KEMPO vs. KENPO
dw...@virginia.edu
Can anyone explain the differences between these two styles ? Leave a
message here in this newsgroup as I am sure I am not the only one who has
never gotten a good explaination. Thanks
Karl Friday
Are we back to this again? Surely this must be in the FAQ file--no? At any rate,
once more, for the record: "kenpo", and "kempo" are the same [Japanese] word,
romanized two ways. Some romanization schemes follow the original Japanese
orthography and render the syllable "n" before b's, p's, and m's as "n"; others
follow the actual sound, which shifts to something closer to "m". This same word
is used by Koreans and pronounced "kwon bop" and by Chinese, pronounced
"ch'uan fa" in mandarin.
The term is, BTW, a generic one, essentially the same as "boxing" and comparable
in scope to terms like "grappling." Literally meaning "fist law", it refers to any sort
of striking art. Dozens of schools incorporate the term into the formal names of
their systems (it seems to be particularly popular in Hawaii and the rest of the US),
and dozens more feature some form of "kempo" as part of their overall curriculum.
Karl Friday
Associate Professor
Dept. of History
University of Georgia
Fredrich P. Maney
dw...@virginia.edu wrote:
: Can anyone explain the differences between these two styles ? Leave a
: message here in this newsgroup as I am sure I am not the only one who has
: never gotten a good explaination. Thanks
Here we go again.
Kempo/Kenpo are linguistically the same art. The only difference is the
transliteration that is used when converting the Japanese word to English.
Historically, Kempo is the Japanese/Okinawan adaptation of the Chinese
art known as Chuan Fa. More modernly, Kempo was brought to the US be
James M. Mitose, who brought his family's art of Kosho Ryu Kempo. Mitose
lived in Hawaii, where Kempo made it's entrance into the US, where he
taught many students including Professor William K. S. Chow. Chow broke
off from Mitose and formed his martial art style known as Kara-ho Kenp,
which was a blend of Mitose's kempo and Chow's own family art of Gung-fu.
One of Chow's most proficient students was Edmund K. PArker. Parker ended
up breaking off from Chow and forming his own style of Kempo as well. He
referred to this as American Kenpo Karate.
fpsm
--
| ma...@stdio.com : "May death find you, and lead you through |
| : the gates of existence, with as much compassion |
| : and gentleness as you deserve." -fpsm |
Mark
dw...@virginia.edu wrote:
>
> Can anyone explain the differences between these two styles ? Leave a
> message here in this newsgroup as I am sure I am not the only one who has
> never gotten a good explaination. Thanks
I have studied with Nimr Hassan for many years and am now with the Sei
KOsho Shorei Kai.!!!!( nimr Hassan aka Terry Lee is the student of
Mitose Sensei from 1972 who killed the farmer and implicated Sensei.
(Side line -His council in LA was named J. Cocran like Johnny) He served
his time of 5 years and Sensei received life. in Cali. the guy who does
the murder does not get life if it is planned be someone else which was
Hassans' defense story. This was about then same time as the Manson
trial and the papers made Sensei otu to be an oriental Manson saying
that Terry Lee did it for his master.) Anyway the real deal is this. It
is a matter of trying to say a Japanese word and use our phonetic system
of writing. Kem/npo sounds just like that but you have to choose a
letter. Mitose Sensei used BOTH. It realy doesn't matter. Most of the
quasi-Kemnpoists out there don't do any of Sensei's Katas, wazas,
throws, philosophy, etc. They where an octagon but don't know the Temple
Dance which is what the Octagon is all about. They don't know or care
about the 750 year old history of the Temple and say that Kempo ( a
Japanese word!!) comes from China. NO IT DID NOT!!!!! If you would just
read some of Mitose Sensei writings you would be better off. You sound
like idiots to any Japanese when you call yourself Sifu in a Kempo
school. You are SENSEI whether you like it or not. Please don't take
this the wrong way but it has been very hard for me when you try to
explain things even after a thousand times.Please take care! Email me
ASAP!
who me?
> dw...@virginia.edu wrote:
> >
> > Can anyone explain the differences between these two styles ? Leave a
> > message here in this newsgroup as I am sure I am not the only one who has
> > never gotten a good explaination. Thanks
>
> I have studied with Nimr Hassan for many years and am now with the Sei
> KOsho Shorei Kai.!!!!( nimr Hassan aka Terry Lee is the student of
> Mitose Sensei from 1972 who killed the farmer and implicated Sensei.
> (Side line -His council in LA was named J. Cocran like Johnny) He served
> his time of 5 years and Sensei received life. in Cali. the guy who does
> the murder does not get life if it is planned be someone else which was
> Hassans' defense story. This was about then same time as the Manson
> trial and the papers made Sensei otu to be an oriental Manson saying
> that Terry Lee did it for his master.) Anyway the real deal is this. It
> is a matter of trying to say a Japanese word and use our phonetic system
> of writing. Kem/npo sounds just like that but you have to choose a
> letter. Mitose Sensei used BOTH. It realy doesn't matter. Most of the
> quasi-Kemnpoists out there don't do any of Sensei's Katas, wazas,
> throws, philosophy, etc. They where an octagon but don't know the Temple
> Dance which is what the Octagon is all about. They don't know or care
> about the 750 year old history of the Temple and say that Kempo ( a
> Japanese word!!) comes from China. NO IT DID NOT!!!!!
