Martial Arts History and Tradition is certainly a vast and colorful story. In the beginning of this story, you will find priestly warrior monks driven to spread their faith and fighting styles traveling great distances across ancient Asia. Warrior Monks are preceded by dedicated disciplines spreading the wisdom of their martial arts masters, one generation at a time, and in secret. Today there are millions of men, women and children practicing martial arts of all styles in schools in just about every city everywhere.
Because of wars and natural disasters over the years destroying records, and because martial arts was considered a highly guarded technology, something to be kept secret, to be shared only with those proven to be worthy and with the disposition to use these many secrets for self defense only, much more is likely unknown about Martial Arts History, than known.
However, even if every facet of history is not known, we are fortunate today that Martial Art Masters all over the world from many systems and styles have always found at least a few who had the dedication, passion, and character to learn and preserve the secrets, who would then pass them on from one generation to another.
What we do know is that a warrior monk from India traveled to China where he taught his system of health, longevity (yoga), and martial arts to a group of monks who he found to be, although dedicated to the priesthood, out of shape and in need of a way to protect themselves from the many dangers they faced.
Legend has it that once these monks in China Mastered this art form they further refined it and from there martial arts spread to its neighbors such as Japan, and then throughout the world. The historical timeline shows that Martial Arts landed in China about 527 AD. However, records in India reference martial arts as early as 1100 BC.
Although there was no single entry point into the USA for Martial Arts, one Grandmaster stands out and is to be credited with much of the explosion of martial arts into America.
Modern Legends
In the 1940’s Grandmaster James Mitose opened in Hawaii the now famous “Self Defense Club”.
Continuing the Warrior Monk Tradition. Grandmaster Mitose was known as a deeply spiritual man, as you can see in one of the few pictures of him to the right, he is holding his rosary and has prominently displayed a picture of Jesus. Grandmaster Mitose considered his school a temple and taught his family style of Kosho-Shorie Karate & Yoga School, otherwise known as Kempo Karate or Chaun Fa. The English translation is “The Way of the Fist”.
As revered as Grandmaster Mitose is, he is not the for mentioned “One Grandmaster” that is credited with the explosion of martial arts into America. This is due to the fact he is known to have only promoted six students to the rank of black belt. This honor goes to his student William K.S. “Thunderbolt” Chow. Grandmaster Chow is shown in the above picture to Grandmaster Mitose’s immediate right.
It is said that Grandmaster Chow combined his family style of Chinese martial arts, commonly known as Shaolin Kung Fu, with what he learned from Grandmaster Mitose (Kosho-Shorei Karate), and then taught it as a style of Kempo with Shaolin influences. It is this system of Martial Arts that has branched out into hundreds of lineages, which broadly comes under the family tree of Kempo or Kenpo Karate. Eventually Grandmaster Chows system came to be knows as Kara Ho Kempo, and is taught today by his direct successor Grandmaster Sam Kuoha.
