Chow interview

[kenmpoka]

I have in my possessions a bunch of photos taken of Professor Chow doing what might be determined as the Naihanchi Kata. These photos seem to be around the same time the photos for the Mitosi Book was printed in the early 50's. Professor told me that this was not his form so he did not want me to teach it. He said that his forms would have the kung fu flavor and so the development of the katas we now have which was done with he and I in the mid 70's.
Grandmaster Kuoha[/QUOTE]


Thank you Grandmaster Kuoha for taking the time and clearing more of the same controversy.

Couple of questions if I may;

1) To your knowledge, did The Professor practice any other kata besides "Naihanchi" prior to mid 70's and your joint colaboration?

2) In one of your books, you refer to Mr. Mitose as the Great Grandmaster or Grandmaster, and the teacher of Professor Chow. Do you still hold the same belief?

I also wanted to express my appreciation to you and Mr. Juchnic for expanding on your teachings, and keeping the roots of Kenpo / Kempo alive.

Respectfully,

 

[gmkuoha]

Thank you Grandmaster Kuoha for taking the time and clearing more of the same controversy.
* My pleasure!

Couple of questions if I may;

1) To your knowledge, did The Professor practice any other kata besides "Naihanchi" prior to mid 70's and your joint colaboration?
* No...even when I trained with him in the 70's, he did not show me that kata and his whole idea was to develop forms that would deplict his style, the Kara-Ho System which is what he and I did starting in 1978. I learned that form in around 1958-60 with Professor's protege/student, Sensei Charles Kuheana who I trained with for many years from 1958-69 and at times saw and worked out with Professor Chow at the Salvation Army Gym.

2) In one of your books, you refer to Mr. Mitose as the Great Grandmaster or Grandmaster, and the teacher of Professor Chow. Do you still hold the same belief?
* I still say that Professor Chow did in fact learn some things from Mitosi, however I believe that Professor learned as much from Mitosi as Mitosi learned from Chow. I spoke to Emparado some years back and he told me that Professor Chow was the hands on teacher and Mitosi ran the organization due to his education.

I also wanted to express my appreciation to you and Mr. Juchnic for expanding on your teachings, and keeping the roots of Kenpo / Kempo alive.
* You're more then welcome.
Grandmaster Kuoha

 

[gmkuoha]

Sir, I meant no disrepect. I was repeating what I recalled from a 1996 conversation with Perkins {the author of the article}.

I will admit that I know nothing of kenpo's history first hand; and I'm indebted to people, like you, who were there and take the time to share your memories.

* No harm done. I guess we just need to consider the source.
Grandmaster Kuoha

 

[gmkuoha]

As far as this Jacob person is concerned, it states in the interview that Jacob wanted no rank or inherit the system he only did it out of love.

If that is the case then it's probably no wonder no one knows who this person is. He probably stopped after Chow passed on and didn't teach anyone.

Here is a portion of an e-mail recieved from Dr. Perry of Hawaii regarding these concerns. Hope this puts allot of questions and concerns to rest.
Grandmaster Kuoha
Great-Grandmaster Sam. I heard very little of Jacob and I met all of Prof Chow's students. You and only you are the chosen one to carry out his teachings, school and legacy. I was Prof. Chow's confidant and closest friend and consultant and knew him better than anyone. I would be happy to write a letter to whoever needs verification of this situation. I am the authority on the story of Prof. Chow's life.
Sincerely, Dr. Perry

 

[Thunderbolt]

Grandmaster Kuoha,

if my memory serves me well, you told us that you will tell us more about Dr. Perry in "karaho" thread. If you have *free time*, can you tell us how this man relates to Prof Chow and how do you / Chow know this man.?

thanks

 

[IslandBoy]

Thunderbolt: Good question. Great thinkers do think alike...

 

[Thunderbolt]

Thunderbolt: Good question. Great thinkers do think alike...

let hope we have our questions answered as well. Yours has not been answered.Perhaps, it's a difficult one but I hope mine is not that hard

 

[punisher73]

Great-Grandmaster Sam. I heard very little of Jacob and I met all of Prof Chow's students. You and only you are the chosen one to carry out his teachings, school and legacy. I was Prof. Chow's confidant and closest friend and consultant and knew him better than anyone. I would be happy to write a letter to whoever needs verification of this situation. I am the authority on the story of Prof. Chow's life.

thanks for taking the time to pass that information on.

 

[47MartialMan]

Whos is this in reference to? Which two people?


Great-Grandmaster Sam. I heard very little of Jacob and I met all of Prof Chow's students. You and only you are the chosen one to carry out his teachings, school and legacy. I was Prof. Chow's confidant and closest friend and consultant and knew him better than anyone. I would be happy to write a letter to whoever needs verification of this situation. I am the authority on the story of Prof. Chow's life.

