Kempô grand master, the temple where his father studied was administered
by the Koshôgi monks, and they combined jûjutsu with Shaolin Boxing to
form the martial arts component of a much broader spiritual/philosophical
system. Therefore, it is assumed that Dr. Mitose studied the Buddhist reli-
gion juxtaposed with his kempô training. It would also seem reasonable
that he spent time with both of his uncles, Motobu Chôyû and Motobu
Chôki. At least one author, John La Tourrette, believes that Dr. Mitose ac-
tually taught Motobu Chôki’s “Shôrei Karate Kempô under the system
banner of Koshô-ryû Kenpô Juijitsu” (1981, 29).
However, Dr. Mitose taught that Koshô-ryû Kempô was not a varia-
tion of Okinawan kenpô, “even though some of the kata of Koshô-ryû re-
semble, and in a few instances are duplicated in, certain karate styles” (Cor-
coran and Farkas 1983, 355). There is also a strong similarity between the
techniques shown in Motobu Chôki’s 1926 publication, Ryukyu Kempô
Karate-jutsu. Kumite (Okinawan Kempô: Karate-jutsu. Sparring Tech-
niques), and Dr. Mitose’s 1953 publication, What Is Self Defense? (Kenpô
Jui-jitsu). The major difference between the two books seems to be the
strong emphasis placed on punching and low-line kicks in Motobu’s book,
while the Mitose text is very strong on the jujutsu escape defenses, weapon
defenses, and techniques that could be applied by women and girls.
Dr. Mitose returned to Hawaii in 1936. In 1942, he organized the Of-
ficial Self Defense Club and began to train both civilians and servicemen
“regardless of their race, color, creed or religion” (Mitose 1953). Between
1942 and 1953, Dr. Mitose promoted six students to shôdan(first degree
black belt) rank: Nakamura Jirô, Thomas Young, Edward Lowe, Paul Ya-
maguchi, Arthur Keawe, and William K. S. Chow. William Chow proved
to be the most innovative and dynamic of the Mitose students.
It is believed that Chow had studied both boxing and judo before he
became a student of Mitose. Some versions of his biography claim that
Chow’s father taught him kung fu techniques before he met Dr. Mitose, but
this remains controversial.
On the other hand, there is no doubt that Chow did train with Dr. Mi-
tose. Also established is the fact that a training partner under Dr. Mitose
was Thomas Young, who had extensive knowledge of kung fu. Around
1946, Chow left the Koshô-ryû Kempô group to open his own school. At
that time he changed the spelling of kempôto kenpôand added the term
karateto his stylistic title. Chow reintroduced some of the circular move-
ments of kung fu, or quanfa (ch’uan’ fa), to his version of kenpô, elements
that had been removed by the Mitose clan during the development of
Koshô-ryû Kempô in Japan.
Over the course of his long teaching career, Professor Chow changed
the name of his particular style several times, and the last name change was258 Kenpô