The story of ‘Western’ Kenpo begins with a man named James Mitose.  He was born in Hawaii and as a young man returned to his parents’ homeland of Japan where he studied a system of martial arts, at that time known simply as Kempo, that had apparently been taught to his family by an Okinawan named Choki Motobu.  The precise origins of the techniques were believed to be from the Shaolin Temple, in part born out of the fact that the Chinese term ‘chu’an fa’ translates more or less directly (with some assistance) to the Japanese ‘kempo’ – both meaning, approximately ‘fist method’ or more popularly ‘fist law’.  Mitose brought this art back to Hawaii and began teaching it – naming it Kempo Jujitsu or Kosho Ryu (“Old Pine Tree School”).   It was a straightforward linear art based upon hand and foot combinations, including some basic grappling but without any of the complex forms that now characterise practice. It was also very influenced by both Okinawan and Japanese martial culture, as one would expect from Mitose’s background.  Mitose had six main students, one of whom was a man named William K.S. Chow.  Chow became an instructor in his own right and incorporated both techniques from his father’s background in Chinese martial arts (which may or may not have been a Five Animals based system) and basic katas from Karate into the system with approval from Mitose.  He also began to formulate new concepts, and this evolving art became known as Chinese Kempo and latterly Kenpo Karate.  Today, Chow’s system has evolved under Grandmaster Sam Kuoha into Chinese Kara-Ho Kenpo Karate. 

During the 1950s, a Hawaiian named Ed Parker began to train with Chow, and this is where the evolution of Kenpo really begins.  Parker was originally a judoka and quickly achieved his black belt under Chow in Kenpo Karate.  He was a very intelligent and analytical man and he quickly began to formulate his own concepts about training.  With Chow and other students he constructed a series of training forms and began a rigorous scientific analysis of Kenpo techniques. American Kenpo soon began to evolve under Parker as a dynamic, growing art from its roots in traditional Chinese Kenpo Karate as taught by Chow. Effectively it was a synthesis of traditional Kenpo techniques, modern scientific methods, logical theories, principles and concepts as defined by Parker and the influence of traditional Chinese systems.

Parker never denied the great influence Chinese martial arts had upon his unique system although Kenpo is distinct – it is not Karate, or Kung Fu. It is Kenpo. However its roots are Chinese, and respect for these roots are retained in many traditions and rituals retained in Kenpo. Nowhere is this better illustrated that in the Kenpo crest in whatever form it takes with whatever organisation. The crest is crammed with iconic significance, with every aspect of its design connoting some deeper meaning. But two things are instantly noticeable – the Chinese calligraphy, and the dragon and tiger emblems. The calligraphy read "Law of the Fist & The Empty Hand" on one side, and "Spirit Of The Tiger & The Dragon" on the other, written in Chinese to reflect its Chinese origins.

Ed Parker soon founded his own Kenpo school in California and began to accept students. When Grandmaster Parker began to teach in Pasadena, he became close friends with a Chinese martial artist named Jimmy Woo. Woo taught Hung Gar at the Pasadena school initially, and it is from here that many styles of Kenpo draw a version of the famous Tiger & Crane form. Woo also had a strong influence on the evolution and development of Kenpo forms – a Chinese influence that can be most clearly seen in Long Form #2 which employs many postures and techniques drawn directly from Southern style systems.  In addition, Parker and a man named John McSweeney frequently ventured into Chinatown to train with senior Chinese martial artists who as a rule kept their teachings restricted to Chinese blood. What is interesting is that many high ranking Kenpo masters have identified analogues between scientifically defined Kenpo concepts, and principles from traditional Chinese martial arts. Kenpo extensively utilises principles of checking which can equate to the retaining principles prevalent through the Wing Chun style – indeed there are those in Kenpo who state that Parker was employing this kind of Wing Chun inspired ‘slap checking’. Also, many Kenpo techniques – for example Triggered Salute, Thundering Hammers, Circling Fans – reflect long arm movements that are characteristic of the Choy Li Fut and White Crane styles – two traditional Kung Fu schools of which Parker was known to have affinity and experience with.

