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William K.S. Chow
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Mr. William K S Chow was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1914, son of Hoon Chow. He spent most of his life practicing and perfecting his martial arts; usually on the streets of Hawaii with rowdy GIs stationed on the territorial island. Mr. Chow was also given the nickname "Thunderbolt" because of his speed and power. It has been said by many that besides his Kenpo training with James Mitose, he also trained in Kung-fu. There really is no way to verify this. He did visit Mr. Mitose's classes and also visited Henry Okasaki's classes. (Mr. Okasaki's mot known student is Wally Jay of Small Circle Jiujitsu fame). Mr. Chow, although promoted to black belt by Mr. Thomas Young, was one of Mr. Mitose’s top students and a friend. He left Mr. Mitose in 1949 after becoming an instructor, and opened his own Kenpo school. At this school, he taught the Adriano and Joe Emperado and Mr. Edmund K. Parker. It was Mr. Chow who coined the term "Kenpo Karate" to distinguish his system from Mr. Mitose’s Kenpo Jiu-jitsu, although both styles were similar. Mr. Chow also renamed his system Go-Shinjitsu at one point and then some time before his death, he renamed his system Chinese Kempo of Kara-Ho Karate. Now, its known at Kara-Ho Kempo. Among the current students promoting the Kara-Ho Kempo is Mr. Sam Kuo'ha, who has a book series available on the KenpoNet Mall. Of Mr. Chow's students, the Mr. Adriano Emperado began teaching a system called Kajukenbo. Mr. Parker went on to bring Kenpo to the mainland United States, and although the idea was to bring Mr. Chow to the mainland as well, this never occured and Mr. Parker was free to develop his own system of Kenpo, what many today practice as American Kenpo. William Chow died in Honolulu, Hawaii on Sept. 21, 1987. |