 

[gmkuoha]

Grandmaster Kuoha,

if my memory serves me well, you told us that you will tell us more about Dr. Perry in "karaho" thread. If you have *free time*, can you tell us how this man relates to Prof Chow and how do you / Chow know this man.?

thanks

Dr. Perry is a internal medicine doctor located in Hawaii. He is very well known and very connected there on the islands. He does not or never have trained in the martial arts. He doesn't need to as he had friends like Professor Chow and others. In the late 50's he was working in the emergency room of the hospital in Hawaii when 3 big local Polynisian men were wheeled into the hospital. They all weighed in the 300+ pounds. They were all very damaged and a couple of them were very critical. He thought they got into a major auto wreck and so when the police officers came there, he asked them how many cars were involved as one man that weighed over 350 had some internal bleeding as his lungs were pierced under one side of the ribs. (It was later learned that Professor Chow had stuck his knife hand under his ribcage and punctured his lung). The cop advised Dr. Perry that it wasn't an auto accident but these guys had picked on the wrong man. Man....asked Dr. Perry, that being singular. Yep, answered the cop and then suggested to watch for him as he had to come there so they could get more info about what happened.

About an hour later he was at the desk and then short, thick Chinese man walked up to him and asked where the cops were and Dr. Perry pointed to the back lounge, which the Chinese man walked there. He went back to looking at some records when the cop he orginally was talking too, came walking by and Dr. Perry told him that a real short guy came by looking for them and he sent them back to the lounge area. The cop then replied....ohhhhh, that must be the guy these guys picked on. This floored Dr. Perry as the damage done were so severe, it was hard to believe that one man could do all that damage, actually bringing them close to death, and in fact one of them did die after. He took a better look and went to the lounge to meet this man and said after more careful investigation, he saw the most gigantic black knuckles (he said caluoses stood about an inch above the regular hands) on anyone and knew that this man was a martial artists (one of the big things in Hawaii with everyone training in karate was to build their knuckles). The cop introduced them both and they became friends ever since. When I was training with Professor Chow in the 70's he took me to meet Dr. Perry and told me that is the man that knows everything about him and his system because he was his closest, personal friend and the only one he could really trust. I believe that is because Dr, Perry did not need anything and would not benefit anything from Professor Chow. Everytime I went home to Hawaii we would always meet up with Dr. Perry for breakfast or lunch and I got to know exactly what he would order each time. He took them for breakfast almost every morning and also helped support his family. He was their personal doctor and performed a few operations on Professor Chow and Patsy and did not charge them any money and in fact paid the hospital bill. He also paid for a portion of Patsy living expenses along with the state and our organization. He became Professor Chow's closest friend and was told everything that needed to be done. He also told him to tell me that if anything happened to him...that he wanted to be sure that I would take care of Patsy and I did. He was the one that promoted me to 10th dan...Grandmaster, as per his conversations with Professor Chow. He was the one that signed Professor Chow death certificate. He had control over the estate of Professor Chow and Patsy Chow. But by the time I got home, Steven Chow had thrown everything that was owned by Professor away in the dumpster. I did get all his photo albums, the scrolls and many other things that Patsy was instructed by Professor to hide for me. Dr. Perry and I have thus became friends since I met him through Professor Chow. Professor Chow told him that someday after me he would want my daughter, Ka'imipono Kwai Sun Kuoha to run the system as he said she could do that and would be the first female to do something like this.
Grandmaster Kuoha

 

[gmkuoha]

Whos is this in reference to? Which two people?


Great-Grandmaster Sam. I heard very little of Jacob and I met all of Prof Chow's students. You and only you are the chosen one to carry out his teachings, school and legacy. I was Prof. Chow's confidant and closest friend and consultant and knew him better than anyone. I would be happy to write a letter to whoever needs verification of this situation. I am the authority on the story of Prof. Chow's life.

Sorry this letter was writen by Dr. Perry, MD of Hawaii who was Prof. Chow's personal friend and physician and his closest friend. He was given the responsibility for acting as Prof. Chow's attorney after he passed away and also Patsy Chow. I wrote him and sent him some questions that everyone had and this was his response.
Grandmaster Kuoha

 

[kelly keltner]

I thought you'd get a kick out of that!!!

Here I am stickicking my head out of my cave

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!
Shawn and Kai keep up the good work.

To Mr. Kahoa
thank you for the kind words about my teacher.

To koga-ha
I guess all the stuff my teacher(Mr. Juchnik) taught me is false.
HAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

kelly

 

[hongkongfooey]

deleted

 

[hongkongfooey]

No, the real TRAGETY is that some people on this board have no concept of proper spelling. ABSOULUTELY none.

