Karazenpo said:
My 'kempo brother' Dan Weston was gracious enough to give me a copy of James M. Mitose's: What is Self Defense? (Kenpo Jiu-Jitsu) and for that I sincerely thank him. I have gone over this book pretty thorough so far and there's much more in the book than the breakdown on the Tracy website. Here's what I have found:
The book consists of the following breakdown of technique (curriculum):
1) 11 punching & striking defenses
2) 7 kicking defenses
3) 26 escape defenses (grab arts)
4) 8 lock, break & throw defenses
5) 17 weapon defenses (knife, sword-which could double for a club & gun)
6) 20 women & girls defenses
So, far, it looks like a pretty extensive curriuclum to me, especially taken into consideration it was written in 1947. There's 69 self defense techniques with an additional 20 tailored to females for a total of 89 techniques.
There is also a section of 7 kenpo exercises for punching, striking including forearms and elbows and another section devoted to 4 kicking exercises, the fourth combining punching & kicking. That's all the physical.
A close scrutiny of these techniques show a 'core' similiaritiy with all the Hawaiian derived Kenpo/Kempo systems in existence today. It's all in black & white, objectively speaking. It's all there. The rudiments, the foundation, the basic structure and framework. Just add the evolution of 'continuous motion' with increased rapid fire striking from the kung fu influences of the succeeding teachers of this kenpo through the lineage and it is very clear that this system is the root art of these contemporary kenpo/kempo arts.
Now, the philosophy of Mitose in this publication is everything every parent would want their child to learn from a martial art. I'll go out on the limb to say it's is A #1 in anyone's opinion! HOWEVER, AND THIS IS A BIG HOWEVER, this philosophy is totally hypocritical of the way Mitose lived his life! Not even close. It's the old 'do as I say, not as I do' or simply one failing to 'practice what they preach'. It's really too bad because the book really has it together. If one didn't know better they could never connect the crimes committed by Mitose to the author of this book. It seems like he had a split personality.
Again, it's a damn good curriculum, even by today's standards. If someone today learned the techniques in that book and added continuous motion and more rapid fire hits or essentially principles and concepts of the Chinese arts, you'd have a damn good system. I'd update the weapon defenses a little, especially knife and gun to what we have learned over the years but still a good solid base to start with. Some have said these techniques were taken from Okinawan Kenpo Karate and the book of Mutzu but others have said that Mitose learned from an instructor of the Motobu lineage (Nabura Tanamaha). Sijo Adriano D. Emperado when posed a question from myself asked by Professor Gerry Scott: Could Mitose's knowledge and skill be that of someone who had studied only the surface arts and evolved it through his natural abilities? Sijo Emperado stated: 'Mitose's abilities was that of a master instructor'.
It was also very interesting to note that on Otcober 4, 1947, Tautao (Rubberman) Higami, then president of the Hawaii Judo Kan & middleweight wrestling champion of the world who stated in a letter he carefully scrutinized and studied the manuscript of this book and gave it an excellent review and recommendation congratulating Mitose on his effort and wishing him to succeed in his endeavors. *Note: Tautao Higami was also a teacher of Sijo Victor 'Sonny' Gascon from around 1945 to 1949 making his first level cerification in judo.
All in all, this book is worth reading. (I have the fourth printing, 2nd edition 1981 which is the orignal manuscript with new 'Introductory Notes' by Bruce Juchnik, Rick Alemany and Arnold M. Golub. I suggest it is read before drawing any final conclusions. This book is great to compare with Robert Trias' 'The Hand is My Sword' (Okinawan Shorei Ryu Kenpo Karate) and Ed Parker's 'Kenpo Karate: Law of the Fist & the Empty Hand' (many similiarites of technique). With respect to all, "Joe'
Hey Joe-
I'm glad you brought the topic up, as it caused me to do a little 're-reading'. To warm up, I gave another look at Henry S. Okizaki's book,
The Science of Self Defense for Girls and Women which he published in 1929. It is a treatise on, you guessed it, self defense for girls and women. It coincidentally contains:
A whole bunch of pages with 'Letters of recommendation' from local notables.
4 wrist grabs, 2 lapel grabs, 4 'body grabs' (bear hugs, etc.), a two person grab, how to avoid blows to the head, a hair grab, how to hold and control an assailant after a grab defense(3 off of fake handshakes, etc.), one headlock, three knife defenses, and three gun defenses. 25 techniques. Not bad for 1929.
Taking a gander at the table of contents for the WISD women's defense section, I see:
6 Wrist grabs, handshake defense, choke, front embrace, lapel grab, back and side hold, dagger/knife attack (3), pistol defense (3). 20 total, not far off the mark.
All in all, some good, some bad in each book.
So then I whipped out,
Okinawan Kempo Motobu Choki's 1926 book, and took a peek at the Makiwara section. The basic punching and kicking photos are the same, but Mitose seems to have elaborated. The punch techniques look similar, but not exact.
I don't have a copy of Mutsu's book on hand (yet!), but if you go to:
http://www.kempokan.com/Glastonbury/books.html you can get a taste of the similarity.
So what, he plagiarized the book - old news. At least he stole good stuff! He even does seem to have some ideas to contribute on top of what he 'borrowed'. What is the book worth? As insight as to what was 'state of the art' at that time, something perhaps. There is something really compelling to me, however, that isn't written in the book. It's not a technique, nor a concept, but it tells me volumes about James Mitose, and his story of Kenpo (or Kempo if you read all the letters of recommendation in the beginning).
Mitose claims to have studied most of his life, but his posture and body mechanics give him away. Looking at the photos in Motobu's book, his posture is amazingly aligned, his stances are perfection. The agreement between his hips, shoulders, knees and feet indicate someone who is very comfortable with their art. Someone with alot of miles on the odometer, so to speak.
Now look at Mitose's spine. On virtually all the high line attacks, his upperbody trails his hips. He is shying away from the punch. I see this accomodation of the attacker at the expense of proper form in people with just a few years of training. It changes the connection to the hips immensely.
Head downstairs and look at his stances. All over the place. Even on his finishing strikes his stances are completely misaligned. The weight is often shifted in the wrong leg, the hips are not free to move with the strike, and there are often times when his leg is dangerously exposed at full extension.
These are not the stances of a 'Master'.
Now look at his arms on parries. He ends up with his arms tied up accross his center line in many photos. This is a man walking through someone else's material. He may have it memorized, but he's just performing it at a mediocre level.
It's not the material in his book, he borrowed it from several masters. The material is fine. The thing that leaps off the page at me now (after this re-read) is his performance of it. I guess that Biomechanics course I took last semester paid off.
