![]() ![]() Kenpo Karate is the oldest style of Kenpo being taught in the United States. However, I was told by two Tai Chi masters who had trained with Yang Jain Hao, that the fighting techniques of Yang Ban Hao, who was known as " Yang the Invincible, were very close to Kenpo techniques. There is not a single Chinese system teaching anything that resembles Kenpo today, although nearly all of the Kenpo techniques can be found scattered among the hundreds of Chinese kung fu styles. The two words Kenpo - Karate together would be, as Ed Parker used it, Law of the Fist and Empty Hand. Karate also shows a Chinese origin as kara in Japanese means both empty and China. Karate on the other hand is purely a Japanese word that means "Empty Hand". However, Kenpo in Japanese refers to a Chinese root. The word Kenpo is Japanese (not Chinese) and is loosely translated as "Fist Law". Many have tried to give a Chinese origin to Kenpo Karate, but the fact is, Kenpo is a Japanese/Chinese art. Others were also teaching Kenpo techniques under different names, but starting in 1956, Ed Parker began teaching Professor Chow's system of Kenpo Karate, which is now known as Original Kenpo Karate. This was more a change in name than technique, and his students still called the system Kenpo Karate and, the certificate Professor Chow gave me in 1961 awarded me "Kenpo Karate Shodan (next line) Honolulu Go-Shinjutsu Kai". ![]() Professor Chow abandoned the name "Kenpo Karate" as the complete name of his style in 1952 to create his own style which he called "Go-Shinjutsu". This was also on the sign over Ed Parker's first Kenpo Karate Self Defense Studio located at 1840 E. This is the "Overhead Club" technique at the top left of this page. The original KKAA emblem was given to my father in 1964 when Ed Parker turned the KKAA over to my father and uncles. Parker (1931-1990) who (while not the first to have a commercial Kenpo school on the Mainland) opened the first "Kenpo Karate" Studio in Pasadena in 1956 and founded the "Kenpo Karate Association of America". Professor Chow's "Kenpo Karate" would have become as obscure as James Mitose's Kenpo Jui-Jitsu, had it not been for Edmund K. My own comments are added in italic notes as well as information I've gotten from my two uncles, Al Tracy and Jim Tracy. What you will find on are what my father, Will Tracy, wrote prior to an accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down, and the subsequent operation that has left him in so much pain he can't concentrate on writing. NOTE: (by Roarke Tracy - 2006) To my knowledge, my father is the only one in the United States who learned all four Katas, though because of a serious back injury, he no longer teaches them. There were no Katas in Chow's Kenpo Karate while Kenpo Jiu-Jitsu has 4 Katas, Nihanchi 1 & 2, the Bear Kata and Old Man Kata. Kenpo Karate is, therefore, a distinct form of Kenpo, although its techniques are virtually indistinguishable from Mistsoe's Kenpo Jui-Jitsu. Chow trained in "Kenpo Jiu-Jitsu" under Grand Master James Mitose who had learned the Kenpo art in Japan from his grandfather Sakuhi Yoshida. Chow, who coined "Kenpo Karate" for his system of Goshinjitsu, in 1949. However, the founder of Kenpo Karate was not Ed Parker but rather his instructor, Professor William (Willie) K. Kenpo Karate was once known as the Ed Parker system because many of the Kenpo instructors trained directly under that great martial artists. Kenpo Karate "The Ultimate in Self Defenst" Jim Tracy died today July 9, 2021 ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |