Adriano D. Emperado Biography

Adriano D. Emperado was born on June 16, 1926, in the small community of Kalihi, which was and still is a part of the Kalihi-Palama District of the City and County of Honolulu, Hawaii. His parents, Juan Panis Emperado and Sevirena Navarro Directo, had immigrated to Hawaii from their homeland in the Philippine Islands. Juan was born in Fernando, Cebu, and Sevirena was born in Launion. Adriano was one of seven children. There were three boys (Larry, Adriano, and Joseph), and four girls (Ella, Dechi, Nancy, and Connie Marcella).

Like a lot of poor neighborhoods around the world, Kalihi and the surrounding area was a violent place to live. Because of this, Adriano started learning how to defend himself at a very young age. His father had been a professional boxer in the Philippines and in Hawaii, fighting under the ring name of Bulldog Panis. Adriano's uncle had also been a professional boxer. So by the time he was 8 years old he was getting some much needed exposure to western boxing. Growing up in Kalihi was a education in survival: fights were common encounters for young and old alike. Emperado tells of having to shine shoes as a young boy to help out the family with expenses. Almost weekly one boy after another would try to claim his corner, so there would be a fight over the location -- it was either that, or lose the little extra income he would bring home to the family.

His next training started around the age of 11, when he was living in Kauai with his older brother Larry. Although he was more interested in childhood activities and didn't take this training too seriously, he did learn some escrima movements, and the 12 basic strikes from a man he only knew as "Professor Alex".

By age 13 he was back in his old Kalihi neighborhood. There he took up the study of jujitsu at the Y.B.A. ( Young Buddhist Association). These classes were taught by Professor's Yamasaki and Murata. This jujitsu training was short lived due to Emperado's renewed interest in boxing. As a teen he trained in boxing and fought competitively in the C.Y.O. (Catholic Youth Organization) league.

But when he was 17 he again became interested in the Asian martial arts, so he struck a deal with Sensei Taneo , the judo teacher at the Palama Settlement Gym. He would give Taneo and his son George boxing lessons in exchange for judo lessons. He trained in Sensei Taneo's classes at the Palama Settlement Gym for about a year. During this time he also introduced his younger brother Joe to boxing. Joe became such a good boxer, that nobody his age in the neighborhood could beat him. Together they had a group of friends that would work out together, and "try each other out". They eventually started calling themselves the "Auld Lane Gang", a name that came from the street that many of them lived on.

At age 19, Adriano was drafted into the Army. He was assigned to the 1st Filipino Regiment and sent to Salinas, Ca. for basic training. There he was trained as a corpsman, and then shipped off to World War II with the 3rd Battalion Medic's Corps. Going in at the tail end of the war, he participated in the mop up operation on Leyte, in the Philippines. This operation consisted of searching out Japanese troops that were still hiding in the jungles and caves after the main assault on the island had taken place.

A year or so later at the age of 20, Emperado was back in Hawaii. It was at this time that his brother in law, Walter Woods, told him about kenpo. The idea of this fighting system intrigued him, so he asked Walter if he would take him to meet his friend who was training in the kenpo system. Walter took him to meet his friend, Freddy Lara. At the time of their meeting, Lara was practicing his punches on a makiwara board. Emperado saw that the board was covered with burlap, and thought it would be easy to punch. So he asked if he could try punching the board. When Emperado punched it hard, the burlap covering on the board tore all the skin off his knuckles. Impressed with Lara's punching power and hand conditioning, he asked him where he learned kenpo. That night he went to watch Lara's kenpo class, which was taught by the legendary Professor William K. S. Chow. This was Emperado's introduction to the art of Kenpo Jiu Jitsu. Emperado trained daily with Chow and soon became his first black belt, and then chief instructor.

In 1947, his martial arts interests started to expand into another direction. That was the year that would change his life forever: it was the year that he and four other young martial artists (Joe Holck, Frank Ordonez, Peter Choo, and George Chang) came up with the idea for what would be America's first mixed martial art. One that after three years of development they would name, Kajukenbo. Kajukenbo, the first martial art developed on American soil (1949), is a mixed martial art containing techniques from; karate (Ka), judo and jujitsu (Ju), kenpo (ken), and Chinese boxing (Bo). It also contains techniques and movements from escrima and western boxing.

