|
William K S Chow was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1914.
Professor Chow learned and started his martial arts training with his father, an immigrant from Shanghai, China where
he was a Buddhist Priest in the temples thereof. Priest Hoon Chow taught his son, William, the ways of Zen as taught in the
Temples of China. The training was intense yet William felt that the training ways of his father was not practical in the
streets of Hawaii and so he started to design the training techniques and methods to fit a unique fighting style, which worked
as a street defense.
His father journeyed back to China so William sought after others that he could train with, and in Hawaii at that time
was a martial artist named James Mitose. Mitose ran a Kenpo-Jujitsu dojo (taken from Mitose's book titled; What is Self- defense?
Copyright 1953) and Chow soon became a part of that dojo.
The union was short and soon both men parted their ways with Mitose having his system known as the Koshoryu Kenpo and
Chow named his system Chinese Kempo of Kara-Ho Karate. Both men had their own following.
As Chow started to teach in various areas of the island he acquired several students who had become quite well known in
the martial arts world today. Some of these men were Edmond Parker, Adriano Emparado and Sam Kuoha. Many other martial artists
sought after Chow's teachings and have also made claims to being a strong part of his leaneage.
Because of his explosive and rapid firing of techniques to the vital areas of the body, he was referred to as the man
that struck like a thunderbolt. This stuck and he was nicknamed, Thunderbolt.
William Chow died in Honolulu on Sept. 21, 1987.
|