It depends on the kempo, if your from a kara ho kempo derivative like most
stylists who call what they do kempo or kempo ( any of the Parker systems,
Cerio, Villarai, and dozens others ) there is a tradition of blending the
chinese kung fu that goes back to the temple with the Japanese kempo.
Many people think that the forms of kempo came from china to japan via
okinawa, and then to america, or europe, etc. Further there is some
evidence to this affect. Personally, I wasn't around then but I suspect
that many changes and modifications were made. Could you call what was
originally chinese kempo? I don't know. Further many kempo systems come
from the hawian styles of kempo, mostly from kara ho kempo which is a blend
of chinese kung fu, chin na, jujitsu and Mitosi's kempo system.
> If you would just
> read some of Mitose Sensei writings you would be better off. You sound
> like idiots to any Japanese when you call yourself Sifu in a Kempo
> school. You are SENSEI whether you like it or not.
Personally I don't care what people call themselves or do, but quite right
traditionally. Even Prof. Chow, from whom the chinese influence is traced
used the japanese terminology.
> Please don't take
> this the wrong way but it has been very hard for me when you try to
> explain things even after a thousand times.Please take care! Email me
> ASAP!
-phil
--
Everything said in this post is not any institution or groups
opinion, it isn't even mine.
If anything I've said has offended you I take it back to the
point of denying I ever said it :)
I did not write this.
mshe...@ivory.trentu.ca
In article <Dt7pv...@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>, dw...@virginia.edu writes:
>Can anyone explain the differences between these two styles ? Leave a
>message here in this newsgroup as I am sure I am not the only one who has
>never gotten a good explaination. Thanks
>
easily breaks down into its root words] for chinese derived martial-arts
practiced outside of china. it is a generic term, derived from quanfa [mandarin
and other for 'fist method'], and not a single style. the kenpo spelling tends
to be used for hawaiian-american derived styles such as parker or tracy kenpo.
on the other hand you have okinawan kempo, which is basically a form/relative
of karate that acknowledges its chinese roots and methods.
C. Bruce Heilman
> they are different spellings [kempo being the more proper, but kenpo more
> easily breaks down into its root words] for chinese derived martial-arts
> practiced outside of china. it is a generic term, derived from quanfa [mandarin
> and other for 'fist method'], and not a single style. the kenpo spelling tends
> to be used for hawaiian-american derived styles such as parker or tracy kenpo.
> on the other hand you have okinawan kempo, which is basically a form/relative
> of karate that acknowledges its chinese roots and methods.
Correction:
The correct Okinawan spelling of the word IS "KENPO". It translates
to "fist way". The traditional form of karate known as "OKINAWA
KENPO" as founded by Shigeru Nakamura and now taught by Seikichi Odo,
translates as "first way of Okinawa". It was only through English
publications that the spelling as "Okinawan Kempo" came into some use,
but the correct way for this system name is "Okinawa Kenpo".
C. Bruce Heilman
Okinawa Kenpo Karate Kobudo
GKerman
Hello;
I'd like to just add for the record that both James Mitose and Gichin
Funakoshi used the spelling kempo. Here we have two Japanese masters
using an m instead of an n in their works, so I think people have a
tendancy to stick to kempo. As far as I have learned, kempo or kenpo
being used really doesn't matter; it's a matter of pronunciation. The
Romantisizing (sp?) of the Japanese language has been fraught with
difficulties, mostly because of phonetic misunderstandings.
BTW, as for the meaning of the name, it was translated from Chinese
to Japanese as being shaolin-ssu chu'an fa to shorinji kempo, the later
meaning "Shaolin temple boxing". As for this "fist law" business.... I've
never heard such a translation.
Geoff
Karl Friday
"C. Bruce Heilman" <ik...@third-wave.com> wrote:
>
>Correction:
>
>The correct Okinawan spelling of the word IS "KENPO". It translates
>to "fist way". The traditional form of karate known as "OKINAWA
>KENPO" as founded by Shigeru Nakamura and now taught by Seikichi Odo,
>translates as "first way of Okinawa". It was only through English
>publications that the spelling as "Okinawan Kempo" came into some use,
>but the correct way for this system name is "Okinawa Kenpo".
Correction: "Okinawan kempo" is a descriptive phrase; it refers to ANY
style of boxing practiced on Okinawa or derived from any such system--
including the myriad forms of karate. "Kenpo/kempo" a Chinese-derived word, but
it's usage in Japanese (and Okinawan) is not limited to Chinese-derived
arts.
Okinawans do not use the latin alphabet, so there is no "correct Okinawan
spelling of the word," only romanizations of it. It was, therefore,
"only through English [and other Western language] publications" that
EITHER spelling came into use. "Kenpo" might be the preferred/official
spelling chosen by the American affiliates of the Nakamura-Odo organization,
but that doesn't make it any more or less correct than "kempo." In point of fact,
NEITHER romanization is completely correct, since both lack the macron over the
o (or, alternatively, a final u) to indicate that this is a long (two syllable) o sound.