James Mitose
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James Masayoshi Mitose, born Masayoshi Mitose, (December 16, 1916 — March 26, 1981) [1]was a Japanese American martial artist who brought the art of Kempo to the United States starting in the 1940s.
In 1920 James Mitose was sent back to Japan [2]to be given formal education and upbringing in Japan while living with family there. While there, in addition to his normal schoolwork and university studies, he allegedly trained in the art of Kempo, becoming a master by the time of his return to the United States. He returned to the United States in February 1937, settling in Hawaii. When the attack on Pearl Harbor happened, James Mitose first attempted to join the National Guard, although he was mustered out shortly after beginning training[3]. He spent most of the war teaching Kempo in Hawaii, to prepare civilians against a possible Japanese invasion.
Mitose is an obscure and controversial but important figure in the history of American Kenpo. He was convicted of murder and extortion in 1974 and sentenced to Folsom prison, and remains a figure of controversy and conjecture. Nevertheless, many Kenpo teachers trace their lineage to him.
[edit] Martial Arts Training and Lineage
In 1920, at the age of four, James Masayoshi Mitose was sent from his birthplace in Hawaii to live with his family in Japan and go to school. The actual circumstances around his martial arts training remain obscure, but his practices contained marked similarities to Okinawan karate and Japanese jujutsu. Mitose might have had access to training in such arts in both Hawaii and Japan.
Mitose returned to Hawaii in 1936, began teaching kenpo, and in 1942 he set up a martial arts school. He gave the style he taught a number of different names during his lifetime, including "Shorinji Kempo" and "Kempo Jujutsu," (both names of recognized Japanese martial arts), but over time, settled on the name Kosho-Ryu Kempo. The word "Kempo" (or "kenpo") is a Japanese form of "Ch'uan Fa." Tracy Kenpo claims a lineage through Mitose to the Yoshida clan based on the theory that Mitose's family in Japan lived near Mt. Akenkai's Shaka-In temple. This is where the Kosho sect of the Yoshida (Urabe) clan taught. Mount Akenkai might be Mount Kinkai, on the island of Kyūshū, about 12 miles north of Nagasaki. Later in life, Mitose described his teachings as those of Japanese style. His book, What Is True Self-Defense? describes methods similar to yoga and the taisabaki principles found in many Japanese arts.
The evidence of What Is Self Defense and accounts and photos strongly suggest, however he got it, Mitose had a background in an Okinawan style. Some modern proponents of Kosho-Ryu believe that he used an Okinawan art as a vehicle for his teaching of a native Japanese art.
What Is Self Defense contents seem to echo those of an earlier book: Karate Kenpo by Mutsu Mizuho (1933). This is right down to the arrangement of diagrams and photographs; in one case, a photo (of Higaonna Kamesuke) is reproduced entirely. The earlier book contains the forms Passai-sho, Kushanku-sho, Niseishi, Chinte and Gojushiho along with the 15 kata which Funakoshi introduced in his books; pretty much the same versions as the Shotokan. So in 1933, Karate Kenpo was very clearly rooted in Shotokan. Mitose's book also includes a picture of Choki Motobu, reproduced from Motobu's book, in a position that usually indicates a student acknowledging his teacher. It is from here that many assume that Mitose was acknowledging Motobu as his teacher. Mitose listed Motobu as a Kempo master in his book.
Mitose was noted for teaching one Kata at his school: the Naihanchi Kata, which also was Choki Motobu's primary form and the only one featured in Motubu's second book Okinawan Kenpo Kumite Hen. Mitose also taught the use of the Makiwara, a signature Okinawan training method. Okinawans had a thriving community in Hawaii, including martial arts training. Higaonna Kamesuke stayed in Hawaii after 1933 with Thomas Miyashiro, and taught classes in Kona. Higaonna had studied under Mutsu and Motobu, and taught Karate Kenpo in Mitose's home town of Kona just a few years before Mitose opened his school, although Mitose was still in Japan at the time.
