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James Mitose
James Masayoshi Mitose was born in Hawaii in 1916.
At the age of five, Mitose was sent to Japan to study his ancestors' art of self-defense, Kosho-Ryu Kempo, a direct descendent
of the original Chuan Fa.
He studied this art for 15 years under his uncle, a Kosho-Ryu master, and returned to Hawaii in 1935 to open the "Official
Self-Defense" club in Honolulu, where he eventually promoted six students to black belt.
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, Mitose had to come to terms with the fact that he was Japanese by birth
but American by citizenship, and he began training fellow servicemen and civilians, expounding upon the merits of his Japanese
Kosho-Ryu Kenpo. Much of what is now Kenpo came from Mitose's Kosho-Ryu.
James Mitose passed away in California in 1981.
After fifteen years of teaching, only six students would be awarded the rank of Shodan (Black Belt). These were Jiro
Nakamura, Thomas Young, William Chow {later known as Professor William chow of Kara Ho Kempo}, Paul Yamaguchi, Arthur Keawe,
and Edward Lowe. It was in 1953 that James Mitose retired from active participation in the martial arts. Reasons are not clear
even today.
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