Well, Kenpo was just the kanji transliteration of "Chuan Fa" which was the generic word for Chinese martial arts. Almost all Chinese martial arts had forms. Motobu, Kyan, Matsumura, etc. etc. all used forms and their art was always referred to by them as "Kempo". In fact, the oldest references to Kenpo/kempo have the practitioners doing forms as the primary method of teaching the art. It's only modern Kenpo that tends to be more technique driven rather than form driven.
As to the idea of Jujutsu being "respectable", this is simply not true. It was so violent and brutal, and it's reputation was so bad (mostly brigands and mobsters practiced it when after the Samurai disolved) that Kano decided to only take the "gentle" parts of it when forming his art of Judo. Jujutsu was designed by Samurai for us against other Samurai in the battle field when they had lost their sword. Its goal was to annihilate the enemy and render him powerless as quickly as possible.
Correctamundo! One big misconception is the belief in the pre-existing style of "Kenpojiujitsu, which actually comes from a linguistic misunderstanding. Simply, outside of China, Chinese martial arts were known by the translation of the kanji pronounced, "Kempo." The exception was Japan where they themselves had to draw a distinction between their actual fighting art(s), and their "do" arts by law and circumstance.
A distinction that many in the West failed to see because the business of the martial arts caused the marketing of all of the Japanese arts as "fighting vehicles," as opposed to the disciplined cultural activities they were and are in this country. Once they learned the west was very much interested in fighting, all of their arts became the "ultimate in self defense" on the window.
As an example, in Japan judo came to be known as the Japanese winter sport, and when Karate-do came along it was originally promoted as a similar secondary school vehicle like judo for the summer. Both groups of practitioners were commonly known as "players." It was not unusual for students to "play" both at the appropriate time of the year as a part of their nationalistic cultural development, not unlike the west and its seasonal sports in school.
The Japanese exception was what was left of their fighting arts after the demise of the Samurai and his sword, "jiujitsu." Thus in Japan, they made the distinction between "Japanese Karate-do, Ju-do, Aiki-do, Ken-do, Iai-do" as cultural disciplines, versus "Japanese Jiujitsu" as a true combat fighting vehicle.
With the importation of the "Chinese Method" of fighting known as "Kempo," It was often referred to commonly by laypeople as the "Kempo-Jiujitsu," or the "Chinese way of doing Japanese combat fighting." Thus, "Hey, look at the Chinese (Kempo) way of doing Japanese (Jiujitsu) fighting." Not a "style," but an expression.
Only later with the merging and creation of completely different meanings, interpretations, influences, and philosophy of the Chinese Arts through Kwai Sun Chow, who also studied with Henry Okazaki, did some of the old Chinese Chin-na and Japanese Samurai influence drift back into the art.
It was Chow who is credited by Ed Parker with the philosophical shift to self-defense first, over cultural training methods. This became his major influence, and he always gave Chow credit for that perspective.
