kenpojujitsu said:
1. If Mitose were in Japan at this late date, learning this art, then there would most definately be a record of it. It is doubtful that he ever went to Japan.
The fact that he did go to Japan is something that is now apparently confirmed with documentation. the Sanjosekenpo site apparently has relevant scans. This doesn't mean he ever learned martial arts there. There has been some effort t identify Mitose's temple as Shakainji on Mount Kinkai, but this is tenuous at best.
And there certainly is no indication of this being a Japanese style. The term Kenpo came into use in Okinawa after the time period that this art supposedly came into exustence in Japan. The Japanese did not use the term Kenpo until Shorinji Kempo came about after WWII. Kenpo-Jujitsu is just not a term used to describe martial arts in Japan.
Untrue. Kempo is a term that appears in historical documents, including the Bugei Ryuha Daitijen. "Kenpo" is an alternate romanization that is nowadays not favoured, because (among other things) it confuses that word with a completely separate governmental usage (that *is* spelled "kenpo" when conventionally romanized).
2. Mitiose did talk about Samurai histories. And it was just a typing error with the name.
True. Lots of it was derivative, but it's hard to tell whether or not it's because folktales are like that or he was nicking them from somewhere.
3. I have seen photos of Henry Okazaki with a group of students with Mitose standing in the back. There used to be several of them on-line.
I assume that atfer his convictions the Okazaki family would want to distance themselves from Mitose and not admit he was around. Or he was just another face in the crowd and they didn't really know who he was. Regardless, I have seen some evidence of his training with Okazaki.
This is kind of wacky. If I founded a style there would be more photos of me casually training with martial artists outside my lineage than in it. Hawaai's martial arts community was tiny, so it is likely that everybody trained with everybody else at one time or another.
Interestingly, the Charles Lee Koshoryu lineage is still asociated with DZR Jujutsu through the AJI, so it's hardly true that there is intentional distance.
4. There is more evidence to support this than any of the claims made by Mitose or his loyal followers.
There's not much evidence about anything, and in my limited research, I've come to think that lots of the conventional wisdom of both sides is wrong. For example, peoplehave aid that Mitose only taught Naihanchi, but aside from the fact that his Naihanchi was apparently unconventional, I've traced evidence of one or two other forms: One called Henshuho and, I now suspect, Hansuki (this from Karaho GM Sam Kuoha's statement here that he abandoned it to remove the remaining Japanese legacy).
On the other hand, having reviewed a copy of What is True Self-Defence, I have to say that the book looks heavily skewed toward Mitose's desire to get out of prison and present a version of yoga. What's in there is accessible through prior sources. What Is Self Defence also has several sequences copied from earlier sources.
I honestly have no idea what James Mitose taught or where he got it from, and neither do you.
What really blows my mind ishow,after being convicted of the murder conspiracy and all the evidents of the cons and swindles he committed, that people still fall all over themselves to defend Mitose. Why anyone would accept his word on anything is beyond me. Especially when there is no eveidence to support any of the claims.
I seriously doubt anybody is saying James Mitose was a trustworthy or nice man. But here's a secret: Lies and distortions infest virtually every martial art, esecially during the introduction of Asian arts to the West. EPAK has its oddities with Parker. The bujinkan has all kinds of strangeness in its narrative that it desperately buries in an atempt to join the Western koryu community. Karate and TKD are full of revered figures who began as "airplane masters," and Jigoro Kano founded a little thing called judo when he was in his 20s. And let's not even start with Chinese arts, many of which were the hobbies of crooks and traitors.
What's left is a combination of historical interest and a need to learn effective techniques. These two elements should be divorced, but people don't do it. Instead, they have arguments on the internet where they use argumentative tactics that have little role in the creation of a legitimate history. Rules of logic and academic standards are not the same thing, but that doesn't excuse ignoring primary sources and informants, either.
I don't practice kenpo that has anything to do with these lineages, but it interests me all the same. But history isn't amenable to reductionist methods. Things happen in roundabout ways all the time, and the fact is we will never know much more han the fact that James Mitose was an eccentric crook who taught martial arts. That's hardly lauding him, but at least it's accurate and conservative as a statement.
