SHAOLIN AND KENPO
In 525 A.D., an Indian monk named Bodhidharma traveled to China. He came to the Shaolin Temple in the Song Mountains of Henan Province to spread Buddhism. Bodhidharma was the creator of two revolutionary cultural achievements; he established Zen Buddhism and created a system of exercises called the "Shih Pa Lo Han Sho": "The eighteen hands of Lohan" is considered to be the basis of almost all the martial arts that are studied today. The movements were developed to strengthen the monks who were weak from meditating most of the day. The Shaolin monks used this foundation to develop the movements found in Oki-Ryu Kempo.
One of these monks traveled to Japan and taught the Shaolin ways to a Shinto priest named Kosho. This ancient master was to become the source of one of the two paths by which Kempo eventually came to the United States. Late in his life, Kosho changed his name to Mitose and started a martial arts school in Japan. For the next seven hundred years, Kempo was passed from generation to generation within the Mitose family.
In 1923 the twenty first descendant of the Kosho/Mitose family was born in Kona, Hawaii. His name was James M. Mitose. Mitose's grandfather remained in Japan at the Shaka-In Temple, and it was here that James was sent as a four-year-old. He spent fifteen years of his life studying with his grandfather at the Temple, mastering the mental and physical aspects of Kempo. He learned the Tao Philosophy of Balance and Harmony. He also learned the importance in martial arts of proper nutrition and the benefits of yoga, plus the movements of Katas and defense maneuvers. James Mitose returned to Oahu, Hawaii in the late 1930s and established a school called the Official Self-Defense Club, at the Beretania mission in Honolulu.
Before retiring in 1953, James M. Mitose taught William Chow, who had studied Shaolin Kung-Fu for ten years under Master Chow (his father). William Chow was one of only six students elevated to black belt by James Mitose. It was William Chow who taught Professor Nick Cerio, a tenth degree black belt. Master Cerio is regarded as one of the foremost authorities on Kempo, and has received many awards. He was inducted into the Karate Hall of Fame in 1983, and in the same year he received Inside Kung-Fu's reader award. Nick Cerio is ranked 5th Degree Black Belt by Professor William Chow, awarded Sifu by Master Gan Fong Chin, 8th Degree Black Belt by Master Gan Fong Chin, 9th Degree Black Belt by Master Ed Parker, 10th Degree Black Belt (1989) in Kenpo by the World Council of Sokes, and his Professorship in Kenpo by Professor Thomas Burdine. He has spent more than 35 years studying martial arts. One of Professor Cerio's students is John Keefe, a fourth degree black belt, who is founder of Shaolin Martial Arts Academy, which was established in 1989.
