A 2 part journey surrounding the history of KENPO.

Chapter One.

 The Clan Dynasty: From Mars to Motherhood.

The complexities behind the world of Martial Arts far outreach any debate over what style is the penultimate for as it is with any choice to find peace or outer bravado, we will always have some form of them available. 

The word itself “martial” is a direct derivation associated with the Roman God of War, Mars, which lends credence to archeological depicted imagery of Asian cultures engaged in some form of fighting, warring, and hunting for survival. 

If the clan or dynasty wanted to survive and carry on the lineage, not only were they rigorously taxed to train in and perfect their mastery or artistry of some style of martial fighting, they kept the clan strong through a healthy bridal stock of appropriate female bloodlines via marriage. There was no discrimination shown as respect was granted, and all were trained to fight as honored warriors, male and female. 

Samurai, Shogun, and one 13th-century family to rule them all.

Today, people associate Martial Arts with some form of karate, Judo, or Jiu-Jitsu, with the commonality of these being the relative infancy stages they are still growing in. It has only been within the past 120 years or so that these styles have been readily made available in the Western world. The older style, or “koryu” and “kobudo” were the calling cards and were mastered by the traditional soldiering Samurai of Japan in battle.

One Japanese clan, in particular, mastered a style adapted from China in the 1200s. With a legacy surpassing at least 20 generations of matrilineal connection, the Yoshida dynasty has claimed Kenpo as its family Martial Art of choice. 

Known originally as the family Urabe, they assimilated the name Yoshida given to their clan castle, where the studies and practitioners mastered Kenpo. The Yoshida Samurai bushido possessed immense excellence in the field of battle and led to the control of the Shinto religion, which was, even then, at the time, the official religion ascribed to Japan. With such great power also came the victory to have control of the Emporer. And thus, it was how the political and religious meld of war and martial arts came to be. 

Silent fists are dragons: Enter a new era 700 years in the making.

Perhaps the biggest transformation in Kenpo began when a dignified and prominent member of Clan Yoshida gave up the way of the Shinto and converted to Zen Buddhism and the Shaolin bushido of Kenpo karate. The empty Fist. With the waning numbers of the Shogun Samurai in the early to mid-1800s, the remaining Yoshida clan converged and rebuilt its numbers and committed the legacy to the teachings of the true tradition of Kenpo.

To discover the American connection of this honored Clan involvement. And why so many choose to preserve the ancient wisdom of defensive karate as it is still highly regarded and firmly rooted in the top ten of over 150 styles of known Martial Arts that are taught to over 3.9 million of students[1] in the United States. Join us with Chapter 2 of our Odyssey of Kenpo. 

  [1] www.bookeeapp.com/articles/martial-arts-industry-in-the-USA