From these beginnings, Parker became literally the founding father of Kenpo in the US.  He realised that the individual is more important than any static form and rigid system.  The ability to evolve and is something often used to define Kenpo today and set it apart from other systems that are perceived as being classical (and by inference rigid, which is an argument for another day.)  Indeed, Parker was said to have keenly encouraged his students to make the techniques their own. It was the essence of the motion – the principles it represented – that was more important to grasp, and this was the path along which he travelled, analysing the motion of existing Kenpo techniques, restructuring, deleting, adding.  This was the beginning of the ‘codebreaker’ of Kenpo’s often complex mysteries – the equation formula.

The period that followed was the most exciting in the history of the art, which is described in detail by the man himself in the ‘Infinite Insights’ series volumes 1 & 2.   The evolution of Kenpo became driven by Parker’s constant developments and ideas, his categorisation of ideas and his labelling of concepts in the format of the Western ideology.  Although as stated above Chinese ritual and Japanese uniforms were retained as a kind of a ‘nod’ to the ancestral beginnings of the art, Parker saw Kenpo as something unique – a new art of American origin.  Ultimately he would credit only 10% of his knowledge to his teachers, the remainder being a result of his own study.

Parker also began to write constantly.  His first book “Law Of The Fist And The Empty hand” shows the system as it existed prior to his innovations, while “Secrets Of Chinese Karate” hints at the beginnings of evolution that were presented more completely in the “Infinite Insights” series.  Along the way there were others – some by Parker (“Encyclopaedia Of Kenpo”, “Zen Of Kenpo”) as well as some that were the result of the Parker Black Belt thesis requirement – “Medical Implications Of Deadly Karate Blows” by Bryan Admas is still in print today.

Parker also became a pioneering figure during the Golden Age of martial arts in the US.  He was instrumental in introducing Karate (as kenpo was often referred) to the entertainment community and film world.  He found the Longbeach Internationals in 1963 (now sadly defunct) which became the premier arena for fighting talent, and is perhaps best remembered outside Kenpo for the introduction of one Bruce Lee to the world (to whom Parker would ultimately lose one of his earliest protegees, Dan Inosanto)  Parker trained fighters of the highest calibre who fought and won, men such as Benny Urquidez and Steve ‘Muhammed’ Sanders as well as showcasing non Kenpo men such as Chuck Norris and Joe Lewis.   Parker also became a close friend and teacher of Elvis Presley at any time when Parker was a superstar of the martial arts.  He had reached a point where everyone knew him, and wanted to sample his innovative system.

Almost inevitably any of Parker’s students – who included Hollywood celebrities among their number - graduated to black belt and then started their own splinter groups, adding elements from other disciplines and effectively ‘creating’ new systems.  Each of these systems was different as their founders trained with Parker and/or Chow at various times, during which Kenpo Karate was constantly changing. Thus, techniques taught at one time would be radically different later on.  It was therefore possible to tell which students had studied with Parker at various points in his teaching and development.

Key figures during this period included Adrian Emperado, John McSweeney, Fred Villari, Nick Cerio and Ralph Castro. 

Emperado was one of Chow’s black belts and a contemporary of Parker who founded the well respected Kajukenbo system, a method based upon Kara-Ho Kempo and incorporating rigorously systematised methods from four other disciplines – Judo, Jujitsu, either Shotokan Karate or Tang Soo Do (depending on the account you read) and Shaolin Kung Fu.  (Kajukenbo is now considered by many to be the first true American martial art, despite the fact it is technically Hawaiian in origin). 

Cerio and Villari were both originally students of and black belts in Kajukenbo and both formed their own systems, Cerio Kenpo and Shaolin Kempo Karate respectively, with different emphases but both geared towards practical self-defence.  Cerio decided to hybridise Kenpo by incorporating methods from other Japanese arts, while Villari focussed primarily on the Shaolin Five Animals component.  