The real tragedy consists of incorrectly spelling both tragedy and absolutely.
Sorry couldn't resist. :whip:

HKF

 

[Kembudo-Kai Kempoka]

Mr. Kuoha:

I am about to ask a question in a context that will, no doubt, anger many. Please know in advance that I mean no disrespect; merely to clarify what I had learned of Mr. Chow's mental status prior to his passing.

The Context (also a question as to how true this may be): I have heard that Mr. Chow was slowly slipping into either insanity or Alzheimers in his last decade or two of life. I have spoke with a couple of guys who, having flown over and met him, insisted he was not quite "all there" anymore...one particular story involved him stapling bottle-caps to his kimono, and taking pride in his medals.

The Question: If he was slipping off into his own private mind-space, why would one be willing to place much emphasis on what he had to say in an interview in the first place? Was he lucid when he gave it? If he was, then we know a bit of the opinions and recollections of the man who fathered Hawaiian Kenpo, and many of it's offshoots. If he was less than lucid, then we have little more in this interview than the half-remembered observations of a dimming (although lethal) senior, colored by senescence.

Please understand: I'm an old Waianae boy, and grew up with the greatest respect for the "kenpo royalty", including GGM Chow and SGM Parker. No disrespect: I wish simply to improve clarity via the input of a man who was there: You.

I apologize in advance for any unpleasantness that my arise fom this, and look forward to your response.

Best Regards,

Dave Crouch

 

[gmkuoha]

I believe that in his days in the past 20 years Professor Chow was an angry man. Angry at many people that came to him for a few short weeks and then went and made exaggerated claims of being high ranking belts from him and this is why since the mid 70's he decided to make all his instructor's certificates signed and notarized. If you met him and be mindful this is the way he was for the past 20 somewhat years, you might get that impression. He was not going crazy by all means and did not have even a faint trace of Alzheimer's disease. He did repeat himself allot when trying to make a point, but he has always done that. He flew off the handle allot when speaking of people that he claims has ripped him off...but if you know what he went through, you would not blame him either. His mind was still sharp up to 5 weeks prior to his passing away. He was able to still repeat things that happened to him or someone he knew years prior and he could still work the dickens out of me. His talents as a martial artists was impeccable, demonstrating awesome strength and lightening speed. No...I think that on this editorial article the writer is the one with the memory lapse and even as he himself stated that he went back to his hotel and wrote down things that he could remember...a little exaggerated..I'd say and a pretty hollow interview if you ask me...very meaningless and full of holes. Trying to get his name in the magazines...that's what I can see.
Hope this helps and answer your questions. Glad to know you are a local. I'm a very....very old Kalihi Boy myself
Grandmaster Kuoha

 

[JakeG]

Like I said I have only had the video for a few months, so I haven't shown it to GM Kuoha, or GM Chun Jrh. It has been viewed by Wilfred Peladeau, who was Bill Chun Sr's first black belt. In fact Peladeau was present when Prof. Chow demonstrated the form. He did not recognize it as a form that Chun taught. And you have to be aware that Bill Chun came to Prof. Chow from another system, and trained with him for a short time before moving to California. He kept close contact with the Prof. during the 60's and early 70's, and brought him to California a few times during that period. But when GM Chun's wife died he dropped out of the martial arts completely, and didn't have any more contact with Prof. Chow. He only became active again for a short time after Prof. Chow's passing.

I am a Chun (Sr. and Jr.) student and he(sr.) told me that the only system he learned before meeting the Professor was boxing. What other system is this that you are referring to? For the most part what you are saying is true, however, regarding the form Honsuki. This form was taught from Chow by Chun and he said it was Kempo. Those were his direct words to me. It was a special form and it is much different than the version taught on the East coast. Would love to see the tournament footage.

thanks,
Jacob

 

[JakeG]

err, i meant to say from Chow to Chun. Thankyou

Jacob

 

[youngbraveheart]

I am a Chun (Sr. and Jr.) student

Hey Jacob, did you know that there's only two of you (you and Brian) that are students of both Grandmaster Bill Chun Sr. and Master Bill Chun Jr.? (No one else in the world or history can ever say that! How cool is that! That'll make a good Kenpo/Kempo trivia question...)

Take care, JY

 

[John Bishop]

Hey Jacob, did you know that there's only two of you (you and Brian) that are students of both Grandmaster Bill Chun Sr. and Master Bill Chun Jr.? (No one else in the world or history can ever say that! How cool is that! That'll make a good Kenpo/Kempo trivia question...)

Take care, JY

So would that be Jacob Goetz and Brian Peladeau?