Okinawan Kempo vs. American Kempo

[unknownstyle]

which is the dominant for both self-defense and sparring techniques

[y2_sub]

Okinawan , i know nothing about both , but I like Japanese styles

[Shorinryu Sensei]

Okinawan Kempo/Kenpo is an excellent system, but not geared towards competition, whereas American Kempo (Ed Parker System) is also quite good I think, but geared more towards competition in my experience. There aren't many similarities that I've seen in the two systems, but both would serve you well in a self-defense situation I think.

[Jay]

i belive american kenpo came from okinawan so there the same thing correct me if im wrong !!!

[Shorinryu Sensei]

i belive american kenpo came from okinawan so there the same thing correct me if im wrong !!!

That's incorrect. American kenpo...Ed Parkers version anyway, came from Hawaii by way of James Mitose if my memory serves me correctly. Parker modified it a lot ands renamed it.

[jdhunts]

Yes, Ed Parker modified the art heavily, but, Mitose was teaching Kosho Ryu Kempo (by most accounts), which is Okinawan Kempo.

[KempoTiger]

Better? Well if you ask me I'd say American Kempo, simply because it's a newer and more refined version of its Okinawan predecessor.

Beyond that much American Kempo today is a variant of Kajukenbo which in my opinion is a more complete system due to it's foundation.

[Goju_boi]

how does american/hawaiian kenpo differ to okinawan?Also theres also chinese and krean kenpo I believe.

[KempoTiger]

how does american/hawaiian kenpo differ to okinawan?

Okinawan Kempo is the basis of all Kempo. Okinawa being the Asian melting pot it was bred numerous hybrid styles of fighting that came to be known loosely as Okinawan Kempo. From there all it's respective branches formed.

American Kempo is a branch of Hawaiin Kempo which was founded by James Mitose. Mitose's family lived in Okinawa and taught their own respective family style of what Mitose called, "Kempo-Jujutsu". From there Mitose and a man by the name of William Chow (a son of a Shaolin monk who met Mitose in Hawaii) founded their first Kempo school, and this system is the basis of Ed Parkers "American Kempo."

So in a sense, Parker's Kempo should be very similar to much of the Okinawan styles, but Parker also altered the system to his liking and trained with Bruce Lee to the best of my knowledge. So much early JKD theory was also implemented.

Many other Kempo schools are derived from the Kajukenbo system via Sijo Emperado. As Kajukenbo moved across the US map, many Sensei's and masters returned to train with Professor Chow who then began to teach his newly formed variant of Chinese Kempo.

Some kept the Kajukenbo name, other's reverted to calling their system Kempo or Kenpo, and others such as Sonny Gascon invented new names such as Karazenpo Go-Shinjutsu. In the end though it's all the same underlying theory despite the political nonsense.

Also theres also chinese and krean kenpo I believe.

I'm not sure about "Krean" but most Kempo schools that claim to teach Chinese Kempo are either Villari schools or descendants of the Villari system that branched off.

Villari was a student of Professor Cerio. Cerio trained under a Kajukenbo affiliate school until he sought out to learn directly under Professor Chow.

[Goju_boi]

well as for chinese kenpo I know theres shaolin kenpo and kara-ho kenpo.also I've heard chinese kenpo called chuan-fa,but I don't know if that changes the style or not.Then for korean I can't say the names of any becuase this came from what I read in article in some magazine.One more thing I know that kenpo and kempo is the same thing,but what's with changing the pronounciation?