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A BRIEF HISTORY OF OUR STYLE
Note: The information of this page is a summary of a document developed by
Sensei Mike Kirk. Sensei Mike is a student of Master Bill Ryusaki. Sensei Mike
also maintains the Ryu Dojo website (Master Bill"s school). You can visit the
Ryu Dojo website by clicking here.
Between 3000 B.C. and 2000 B.C., the ancient Chinese art of kenpo (or kempo) had
developed, and emphasized the use of circular movements in unarmed combat. This
was the foundation of the Chinese art of Kung Fu-Wu Su. Although Kung Fu means
discipline (physical and mental) while Wu Su is the martial application of that
discipline, this art became known as Kung Fu (or Gung Fu). The first recorded
use of this new weapon-less fighting technique in battle was by the Yellow
Emperor (Huang Ti) in 2674 B.C.
Around 600 B.C. a philosophical system stating how nature guides all things was
written by Lao-tzu, and was called the Tao-te Ching. This Taoism incorporated
breathing, meditation, health, medical, and alchemy techniques, and Taoist monks
became adept at unarmed combat. The Kung Fu ethic of protecting the weak and
punishing evildoers originated from the teachings of these Taoist monks.
Buddha lived in the sixth century B. C. (600-500 B. C.), and ancient Buddhism
became inseparable from Karate, as both stressed the end results of
Enlightenment and peace with oneself (Nirvana). Despite this desire for inner
peace, religious groups were constantly clashing with each other, and Karate
fighting techniques became part of the training in many monasteries.
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Around 520 B.C., a Chinese Buddhist monk on a pilgrimage in India combined
existing fighting practices with Yoga breathing methods and brought these
techniques back into China. His name was Bodhidharma, also known as Dharuma, and
he was the founder of Zen Buddhism. Because this incorporation of physical,
mental, and breathing is one of the most important foundations of Karate today,
Dharuma is often credited as the founder of ancient-day Karate.
About 40 years after Dharuma’s death a Chinese monastery was attacked by
outlaws, which was a very common occurrence in those days. What was unusual was
the appearance of a man only known as the "begging monk", who used a collection
of hand and foot techniques to drive away the attackers. The other monks were
very impressed by this display, and requested instruction in this method of
self-defense. This fighting art became known as Chuan Fa, or the "Fist Method".
In the 3rd century A.D., a Chinese surgeon developed a new fighting system by
combining kempo with older physical conditioning methods and with the movements
of the tiger, bear, deer, monkey, and bird. This was later modified to follow
the fighting spirits symbolized by the tiger, crane, dragon, leopard, and snake
to become the Shaolin fighting arts. As was the case with most martial art
styles of the time, these techniques were handed down verbally from master to
student, were jealously guarded, and were never written down. Another story is
told about a Chinese Buddhist monk named Ta Mo who returned from India around
526 A. D., and began teaching Zen Buddhism in the Shaolin Temple in Northern
China. He noticed that his frail student monks tended to fall asleep during his
lectures, so he taught them a set of exercises he called the "eighteen hands",
updating the existing Kung Fu fighting movements. These exercises became known
as "Eighteen Monk Boxing", and the Shaolin Temple became a center for Kung Fu
study.
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Around 700 A.D. a priest named Chueh Yuan revised Ta Mo’s "soft" ("internal")
system into 170 actions, which became the "hard" ("external") school of Shaolin
Kung Fu. Graduation from the Shaolin monastery evolved into passing three tests:
first an oral exam, then combat with other monks, and finally passage through a
labyrinth of 108 mechanical dummies equipped with knives, spears, and wooden
fists. The final exit through the front gate of the temple was blocked by a
500-pound red-hot urn, which when lifted out of his way would brand the student
with a dragon on his right arm and a tiger on his left. The man who could pass
these tests was then a Shaolin priest, who went out into the world to defend the
poor and the weak, and to right the wrongs of Chinese feudal society.
There was no uniform style practiced by the Buddhist monks; instead, over 400
individual styles branched out from the original art. Despite the secrecy
shrouding these unarmed fighting methods, Kung Fu fighting techniques eventually
leaked out into the general population, and during the Yuan Dynasty and the
Ch’ing Dynasty thousands of unarmed Chinese rose up in revolt. Between 1898 and
1900, an ultra-nationalist Chinese movement tried to rid their country of
foreigners; utilizing hand-to-hand combat techniques, this revolt became known
as the Boxer Rebellion.
Although weaponless fighting methods spread out all over Asia, they reached
Japan last due to its geographic isolation. The oldest Japanese combat technique
was called tekoi, and later became sumo wrestling. In the thirteenth century,
jujitsu separated from sumo and developed strangle holds, strikes, and throws.