Ralph Castro initially received his black belt from Parker after originally studying with Chow and went on to form a second Shaolin Kempo system, while John McSweeney was already a widely experienced martial artist, his black belt in Kenpo Karate from Ed Parker forming only a part of this background, which included the Shaolin arts as well as Judo and much unarmed combat and Army training.  This diversity ultimately led to the founding of the White Tiger Kenpo system, which has strong Shaolin influences and contains many Chinese techniques, but questions remain as to legitimate connections to the Parker lineage, particularly as many White Tiger Kenpo systems currently exist.  Side by side with these new developments both Kosho-Ryu and Kara-Ho continued as separate systems in their own right.

With all this fragmentation happening, Parker sought to put his stamp on the Kenpo world once and for all.  To this end, he devoted the last ten years or so of his life to propogating his American Kenpo system, a system which he admitted contained less than 10% of the original Chow Kenpo Karate he himself had originally learned.  He wrote a series of books called “Infinite Insights into Kenpo” which outlined in great detail every aspect, technical concept and nuance of his system.  This was Parker’s legacy to the world of martial arts.  It is also what we see in action “The Perfect Weapon” – a film overseen by Parker himself but one he sadly did not live long enough to see on the screen.  At the root of all of this was the fundamental point he was trying to get across.  Not a system per se – rather it was the notion of applying logical concepts and natural laws and principles to movement.  American Kenpo to him was no more than a logical study of motion applied to combat.

Even with this new approach established, others began to try and place their own stamp of American Kenpo, perhaps seeing it as the right of the American to bear Kenpo.  Many Parker Kenpo black belts sought to found their own styles (as evidenced above), but also many others sought to propogate what they felt was the true essence of Parker’s Kenpo system through their own organisations – Chuck Sullivan and Vic LeRoux founded the International Karate Connection which subscribed to the belief that Kenpo was in need of ‘whittling down’; Paul Mills and his AKKI organisation put forward the philosophy that Parker’s teachings were obsolete as we moved beyond the 60s and 70s, and were in need of regular ‘upgrading’;  Larry Tatum’s own Kenpo organisation subscribes to the art as he was originally taught it by Mr Parker prior to his dismissal from the Ed Parker’s original Kenpo organisation - the IKKA - in the 1980s.   The IKKA itself still continues, but in a radically reduced form under the guidance of Leilani Parker and a number of first generation Parker students, and a mainstream form of Kenpo is taught through the AKKS, albeit with a modified curriculum under the guidance of Jeff Speakman.  There are many other organisations with their respective ‘top men’, some wearing grades today that one can speculate they would never have achieved had Ed Parker lived.

However, for as many as it inspired, just as many failed to comprehend what Parker was trying to say with his American Kenpo approach.  It seemed to be lost on many, who saw American Kenpo as merely a new system of Kenpo, one in a sea of many and one that was so different that others who had gone their own way began to question its validity.  It was only Parker himself  - with his dynamic personality, unquestionable charisma and lethally effective techniques - who appeared to keep it all in check.  When he died suddenly of a heart attack in Hawaii in 1990, the conflicts exploded and the Kenpo world was shattered into hundreds of pieces, each vying for superiority.  One only has to pick up an American martial arts magazine to see how prolific and divided Kenpo has become, with endless adverts for different Kenpo systems or different versions of the same Kenpo system.   Most have learned to live in relative harmony, each having their practitioners and each having their place – although each firmly convinced that their Kenpo is the way it ‘should’ be.

Ultimately, the history of Kenpo has become not only a developmental one but a political one also. The fundamental problem with Kenpo is that over time so many versions of the system have arisen, so many splinter organisations now exist, and so many Grandmasters of these groups (which ultimately all teach Kenpo) have laid claim to ranking that in the cold light of day might not hold up.  Organisations thus become barriers, and it should be remembered that, given the interpretive nature of Parker’s teachings,  any version of Kenpo is only a single form in a spectrum of different personal approaches and interpretations of the same fundamental system. 