Even during the early developmental years of kajukenbo, Emperado continued to be a student of Prof. Chow. He would workout with the other four founders during the day, and then train in Chow's classes in the evenings. At the same time his younger brother Joe was also training in Chow's school.

In 1949, Emperado started working for Pan American Airlines in Honolulu. In those days he was known to his friends and co-workers as either Sonny or Nonoy. Shortly after starting his new job at Pan Am, he had a class made up of about ten eager co-workers who wanted to learn his martial art. They become his first kajukenbo students. This small group would meet and conduct their training at the Halawa Veterans Housing area, on the Pearl City Peninsula of Hawaii. This was the beginning of the class that would move to the Palama Settlement Gym in 1950. Into the 1950s he still continued to train with Chow for several years, becoming his chief instructor and attaining the rank of godan, 5th degree black belt. In the 50s, Emperado's kajukenbo school started to branch out to other locations. The original group that had moved from Halawa Housing to the Palama Settlement Gym, branched out to the Kaimuki Y.M.C.A., and the Wahiawa Y.M.C.A.

All of his life Emperado would study and explore various fighting systems. Around 1960, he expanded his knowledge of escrima by training with his stepfather Alfredo Peralta. Peralta was originally from Ilocos Norte, Luzon, Philippines. He had trained in a combination of the Ilocano, Visayan , and Tagalog styles of escrima. He was a well known escrima fighter who fought in matches at the Civic Auditorium in Honolulu, before these matches were eventually stopped by the Territory Gaming Commission.

Also in the 1960's, Emperado started to explore various kung fu systems with Professor Lau, Professor Lum, and Professor Wong of Hawaii. Several years later at an awards ceremony hosted by the Hawaii Chinese Physical Culture Association , Emperado was awarded the title, Professor 10th degree. This promotion was awarded by the famous Choy Li Fut Grandmaster Ho Ngau of Hong Kong, appointing him as an advisor and representative of the choy li fut system. Emperado also became instrumental in the development of tournament karate in Hawaii. He sat on the Hawaii Karate Rules Board, which established standards for competition used throughout the islands. He also promoted and officiated at several major karate tournaments throughout the islands.

In his 30s, Emperado's knowledge of street fighting was further expanded as a result of his many years in law enforcement. In 1962, he started a career working the rough docks and ports of Hawaii, as a harbor policeman for the Hawaii Department of Transportation . Around 1969, he took a leave of absence from the Harbor Patrol and moved to Denver, Colorado at the invitation of Al Dacascos. He had planned to open a kajukenbo school in Denver, but just in case he wanted to return to Hawaii, the leave of absence allowed him to return to his Harbor Patrol job within 2 years. As it turned out, Emperado didn't care for the cold rocky mountain weather, and the martial arts politics in the area, so he returned to Hawaii after about a year. His career in the Harbor Patrol spanned 14 years, after which he transferred to the Hawaii Department of Attorney General. While with the Attorney General's Office, one of his assignments was to serve as a body guard for the governor. After a year at the Attorney General's Office, he accepted a position as the security director for the Kukui Plaza in Honolulu. He worked in the corporate security field until he suffered a heart attack in 1982, which forced him to take a disability retirement.

During his martial arts career, Emperado received many awards, along with inductions into most of the major martial arts halls of fame, including the prestigious Black Belt Hall of Fame in 1991.

As he celebrates his 80th birthday this year (2006), he still travels around the world several times a year to attend kajukenbo events. Throughout his life he has been an example of dedication, devotion, physical toughness, and mental toughness, to martial artists around the world.

Although it may never be known for sure exactly how widespread Emperado's Kajukenbo system is, at the time of this writing there are known schools and or instructors in America, Spain, Germany, France , Belgium, Sweden, Japan , Thailand, Guam, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Kuwait , Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Honduras, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Iraq, Switzerland, Monaco, Lebanon, India, England, Poland, Russia, Cape Verde, Greece, Turkey, Yemen, and Italy.