In the seventeenth century, when Japan conquered the Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa)
midway between China and Japan, their warriors were exposed to an Okinawan
unarmed fighting system called te. In 1882, a Japanese educator and sports
enthusiast named Jigaro Kano synthesized the sport of judo from several jujitsu
methods. It was not until this century, in 1922, that Gichin Funakoshi brought
together several fighting systems including Okinawa-te, jujitsu, Korean chabi,
and ancient Chinese kempo, to develop Shotokan Karate, now considered the
"classic" form of Japanese karate. And despite its current popularity, Aikido
was not developed until 1942, by Morihei Uyeshiba, as a highly stylized form of
jujitsu, using body rolls with wrist, elbow, and shoulder twists.
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Our own style branched out at the beginning of the seventeenth century, when two
Japanese families (Kumamoto and Nagasaki) brought a version of Chinese Kempo
(Chuan Fa, which is mentioned above) to Kyushu in Japan. This style was
maintained within their families, and was gradually modified over the next 200
years to become Kosho Ryu Kempo, or "Old Pine Tree School". In 1916 a five year
old boy named James Mitose was sent from his home in Hawaii to Kyushu Japan to
learn his ancestor’s art of Kosho Ryu Kempo from this uncle Choki Motobu, a
Kempo master. James Mitose returned to Hawaii in 1936 to open the "Official
Self-Defense" club in Honolulu, and thus is credited as the first to bring Kempo
to the United States. His first students to be promoted to black belt included
Thomas Young (who took over his school), William K. S. Chow, Edmund Howe, Arthur
Keawe, Jiro Naramura, and Paul Yamaguchi.
William Chow had four brothers, all trained in Jujitsu. Knowledgeable
authorities claim that he may have incorporated some of these Jujitsu techniques
into Mitose"s style of Karate, and did not borrow any circular movements of Kung
Fu, to form the style he eventually called Chinese Kara-Ho Kempo Karate. He does
seem to have opened his own dojo in 1949 in a local Hawaiian YMCA, and according
to some, was the first to use the Kenpo spelling to signify his break from the
Mitose style of Kempo. William Chow, also known as Professor Chow, passed his
knowledge onto great many students, before he died in 1987.
Students of William Chow included Adrian Emperado (founder of Kajukembo), Ed
Parker (founder of American Kenpo), and Bill Ryusaki [pronounced "RHEE-you SOCK-ee"],
the head of our system of Karate.
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Sensei Bill Ryusaki was born in Kamuela on the big island of Hawaii. Sensei
Bill’s father, Torazo Ryusaki, held black belts in both Judo and Shotokan
Karate, and required all his seven sons (he also had four daughters) to train in
two martial arts. At the age of 8, Bill Ryusaki began training in Judo. While
his brothers chose Kendo (Japanese sword fighting) and Aikido, Bill selected
Judo and Kenpo Karate, and was taught by William Chow and Sonny Emperado,
students of James Mitose. In the late 50’s, Sensei Bill came to southern
California, and worked with Ed Parker. In 1962 he opened the original Ryu-Dojo
in North Hollywood, but moved his studio to his home in Van Nuys in 1979. Sensei
Bill became a frequent "guest Sensei" in the Racquetball World Kenpo Karate
class. In July 1994, with his former student Sensei Otto Estuarto Schumann
leaving for Guatemala, Sensei Bill took over his well-established Kenpo Karate
school at Racquetball World. Sensei Bill decided to leave Racquetball World and
start a new Ryu Dojo school in Chatsworth.
Sensei Bill has appeared in numerous films as an actor and stuntman, including
work with Bruce Lee on the "Green Hornet", and in "Hawaii 5-0", "Wild, Wild
West", and with David Carradine in "Kung Fu" (remember the assassin sent over
from China?). Other credits include "Knots Landing", "China Beach", "Planet of
the Apes", "Above the Law" with Steven Seagal, "Rambo - First Blood Part II",
"Karate Kid II",
"Showdown in Little Tokyo", "Robocop II", "Black Rain", "Double Impact" (where
he shot it out with Jean Claude Van Damme), "Welcome to Paradise", and
"Universal Soldier" (one of the men rapelling down the face of the dam was
Sensei Bill!). You may also have recognized Sensei Bill getting his nose punched
in by Bridget Fonda in "Point of No Return". Lately, Sensei Bill has appeared in
"Beverly Hills Ninja" with Chris Farley, and he is the co-star of "The
Beginner", a short subject film.
Sensei Bill has taught his art to thousands of students, including Sensei’s Otto
Schumann, Benny "The Jet" Urquidez, and Cecil Peoples. Being the head of our
style, Sensei Bill holds a 10th-degree (Ju-dan) blackbelt in Hawaiian Kenpo
Karate, and a 7th degree blackbelt in Judo.
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