’ high to search through. Three years later I had found no evidence of any thing even related to the Chinese delayed death touch lore. However I could see how this lore could be imagined from Chinese acupuncture theory.

I finished the manuscript in 1967 and showed it to Ed Parker. Then he said how can we use this to promote the I.k.k.a. and I said you can say it was originally a thesis for Black Belt. So that’s when the Black Belt Thesis was born. He then wrote a very nice endorsement which is in the first pages of the book. The simple Kenpo Tech.’s were influenced by my studies at Bruce Lee’s in China Town L.A. [ economy of motion principal ]. After a ten year hiatus it is available again at Amazon.

(from Amazon.com)

This is a foundational Kenpo book first written as a Black Belt thesis for Ed Parker and the IKKA. Medical line drawings and technical descriptions make up 24 chapters, each chapter examining a core technique of the Kenpo art. Martial artists from any style can benefit as these basic strikes examine anatomical effects of blunt force trauma throughout the body, as well as surface injury to sensitive areas. This information provides realistic learning for students and emphasis the importance of control, discipline, precision, and helps to inform early treatment or first aid. This book is not intended to be used as a treatment or diagnostic tool in replacement of professional medical personnel. It is for academic and reference use only.

https://www.amazon.com/Medical-Implications-Karate-Blows/dp/0998798312/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2R66I2JD1V757&keywords=the%20medical%20implications%20of%20karate%20blows&qid=1650647408&sprefix=the%20medical%20implications%20of%20karate%20blows%2Caps%2C278&sr=8-1

In honor of Grand Master Richard "Huk" Planas

Sadly Mr. Planas passed away this week. In memory here is a video of him and Mr. Parker doing some techniques back in the day.

Just once you've reached the end

 

The difference between forms and sets

(comments by Mr. Dave Hopper from a conversation on Facebook, November 2021)

The Chinese martial arts refer to forms as movement groupings that are designed to preserve style lineage, practice movement flow, and develop attributes such as extension, range, agility, transitions, balance, etc.

Sets are defined as exercise sets or combat sets (sparring sets) and seem more like what we would call drills. The emphasis in exercise sets, of course, being strength, endurance, power, speed; and combat sets focusing more on partner work.

Obviously there is overlap.

Based on that, I would submit that our weapons katas are sets because each section represents (in some sets) an exercise or “handling drill,” and in others, each section may be a combat application.

As I write, I’m thinking “set” is “a set of drills.”

That said, under that definition, our “technique forms,” seem to fit better under the definition of set, and the basics forms seem to be more “form-like.”

In Tracy’s, we use Tiger/Crane and Tam Tui. If you are familiar with those, I would call TC a form, and Tam Tui a set, much like our 18-section Punching Set.

I guess you could also move back and forth in the definition based on the intent of practice at the time.

Are you doing #4 for flow, transitions, range, etc., or are you focusing on the combat application of each separate technique?

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(according to Google's AI)

In martial arts, a form is a choreographed sequence of movements, often representing a combat scenario against one or more imaginary opponents, while a set typically refers to a series of repetitions of a specific technique or combination. Forms, also known as kata or taolu, are used for practicing and preserving techniques, improving physical attributes, and developing mental focus. Sets, on the other hand, are used to build strength, endurance, and muscle memory through repetitive practice of specific movements. 

Here's a more detailed breakdown:

-Forms (Kata/Taolu):

Purpose: Forms are designed to encapsulate a martial art's principles, techniques, and applications in a structured, flowing sequence. 

Content: They typically involve a variety of stances, strikes, blocks, kicks, and possibly even weapons techniques, all choreographed to create a cohesive and challenging exercise. 

Benefits: Practicing forms enhances balance, coordination, fluidity of movement, muscle memory, and provides a framework for understanding combat principles. 

Examples: Karate kata, Wushu taolu, Taekwondo poomsae, and Kung Fu forms are all examples of martial arts forms. 

-Sets:

Purpose: Sets are used to isolate and repeat specific techniques or combinations, focusing on building strength, speed, and endurance.

Content: A set might involve a series of punches, kicks, or grappling techniques performed repeatedly for a specific number of repetitions or time.

Benefits: Sets help develop muscle memory, improve speed and power, and build endurance for specific movements or combinations.

Examples: Doing a series of 10 push-ups, then resting, and repeating for several sets is an example of using sets to build strength. 

In essence, forms are like a complete martial art "story," while sets are like focused "chapters" or "paragraphs" within that story, honing specific skills and movements. 

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Mr. Hopper was pretty spot on well before Google's AI came out.