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History
Kajukenbo is a hybrid martial art
that combines Karate , Judo, Jujutsu, Kenpo, and Chinese Boxing.
It was invented in 1947 in Oahu, Hawaii, at the Palamas Settlements,
to deal with local crime, as well as to help the people defend
themselves from U.S. Navy sailors
who would drink and fight with the locals. The inventors were
Sijo ("founder") Adriano Emperado, Peter Young Yil Choo, Joe
Holck, Frank Ordonez, and Clarence Chang, who called themselves
the Black Belt Society.
The name works in two ways: "ka" ("long life"), "ju"
("happiness"), "ken" ("fist"), "bo" ("style")
or "ka" ("karate"),
"ju" ("judo"/" jujutsu"), "ken" ("kenpo"), "bo"
( Chinese "boxing").
History of Kajukenbo
In 1947, Adriano Emperado and 4 other skilled martial artists:
Joe Holck, Peter YY Choo, Clarence Chang, and Frank Ordonez,
made a secret pact to combine their arts into a street fighting
combination of their arts, which were:
- Adriano Emperado: Kenpo (Kosho Ryu).
- Joe Holck:Judo (Kodenkan Danzan Ryu)
- Peter Choo - Karate (Tang Soo Do)
- Clarence Chang - Chinese Boxing (Sil Lum Pai)
- Frank Ordonez - Jujitsu (Se Keino Ryu)
They quit their jobs, went on welfare, and trained. They moved
their training locations around to keep it secret.
When the Korean War hit, Joe Holke,
Peter Choo, Frank Ordonez, and Clarence Chang were drafted,
leaving only Adriano Emperado to carry the system on. Sijo Emperado,
along with his brother Joe, introduced Kajukenbo to the public
by opening the Palama Settlement School in 1950. The training
there was notoriously brutal. Their goal was to be invincible
on the street, so the training had to be realistic, and the
students sparred with full contact. Some students would reportedly
drink before class, as a pain reliever, and broken bones were
not uncommon. The number of students soon dwindled to all but
a few. Those who remained developed into tough fighters with
a reputation for employing their art in street fights with only
a little provocation. Several students who came out of the school
would become very prominent marital artists themselves, such
as Sid Asuncion, Aleju Reyes, Joe Halbuna, and Tony Ramos. The
art slowly began to grow in popularity, and soon Emperado had
12 Kajukenbo schools in Hawaii, making it the second largest
string of schools at the time. Tony Ramos amd Aleju Reyes, who
both earned a black belt from Emperado, brought Kajukenbo to
the mainland in 1960. They both opened Kajukenbo
schools in California. In 1969 Tony Ramos trained with and exchanged
ideas and methods with Bruce Lee. Tony Ramos passed away in
Hawaii in 1999.
In 1959, Sijo Emperado began adding Kung Fu into Kajukenbo,
shifting the art to a combination of hard and soft techniques.
Since them, Kajukenbo has shown to be a very improvement-open
style, willing to accept whatever works.
Kajukenbo today
Kajukenbo, as it stands today, has many more grappling moves
than regular kenpo,
plus it has many joint breaking moves and low blows, and multiple
hits. While it does include some competitive elements, its primary
focus is on realism and practicality. It is generally thought
that "unfair" moves such as strikes to the eyes or groin are
OK, as is whatever else the practitioner feels is necessary
to get home that day. The workouts can easily get the heart
rate up and last about two hours. While individual schools may
show variation, it would not be unusual to train with sandbags
or boxing gloves.
It now has 4 distinct branches: Kenpo, the original branch.
Chuan-Fa, which includes hard and soft Chinese techniques, Tum
Pai, which adds Tai Chi Chuan, and Wun Hop Kuen Do.
There is a core of self defense techniques at the heart of
Kajukenbo. Many of the forms taught at most schools focus on
practicality; they often will not include impractical, showy
moves such as axe kicks and jump kicks. Self defense tricks
are often based around real-world scenarios, such as being grabbed,
shoved against a wall, choked, punched, kicked, attacked with
a knife, etc, rather than things needed to defend oneself against,
say, a sword wielding samurai.
While this base of common knowledge will keep schools' styles
fundamentally the same, there is room for variation. Given how
different the four foundational styles of Kajukenbo are, it
is impossible to fully incorporate them all. Each individual
practitioner, when they become a black belt, must decide what
parts of what style to take. This tends to encourage schools
to incorporate styles outside of Kajukenbo in their study, like
Escrima or Aikido.
An important part of some kajukenbo classes is the Kajukenbo Prayer, written
by Frank Ordonez.
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