Ten More Things You Didn't Know About Kajukenbo, by John Hojlo and Mitch Powell
The team up you never knew you wanted to see: another “ten things” list put together, this time with the help of Mitch Powell.
If you haven’t already, check out my first article on ten things you din’t know about Kajukenbo, here, then read on and let us know how many facts were new to you.
Like last time, if you knew all ten, feel free to print yourself up a certificate that says “I’m an honorary Mitch Powell.” If you pay the shipping and handling, GM Powell may even sign it for you, but no promises.
This article is viable to be updated if new information is discovered.
When the five founders got together around 1947, only one of them had an actual rank in martial arts above white belt. None of them were black belts.
In the early days of American Kenpo, practitioners seemed to go back and forth on using an “n” or “m” in the spelling. (“Kenpo” vs. “Kempo”.) This is most likely because in Japanese the sounds produced by “n” and “m” are both represented by the same character: “ん”.
“Kenpo” and “Kempo”, though written out as “拳法”, also gets written in simplified Japanese writing as “けんぽう”.
Though most Kajukenbo schools today use the “n”, some schools use “m” to differentiate themselves.In the late 1950s Adriano Emperado started studying the Southern Kung Fu arts of Hung Gar Kuen, Choy Li Fut, and White Crane Kung Fu. It was by the early 1960s that he started collaborating with Al Dela Cruz and Al Dacascos, and it was Dela Cruz who incorporated some Kung Fu movements into the Kajukenbo Pinan forms.
It’s sometimes said that Kajukenbo’s motto, “Through this fist art one gains long life and happiness” is based on the kanji of the arts that were involved in the original Kajukenbo: Ka (空) meaning “long life”, Ju (柔) meaning “happiness”, Ken (拳) meaning “fist”, and Bo meaning “art”. However, “Ken” is the only kanji among these that means the above interpretation.
The character “空” does not mean long life, and “柔” does not mean happiness. The writing for “Kung Fu”/“Gong Fu” is “功夫” in Chinese and sometimes “カンフー” in Japan. None of those characters are read as “Bo”, and none of them mean “art”.Boxing was Adriano Emperado’s primary art when the Kajukenbo founders got together in 1947. Most people believe his primary art at the time was Kenpo, but he only had about six months or so of Kenpo training at the time. However, he had boxed for several years, and even taught his judo teacher boxing in exchange for judo lessons.
No Kajukenbo forms were created between the years 1947 and 1949. In fact, the first of the original “Palama Settlement Exercises”, which would go on to be called “Pinans” and then “Palama Sets”, were created around 1954.
Joseph (Matsuno) Holck, the only founder to have martial arts rank by the time 1947 came around, received his shodan in Danzan Ryu Jiu-jutsu on July 14, 1948. He received his nidan in 1949, and then a shodan in Judo in the year 1951.
The Kajukenbo Black Belt Society were not the first martial artists to use that title, “The Black Belt Society”.
Frank Ordonez, Peter Choo and Joseph Holck all studied Danzan Ryu Jiu-jutsu under one man: Sam Luke, Sr.
Luke grew up in “Hell’s Half-Acre”, in Honolulu. He received his Shodan in 1941 and became an assistant to Bing Fai Lalu at the Keheka Lane Dojo in 1948. He would go on to coach the Hawaiian Judo team at the AAU Judo Championship in 1953, in San Jose, California.Frank Ordonez wrote the Kajukenbo Prayer in 1958 while on Wake Island. At some point Charles Gaylord started using a completely different prayer, but due to conflicting stories we can’t confirm the source of that prayer.
For more details on some of the above, be sure to check out Grandmaster Mitch Powell’s new book, How Kajukenbo Became an American Martial Art: The Unknown Story available here on Amazon.
If you like what the Kajukenbo Philosophy brings you, check out my books, also available on Amazon: Blood, Sweat, and Bone: The Kajukenbo Philosophy, and The Path: Book Two of the Kajukenbo Philosophy.