Hello all. I am a student of American Kenpo. I have read the history of the relationship between Professor Chow and James Mitose, from Ed Parker's point of view and from the point of view of Al Tracy. Depending on who's version you read, Professor Chow either learned all he knew about Kenpo from James Mitose(Tracy's version), learned a little bit of Mitose's Kenpo and combined that information with martial arts skills he had already possessed(Parker's version), or he was taught absolutly nothing by Mitose. (William Chow lost interview, Blackbelt mag) This just makes the history of Kenpo in America more confusing. Any ideas on who has the correct history? If Grand Master Kuoha is reading this, I would really like to read you point of view on this, since you trained with Professor Chow for a very long time. All opinions are welcome. Dave
I guess my first inclination is to believe what either Mitose or Chow said, anyone other than those two is either speculation or rumor. Though Chow would sometimes contradict himself so that makes it hard too. I agree tho, the history and lineage paths of Kenpo is a skewed one at best.
so who was the better martial artist and why? other than chow, who were the other top students of mitose? and what lineages did they start? i know that with chow you have emparado(spelling?) who trained gascon on down. or is this the shaky part?
Dear Dave: Sorry for taking so long as I am so busy that I don't get to read these forums much, but hopefully this will answer some of your questions. First of all, I don't really care who a person is training with or from...but in my last 55 years in the martial arts, I have learned that if you just work out with someone, you will learn something from the person and he or she will learn from you also. Professor Chow was already a very competant martial artists before he started with Mitosi and in fact had a few students he was teaching prior to attending classes with Mitosi. He learned quite a bit of the families kung fu from his father, an immigrant from Shaghai. Mitosi was the big name in Hawaii at that time so he felt he might be able to broaden his knowledge by joining. Many people in the old days will tell you that Professor Chow was the one that taught on the floor and Mitosi taught from his office. By speaking to Professor Chow all these years...I have come to a conclusion that is probably more correct then any other statements made from anyone else and that is; That Professor Chow learned as much from Mitosi as Mitosi learned from Professor Chow. Professor said he left Mitosi after some years because he felt Mitosi was dishonest and a "con" man. He felt that he was not upholding the phylosophies of what the martial arts should mean. The rest is history as we see in the records. In the beginning training with Mitosi, Professor said that many of the katas and techniques were of the Japanese origins and after he left, he went back to what his father taught him and also started developing the straight inline firing techniques rather then the kung fu circular strikes, then incorporated the side-step techniques for fighting multiple attackers. Those later was re-developed when he got into the heavy multiple attackers, (noted 6-10's and 11-15's) which is taught in the system now after you reach 2nd degree black belt going for 3rd and even higher. Hope this helps, Grandmaster Kuoha
As long as I have known Professor Chow and also spoke to his advisor extensively...we have never known Professor Chow to contradict himself. The problem is his English was so heavy with Hawaiian Pidgin that even if you were from Hawaii, born and rasied and spoke the same language, it was still difficult to understand him fully so people when interviewing him would make up what they thought he had said, and those guesses would most likely be incorrect then correct. One time he was talking to me and I thought he was scolding me for something and I was really concerned and then later on in the week, I was told by Patsy Chow that he was angry with someone else and was just exploding on me because I would listen. Dr. Perry would always tell me that he knew Professor would be venting on me. On another occasion, I had a discussion with Professor Chow about something he said that I said several years back and I didn't remember saying what he said I said. We went back and forth a couple of times untill finally he walked over to one of many cardboard boxes stacked in his living room. Pulled down a few of them, open a large one, rummaged through it, which was filled with envelopes with rubber bands around each small stack. Took out a letter and handed it to me without even opening it and told me to read it. I opened the letter addressed to him from me about a couple of years ago and you won't believe what I read, the exact some thing he said I said in that letter. Yep...I felt like an idiot and probably looked like one when I looked up at him, apologized and bent my head down. So much for computers in today's world, huh? He was a pack rat and kept everything. This is why I know for a fact that it would be hard for him to contradict himself because of his mind. Grandmaster Kuoha
GM Kuoha, Could Professor Chow read then? There have been several reports that he could not, yet he seemed to know how to read your letter to him well enough. Dan Weston
Could Professor Chow read then? There have been several reports that he could not, yet he seemed to know how to read your letter to him well enough. Dan Weston[/QUOTE] Boy, where have I been...sorry for the late response as I have been in Australia shooting a film and then on to Hawaii and Ixtapa, Mexico. I should grow wings by now as my traveling is just starting up again. Yes, Professor Chow could read but not big words. He went up to 6th grade and partial of 7th but he did allot of reading on his own. Since he knew Bruce Lee, he was intrigued with him and would read every magazine that Bruce was on. He can read books well, except if they were of the college and high school level, then he had problems but that is why he had Dr. Perry to help him. His reasoning was also very sharp...much more then a highly educated person. Hope this helps. I know that when I would write him letters, I had to keep the words, at least in an intermidiate level or he would call me and ask me what I meant. Grandmaster Kuoha
Thanks for all of the respones on this thread. I am a beginner and am considering joining a school that has this lineage. http://www.austinkenpokarate.com/lineage.html Here is another link that shows the belt systems, if you click on each belt color it shows you what you need to know to advance to the next level. I was wondering how this differs from American Kenpo. http://www.austinkenpokarate.com/kenpo_belts.html Thanks in advance.
They appear to teach the EPAK 16 technique per belt system, with some additional (jujitsu?) techniques added on.