The problem as always is ego.  History is written by the victors is it said, and by this reasoning history has been rewritten so many times by those who have founded their own systems - however valid - the truth is probably lost forever.  Until these problems are resolved and until people are capable of putting aside differences  (and many of these are rooted in decades old personal conflicts), the world of Kenpo is sadly probably never going to be a unified one. 

Recently, the book ’The Journey’ details the histories of several men and women who, as first generation students of Parker, have continued the art onwards.   The book contains the stories of many inspirational people themselves inspired by Parker.  Without exception, these people responded not just to Kenpo but to the man behind it, Parker himself.  It is a tribute to his knowledge, ability and charisma that so many respected individuals could have been set on their paths by him.  These people represent how Kenpo has developed and how it exists today.  As to what happens next ?  Who knows, you yourself may be one of the people who becomes a part of the history of Kenpo and carries the principles and concepts of Ed Parker to a new generation of martial artists.

APPENDIX:

Kempo / Kenpo - “Law Of The Fist”

Born in China and refined in Japan and the West, Kempo / Kenpo (the terms are virtually interchangeable, although Kempo often refers to a more traditional form while Kenpo tends to be applied to post WW2 Western based systems) takes many shapes, all based on practical modern refinement of ancient techniques.  Kempo / Kenpo in any of its forms is widely regarded as one of the most practical and effective of the martial arts.

American Kenpo - The Parker Style

Fast, hard style based on often complex logically designed combinations.  Traditional aspects all but eliminated, with the scientific study of motion taking precedence.

Kosho-Ryu Kempo Jujitsu

Original art brought from China via Japan.  Combination strikes and kicks with fundamental grappling.  No kata or forms, and a strongly Okinawan approach.

Kosho-Shorei-Ryu Kempo

Modified Kosho-Ryu incorporating elements from Hung Gar, Wing Chun, Escrima and Silat.  Style is superficially similar to Jeet Kune Do.

Chinese Kara-Ho Kenpo Karate

Blend of Kosho-Ryu with Shaolin 5 Animals.  First ‘Kenpo’ system , first to employ base kata and specialised forms, and first to use the trademark ‘fast hands’.

Tracy Kenpo Karate

A wide ranging and popular system containing in excess of 700 basic techniques but criticised for its franchise approach.

Kempo Jujitsu

A name for a multitude of sins, but the actual style of this name is based in the UK and blends several Kenpo systems with the Juko Ryu Jujitsu system.

White Tiger Kempo

Small scale system originally a distant relation of the Kara-Ho syllabus but re-orientated almost entirely towards Chinese style techniques.

White Tiger Kenpo Karate

The system taught by Thomas Saviano, which combines pre-American Parker Kenpo with Northern Shaolin Kung Fu.  May be the original McSweeney system.

Kajukenbo

Eclectic and adaptive system based on a Kenpo framework and incorporating Tang Soo Do, Judo, Jujitsu, Escrima, Shaolin Kung Fu and Western Boxing.

Karazenpo

The system of Sonny Gascon, which claims to be an original foundation style of Kenpo.  Little known , but essentially a Kenpo Jujitsu type system

Shaolin Kempo / Villari Style

A combination of the Chow style and the Parker style, with an emphasis on the wide ranging Chinese elements of the system employing a Five Animals based approach.

Nick Cerio Kenpo

Adopts a strongly traditional Japanese approach incorporating formal stances, weapons and traditional Karate kata, as well as elements of Jujitsu and Taekwondo.

Won Hop Kuen Do

Originally founded by Al Dacascos as a branch of Kajukenbo, it is now a system in its own right.  An adaptive, wide ranging art with Chinese and Filipino influences.

Lima Lama

Essentially Polynesian Kenpo, an art rarely seen outside of its origin islands.  Emphasises soft style approach to the multiple hand techniques.

Shaolin Kenpo / Castro Style

Hard / soft system reengineered from traditional Kenpo, using a series of short form teaching tools to develop techniques.  A highly respected style.