At one time, I understand it was called kosho shorei shorinji kempo-jujutsu. Went through multiple changes, to include being called Chinese kenpo and Hawaiian kenpo; I personally stayed the longest with a CK defector who added judo and TKD to his kenpo prior to moving to Japan to study "Chinese Kempo" with a Japanese Grandmaster, then pulled it together under the moniker "Universal Chinese Kenpo-Jujutsu". I just call it kenpo or kempo, whichever is easiest on the tongue.
Studied many a splinter with instructors who probably all needed meds or jail to calm them down a bit; some law enforcers, some law breakers. After training in different variations of CK/AK, I worked closely with guys from a couple of different stables to cull our favorite stuff, and toss it in a blender. Added BJJ, muay thai, arnis, judo, taijutsu, and other fun things. Everyone in the crew had "real time" combat experience in law enforcement, personal or corporate security, military duty, etc., so we viewed our previous learning through the lenses of "would you want this tech in your arsenal when your life was on the line, facing an enraged maniac coming after you for your life?", and, "would this technique work against a non-naive combatant, out to do you serious bodily harm?".
Some things got added, some deleted, and some changed, while other stuff just got more or less emphasized. Added quite a bit relating to dealing with armed, shooting opponents, ball bats, crow bars, etc. Couldn't figger out what to call our little venture (so as to differentiate it from what we did on our own, or before). We were a bunch of guys from different kempo/kenpo backgrounds who got together to train together on a core cirriculum we concurred on after much debate, analysis, and challenge, so we named it (we thought) aptly: Kembudo-Kai Kempo. Roughly translated = the hand to hand combat stuff practiced by a bunch of guys who get together to practice hand to hand combat stuff...A chinese buddy of mine wrote the characters, then a Japanese member of the group saw them, and read them aloud in Japanese. Sounded cooler than the mandarin pronunciation (in other words, easier for us to repeat), so we went with that.
In the end, turns out to look a lot like what the CK oldsters were doing anyway, with the slight addition of BJJ (Mr. Labounty's re-tooling of Thundering Hammers to include some boxing middlin's and judo endings felt very familiar to what we tried so hard to define and refine in Kembudo-Kai...felt like old home, even though I never met the man before the seminar. I guess there is nothing new under the sun).
I've been absolutely blessed and lucky in my journey to have met and trained with many excellent founders & seniors, some wannabe founders & seniors, as well as some well-intentioned frauds, and some creative geniuses who will probably be remembered by history as frauds. Some have passed, and are sorely missed. Some remain, and if my luck holds I will get the chance to study more in-depth with some of the very cool gentlemen I've had the opportunity to meet.
Regards,
Dr. Dave Crouch, DC
