I've see photos of classes lined up, but never participation. Most have figured out that Mitose was using Chow to build his own creds as he did with others, and Chow said the same.
I don't find the lack of classtime photos very compelling; one would be hard pressed to find such a photo of myself with any of my teachers, some of whom I've been with for over a decade. There are certainly photos with me and my teachers, and in groups and stuff, but not much would come up of actual classtime or training time, even with the modern digital cameras that make it easy to satisfy that instant gratification photo fix. One could make the accusation that I was simply trying to pad my credentials by setting up opportunities to be photographed with these men who I claim to be my teachers, but it simply wouldn't be true. We just aren't in the habit of documenting training time thru photos or video. It just doesn't happen among the teachers and groups I train with. So I guess the fact that training photos with Mr. Chow and Mr. Mitose don't seem to be in existence isn't something that I find to be unusual, especially for that period in history.
Mitose never ever displayed anything that resembled significant training,
I've heard others say the opposite.
and Mr. Parker often said, "Mitose had nothing." He was a con man, among other things, and that has significant proof.
I don't think anyone disputes Mr. Mitose's legal and criminal troubles. But that doesn't automatically mean that he never taught Mr. Chow.
I've read the Blackbelt Magazine interview with Mr. Chow from a few years ago. I know that's been discussed here before and a lot of people weren't real happy with it for various reasons. But in some ways that interview shed some light on Mr. Chow's personality.
From that interview, it seemed that Mr. Chow held on to some bitterness from the past. Whether he was like this throughout his life is something that I obviously don't know. But from that interview it seems like he certainly had that potential. He said some pretty derogatory things about Mr. Parker, indicating that Mr. Parker was never very good and didn't learn much, and he left Mr. Chow as a "purple" belt. This is obviously not true, as purple belt didn't even exist at that time. But the spirit of the comment is also suspect, as the comment was meant to cast doubt upon Mr. Parker's knowledge and abilities. It looks like Mr. Chow was still bitter over the success that Mr. Parker had, while he himself still resided in relative obscurity. So Mr. Chow's comments about Mr. Parker need to be taken with a grain of salt.
I think it's possible that Mr. Chow's comments about Mr. Mitose may also need to be taken with the same grain of salt. Perhaps Mr. Chow became embarrassed by Mr. Mitose's actions, pushing his religious activities, his questionable business activities, and his ultimate criminal problems. Given the personality that Mr. Chow exhibited in that interview, I could certainly see him taking steps to distance himself from Mr. Mitose, and downplaying and minimizing whatever relationship they may have had. The most obvious way to do this would be to deny ever being Mr. Mitose's student, and instead choosing to emphasize relationships he may have had with other teachers. Just because Mr. Chow made statements that he wasn't Mitose's student, doesn't mean it's true. After all, Mr. Chow also stated that Mr. Parker learned very little and was only a "purple" belt. Should we take that as truth?
Having read the Blackbelt interview, I guess I simply take any statements that Mr. Chow may have made about other people with a little salt.
For whatever it's worth, I'm a notorious "find the old guys, buy them dinner, and get them talking" fan of old kenpo tales...love the history, and prefer to get it form the horses mouths whenever I can. From more than one Chow lineage guy who has trained with him, Chow was taught kung-fu by his father (I'll press for specifics next time I see one of the guys). He and his half-brother (Chow-Hoon) were often the enforcers of their fathers will for debt and loan issues, so he got a lot of practical experience from early on collecting for his pops.
He got a form or so from Mitose, but tended to ditch them, preferring to train short, quick combinations...an influence seen today in the systems of his students: SD Techs in Parker system and it's offshoots, Punch Counters and such from kaju. He used numbers instead of names ("Number 22"), and would just train the hell out of them. Strictly, and very hard. Kung-fu, karate, and boxing entries, jujutsu takedowns and finishes, combined with more hitting the guy while he was downed. An approach of his own making, born out of his training and back-alley experiences.
D.
I would certainly be interested in hearing any further details you might uncover as to the specific system he may have learned from his father.
It seems to me that in the Chinese culture, a family art is something held dear and is seen to be very important. If his father taught him a method, that would have remained a strong influence in what he did and what he taught. It's not likely it would have been tossed aside for something else. So if his father was a kungfu guy and he passed in on to William, I would expect that William would have maintained that method on some recognizable level even if he innovated his own approach to training.
And again, why would he have settled on the term "kenpo" to describe what he did if it was a mix of kungfu and Danzan Ryu jujitsu?
