Charles Lee and Koshoryu

[eyebeams]

What with all the controversy around James Mitose, who his successor is and what Koshoryu might be in the first place, it;s interesting that nobody talks about a non-controversial side of it: That Charles Lee inherited the Mitose style taught at the Official Self-Defense club.

I first ran into information about this on Usenet. Google search strings are too long, but if you search Good Groups for "Charles Lee" and Kosho you'll get two of the posts I'm talking about. Look for "Charlie Lee" and Kosho as well.

Mitose's karate-style arts apparently went to Thomas Young, and from there to Simeon Eli. At Eli's death, the American Jujutsu Institute (a group focused on Danzan-ryu, started by Okazaki and others) passed it on to lee by unanimous vote.

Here's a tinyurl of a post about this: http://tinyurl.com/de7ka

Here's a bio of Lee. Note the diploma with the Koshoryu crest:

http://www.usadojo.com/martial-arti...charles-lee.htm

This is the AJI's page listing Lee:

http://www.edixi.com/users/theaji/officers.htm

Now I can speculate about why this branch is virtually unknown. Part of it is that kenpo folks who want anything to do with the Mitose legacy (not EPAK) either want to claim direct lineage (Juchnik, Barro-Mitose, Nimr Hassan) or have let things slide to either the Tracys or William Durbin when it comes to historical reasearch. But from what I can tell, nobody at all disputes the Mitose-Young-Eli-Lee branch.

What I'd like to know, then, is what Charles Lee is teaching when he teaches Kosho? I've heard everything from it being one kata and makiwara work nicked without credit from karate to a complete classical MA with an unlikely background.

What katas does he teach? What schools does he run? What's up with this really, really obscure guy who seems to be virtually unknown, but less dodgy than many claiming Koshoryu? Does anybody have any experience training in Lee's style?

 

[eyebeams]

Wow -- so the only guy with a noncontroversial line of succession from James Mitose is totally obscure? Wacky.

 

[BlackCatBonz]

i would say that most people think that anyone that studied under mitose is controversial. but most of the people in SKSKI under bruce juchnik have the greatest respect for thomas young and his students. is it kosho, i would say so. but it is probably a wee bit different than what you might get at another "kosho" school. every teacher has their own flavour........but i would think the roots are the same.

 

[eyebeams]

i would say that most people think that anyone that studied under mitose is controversial. but most of the people in SKSKI under bruce juchnik have the greatest respect for thomas young and his students. is it kosho, i would say so. but it is probably a wee bit different than what you might get at another "kosho" school. every teacher has their own flavour........but i would think the roots are the same.

Sure . . . but what are the differences? What kata, theories and so forth are used? It seems to me that investgating this would uncover quite a bit.