Chinese Kenpo Karate

Jimkel

Hi can someone please enlighten me as to why Kenpo is Known as Chinese when Karate itself comes from Okinowa. I know originally Karate developed from Chinese styles but Kenpo is relativly new compared to say Shotokan.
so what is Chinese Kenpo Karate? Is it a Japanese art or Chinese. Also there seemes to be allot of weapon usage in kenpo, yet the Kenpo creed states " I come to you with only Karate, My empty hands. I have no weapons...etc" I am not Dissing Kenpo just confused about some details. thanks

FiannaGym.com

Kenpo was just a made up style, it has no origins in Japan or China, and of course it has tonnes of names like SHaolin Kenpo, CHinese Kenpo, Kenpo Kung Fu.

The weapons thing is a new fad.

The creed you mentioned is only part of some kenpo schools.

Read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenpo

Peace

Colm_OReilly

Hey we had the creed it rocked!

Kenpo was made up by Ed Parker, essentially. He was Hawaiian. My instructors told me it was Chinese because it used a lot of circles, whereas Japanese was more straight lines. It's all moot because the training methods render it useless.

A lot of things are called Karate or Kratty to give it it's Dublin pronounciation. Heck, the kids I coach call it Karate, maybe Zhoo Zhitsu is diffcult to pronounce?

SorGan

Kenpo is a mixture of five cultures; First and most important, Chinese; second Japanese, followed by Okinawan, Hawaiian (before Hawaii became a state) and America. The Kenpo Karate we teach reflects the original Chinese Martial Arts passed down from one generation to another for hundreds of years.

The greatest confusion regarding "Kenpo" is the origin and meaning of its name. Despite its birth in China, the art we call "Kenpo" was passed down through the Mitose family, who studied the original art in China in the 1600's and brought it back to Japan.

Since the Mitose family was Japanese, they naturally used the Japanese language rather than the Chinese to describe their family system, which they later named "Kosho-ryu" (Old Pine Tree Style): "Ko" (old) "Sho" (pine tree) "Ryu" (school/style).

Kenpo has been described in many ways, but the term "Kenpo Karate" using the original Chinese characters, is the most authentic and clear description of our style. This distinguishes it as completely different from the Japanese and Okinawan written characters (kanji) that define Karate as "empty hand".

robbed from a site

Jimkel

Thanks guys. i did a little research on th net and it seems differnt schools of Kenpo have different versions of it's origins. I think Wikipidea has the most complete description of Kenpo. With so many schools, For instance "Joe Soaps Kenpo Karate" It's hard to attest to the consistancy and standard of Kenpo on a whole. I know some absolutley outstanding Kenpo practitioners, And also some woeful "black belts. Very like TKD for instance. Altough I'm sorry to say I have not come up against one good TKD fighter in tournement. I Think Shotokan schools with JKA affiliations are Probably the most consistent schools of Karate out there. For instance the United shotokan karate federation, the KUGB (UK) ISKF and The JKA Have Between them hundreds of clubs all teaching Virtually the same Syllibus. the results are some of the highest standards of Karate Dan grades I have ever seen.

monkey tennis

Ke(n/m)po is a bit of a blanket term, just like 'karate' - it's difficult to pin down a definition, as every style does it a different way, every organization per style does it a slightly different way, and every club/instructor per organization does it their own way.

Nothingcompares

i think it's important not to be too academic about martial arts and just go and observe and participate yourself directly is the only way to get an understanding.

Burko

Hi there,

I've been living in China for the last 3 years in various locations.
Just to let you know that in China there is no such thing as Chinese Kenpo Karate, if there is then it goes by another name, since karate and kenpo are both japanese words.

To be honest it sounds very American, not that thats a bad thing....just not Chinese.

There are however, a staggering amount of Kung Fu styles.Pretty much one for every province/county/town and in many cases one for each teacher.
My previous teachers style was the style of his master and was unique to him (or so he said ....and I believe him).
Its also worth noting that many teachers make no distinction between KungFu and Tai Chi.
With both being taught as one style.....except in larger areas like Beijing

kenpo_dave

American Kenpo was definately made up by Ed Parker. From what Ive been told theres bits and pieces from a load of different styles in it - JuJutsu, Kung Fu and others. Chinese and Japanese Kempo however are entirely different. As far as I understand it, what is generally referred to as 'Chinese' Kempo is actually Chuan Fa, which covers several similar styles. As for Japanese Kempo, the only style I know of is Shorinji Kempo, which was created in Japan around 1947. Okinawan Kempo Im a bit skeptical of. Especially when people like Dillman are involved in it. There are so many tales about the history of Kenpo/Kempo and so much BS politics that I dont really care all that much. All I know is that the school I train in teaches a practial Martial Art, and most of the instructors have trained in other styles - Judo, Aikido, Kickboxing - and all are very open to cross training with other clubs, particularly full contact and grappling styles.