Mitose ultimately called his style Kosho-Shorei Kempo, which can translate to "Old Pine Tree School of Encouragement". Sokon Matsumura's style, which he taught to Anko Itosu who taught it to Gichin Funakoshi and Motobu Choki among others, was Okinawan "Shorin-Ryu", which is often translated as "Little Pine Forest". In his early days in Hawaii, when Mitose started teaching after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, he called his art as simply Kempo-jujitsu (Nerve Strike method) and would refer to it as Shorinji Kempo or Go shin jitsu. The word "Shorin" is characteristic of styles from Okinawa, although Shorinji Kempo is a Japanese art founded by Doshin So.
Mitose claimed that he learned martial arts and religion in a Buddhist temple, but his descriptions of organization and practices of the temple do not match those practiced by mainstream Japanese Buddhism. It is possible that Mitose came from a heterodox background. Mitose often dressed as a Christian minister. In "What Is True Self Defense?" he stated that one should practice the dominant religion of whatever country one is in, including its application to martial arts and spiritual practices. This book (the origianl manuscript to his first book, which was completed and published while he was imprisoned and presumably conscious that his writings and actions would inflence his release conditions), discourages offensive martial arts techniques completely, presenting its contents as a form of yoga and escape. Mitose even writes that karate is "evil." The description or lineage Mitose gave for his style also emphasized its Chinese roots. As a Japanese-American emigrating to Hawaii in 1937, he might have prudently downplayed the Japanese side of his background.
[edit] Later Years and Conviction
In 1953, James Mitose ceased teaching Kempo regularly, and dropped out of sight. He privately taught a few students in that time, including his last student, Nimr Hassan (formerly Terry Lee). However, in 1974 he was arrested in Los Angeles and convicted on murder and extortion charges stemming from a conflict from repayment over a loan he made and the murder committed by Terry Lee (Nimr Hassan). He was sentenced to life in prison and died in Folsom Prison of complications of diabetes on March 26, 1981. While in prison, he supposedly taught and ranked his son Thomas Barro Mitose, as well as Bruce Juchnik, Rick Alemany, Ray Arquilla, Eugene Sedeno, and Arnold Golub. In "What is True Self Defense?", he acknowledges Arnold Golub as "Honorable Headmaster", and the other four men as "Honorable Masters." To his son, he gives the title "Honorable Grandmaster. (Page VII, Mitose, J. "What is True Self Defense? Testbook Number 1", Kosho Shorei Publishing, Sacramento, CA) He maintained his innocence to his death, and many schools which follow in his training lineage still maintain that he was wrongfully convicted. The details of this incident remain controversial in the martial arts community.
Access to the Mitose trial transcripts is available here. Parts of the Mitose trial transcripts are available at the following links:
http://www.sanjosekenpo.com/mitose_transcripts__7_pages__r.htm
http://www.sanjosekenpo.com/mitose_trial_transcripts__his_e.htm
http://www.sanjosekenpo.com/medical_examiner_giving_recommen.htm
http://www.sanjosekenpo.com/mitoses_trial_summary__probatio.htm
[edit] Influence
By the time of his death, Kenpo had been widely spread throughout the United States and western world. Almost all Kempo schools outside of Japan trace their lineage to the teachings of James Mitose, via William K.S. Chow and Ed Parker.
Jim Perkins, interviewing Chow in an article published in the July 25th issue of Black Belt magazine on page 36, quotes him as saying, "my father my teacher, not Mitose!" However, nobody has ever been able to turn up any proof that William Chow's father knew any martial arts. Adriano Emperado has stated that William Chow taught what James Mitose taught.
According to Infinite Insights into Kenpo Volume 1, Parker stated: "Contrary to some of the claims that have been made in publications, I was never a student of James Mitose." Parker trained under Chow, and although he knew Mitose, was already moving away from the kenpo he had been taught by the time he met Mitose.
However, Bruce Juchnik and Ray Arquilla base much of their teaching in their respective arts today on what they learned from Mitose, and both use the name "Kosho Shorei" in the name of the arts that they teach. Thomas Mitose publicly taught what he knew of his father's art for several years, and has now retired. In keeping with family tradition, his son, Mark Mitose, has taken the mantle and is the 23rd Great Grandmaster of all "Kosho-Shorei Temples of Peace, True Self Defense, True and Pure Karate and Kenpo, and Kosho Shorei Yoga Schools."
