Influence
By the time of Mitose's death, Kenpo had spread throughout the United States and western world. Almost all Kempo schools outside of Japan trace their lineage to the teachings of James Mitose, via William K.S. Chow, Ed Parker, Adriano Directo Emperado, Tracy Kenpo, George Pesare and Bruce Juchnik.
Although he learned kenpo (Chinese Kenpo) in Hawaii and knew of Mitose, Ed Parker was never a direct student of James Mitose. In Infinite Insights into Kenpo Volume 1, Parker stated: "Contrary to some of the claims that have been made in publications, I was never a student of James Mitose." Parker trained under Chow, and met Mitose when he moved to California. By that time, Parker was already moving away from the kenpo that William Chow had taught him. He claimed that he did not consider Mitose's Kempo very effective, likely due to his lack of understanding of the lessons Mitose gave him, but he did offer Mitose $1,000 for a Master's Certificate, which was never given. It would seem that Mitose had similar feelings about the effectiveness of Parker's kenpo.
Nimr Hassan (Terry Lee) is a free man today and runs the Koga Ha Kosho Shorei Ryu Kempo Association of Philadelphia. Martial arts author William Durbin claims Mitose was familiar with Koga-ryū ninjutsu and that Mitose's student Hassan is "probably the only master of the system to know those skills, although Mr. Durbin admits he has not sought out other master practioners of the Temple Form. These statements regarding Hassan's mastery of the temple dances and Koga Ha ninjutsu have never been proven and are doubted by many. Hassan's claims of having documentation making him a master of Mitose's Family Art( after only 1 year of training) are suspected forgeries.
Perhaps the most prominent teacher of Mitose's art today(outside of Bruce Juchnik) is Ray Arquila, who holds the title of Master #3 from James Mitose, a 10th degree black belt in Tracy's Kenpo, and rank in numerous other martial arts. His system of Iron Dragon Kosho Shorei Kenpo uses the 4-Phase model that he developed from James Mitose, incorporating the striking and kicking concepts along with the joint locking and breaking arts, push/pull arts, and evasion tactics into the Tracy System of Kenpo.
Read more about this topic: James Mitose
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