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| JAMES
MITOSI |
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| The Densho of James Mitose
21st Kosho Headmaster |
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 Being a family of royalty
Mitose's parents migrated to Hawaii from Kyushu, Japan in 1884.
James Mitose was born in 1916, in Hilo Hawaii. At the age of
four, Mitose went back to Japan. He studied at the temple which
his family frequented, the Shaka-in temple, West Koyazon,
Kumamoto, Japan. It is called the Kinkaizan Dionkyo-ji or also
referred to as the Pokure-ji temple. Mitose studied from 1916 to
1936, not just the physical arts of combat but weaponry,
religion, philosophy, writing, ikebana (flower arranging), and
horsemanship, among other things.
 After
viewing the politics of Japan and the move towards world
domination, Mitose left Japan and went to Hawaii. In 1942 he
began teaching with coaxing from the late Robert Trais. Trais
cam from Shuri Ryu system but knew of Mitose Sensei and visited
him. Mitose taught martial arts from 1942-1946. He had five
students that reached black belt level, Thomas S.H. Young,
Arthur Keawe, Bobby Lowe, Paul Yamaguchi, and William Chow.
When Mitose left Hawaii, he
entrusted his school to his successor, Thomas S.H. Young. After
that time Kempo took the form of many faces. It reached the
mainland and spread in numerous directions. Today there are
close to 10,000 different systems of Kempo that have evolved
from those basic teachings in the 1940's.
 When Mitose moved to the
mainland, frustrated with people's lack of understanding of what
Kempo was, he retired. He had one student who later committed a
crime that led to Mitose's incarceration. Mitose Sensei entered
into Folsom Prison in Folsom, California, thinking that Kempo
was lost.
In 1977 Bruce Juchnik met the
late James Mitose. At that time, the instruction, teaching, and
direction were the seed to one of the largest Kempo
organizations in the world, called the Sei Kosho Kai
International. Mitose's legacy is basically that of being the
first man to bring Kempo from Japan to Hawaii and the subsequent
worldwide spread of Kempo. James Mitose is recognized today was
the father of all Kempo practitioners. |
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From the book The Last
Disciple, By Bruce Juchnik. |
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