OSU,

Dave.

chaotic dream

Kenpo or Kempo (both are right,) means law of the fist. Very few clubs are just called "kenpo" if you look deeper they have longer more complicated names (like "Kosho Shorei Ryu Kenpo Jiu Jitsu") but the name is simplified. There's loads of different styles in kenpo as far an teaching goes, like American kenpo, modern kenpo, traditional kenpo. It depends who is teaching.

taken from http://www.houseofkenpo.com

Kenpo is a mixture of five cultures; First and most important, Chinese; second Japanese, followed by Okinawan, Hawaiian (before Hawaii became a state) and America. The Kenpo Karate we teach reflects the original Chinese Martial Arts passed down from one generation to another for hundreds of years.
The greatest confusion regarding "Kenpo" is the origin and meaning of its name. Despite its birth in China, the art we call "Kenpo" was passed down through the Mitose family, who studied the original art in China in the 1600's and brought it back to Japan.
Since the Mitose family was Japanese, they naturally used the Japanese language rather than the Chinese to describe their family system, which they later named "Kosho-ryu" (Old Pine Tree Style): "Ko" (old) "Sho" (pine tree) "Ryu" (school/style).
Kenpo has been described in many ways, but the term "Kenpo Karate" using the original Chinese characters, is the most authentic and clear description of our style. This distinguishes it as completely different from the Japanese and Okinawan written characters (kanji) that define Karate as "empty hand".



p.s. Ed Parker didn't "make up" the American style kenpo, he learned it from his grandfather who learned it from his family. He just made it open to the American public, admittedly he probably changed it to seem more comercial.

Colm_OReilly

Don't bring up threads that are nearly a year old!!!!

Damo W

chaotic dream wrote:

Kenpo or Kempo (both are right,) means law of the fist. Very few clubs are just called "kenpo" if you look deeper they have longer more complicated names (like "Kosho Shorei Ryu Kenpo Jiu Jitsu") but the name is simplified. There's loads of different styles in kenpo as far an teaching goes, like American kenpo, modern kenpo, traditional kenpo. It depends who is teaching.

taken from http://www.houseofkenpo.com

Kenpo is a mixture of five cultures; First and most important, Chinese; second Japanese, followed by Okinawan, Hawaiian (before Hawaii became a state) and America. The Kenpo Karate we teach reflects the original Chinese Martial Arts passed down from one generation to another for hundreds of years.
The greatest confusion regarding "Kenpo" is the origin and meaning of its name. Despite its birth in China, the art we call "Kenpo" was passed down through the Mitose family, who studied the original art in China in the 1600's and brought it back to Japan.
Since the Mitose family was Japanese, they naturally used the Japanese language rather than the Chinese to describe their family system, which they later named "Kosho-ryu" (Old Pine Tree Style): "Ko" (old) "Sho" (pine tree) "Ryu" (school/style).
Kenpo has been described in many ways, but the term "Kenpo Karate" using the original Chinese characters, is the most authentic and clear description of our style. This distinguishes it as completely different from the Japanese and Okinawan written characters (kanji) that define Karate as "empty hand".



p.s. Ed Parker didn't "make up" the American style kenpo, he learned it from his grandfather who learned it from his family. He just made it open to the American public, admittedly he probably changed it to seem more comercial.

One of the best articles on Mitose Kenpo was an 3 part interview by Harry Cook [FAI] with Dr Arnold Golub, one of Mitose senior students.

Interestingly is suggests that Morihei Uyeshiba indicated in his will that Mitose should be promoted to 10th dan in aikido.

Also it suggests that origins of Ed Parkers style came from William Chow a graduate of Mitose.

Will

"It's all moot because the training methods render it useless."

Why are the training methods useless? What are good training methods? I did about 1 year of kenpo karate with Vibhian Spain in crumlin (about 7years ago). What would stlye would you recommend then that has better training methods?

FiannaGym.com

The thing with Kenpo is, it has enough people righting enough rubbish about it that people think it actually is an old system.

Kenpo isnt trained in China, it doesnt come from china.

The article posted in nonsense. It doesnt mean "Law of the fist" it means "Fist method" at a stretch "Fist way".

Who cares, its nonsense.

Peace

Pride Fighter

Kenpo is useless!! Chuck Liddel does not think so. He attributes his knockout power to the art. Most of his standup is Kenpo based, although that is why he keeps his hands so low and why Page KO'd him.

Dont forget Keith 'The Giant Killer' Hackney. A 2-2 record in the UFC aint bad using only Kenpo.

Colm_OReilly

In order for any combat sport, or skill based sport to develop, you need to create situations where timing, movement, and progressive resistance are built up through drills or conditional sparring.

Arts like Kenpo do not have this. Techniques are repeated with zero resistance and active compliance on the part of the attacker, who will throw one punch, kick or whatever and then let the escape be done.

While this is an okay way to introduce the basic movements of a technique, it does not develop skill. Skill can only be developed when you have someone actively fighting back. This doesn't mean fighting back 100%, but increasing the resistance as the skill develops.

Arts like Judo, Muay Thai, BJJ/Submission Wrestling/Olympic Wrestling, Boxing and MMA do these. Arts with a competitive focus and involved heavily in sparring will develop this.

Colm