Thomas Barro Mitose
{Kenposai Kosho}
Twenty-Second Descendant Founder and Great Grandmaster
Welcome to the Kosho-Kenpo Web site. This is the official web site for the martial art of Kosho-Ryu Kenpo and has been constructed as a source of information about my art.
Kosho-Ryu is a family art that has been taught and passed down through twenty-one generations of my ancestors. My father, James Mitose (who was also known under his business name of Kenposai Kosho) learned this art as a child and taught it in Hawaii during the 1930’s and 1940’s. It remains the oldest family martial art that is still actively practiced today.
Kosho Ryu Kenpo is actually only one component of the Kenpo arts and is the name we use for the physical techniques that we teach for self-defense. It was first taught openly to people of all races when my father decided to open a self-defense school in Hawaii when World War II started. A second component of Kenpo, sometimes called Kosho-Shorei Kenpo, contains the psychology and philosophy of Kenpo. In its most general sense, it contains the self-defense techniques that do not involve physical contact. In practice, however, we always should understand the entirety of Kenpo and not just learn it as a sport or a fighting art.
Until 1947, my father told his students that they were studying Shorinji Kenpo. However, in 1947 when he wrote his first book, “What is Self-Defense? Kenpo Jiu Jitsu,” the art became known as Kenpo Jiu Jitsu. Finally in 1953 when the book became published and distributed widely, the name Kenpo came into general usage and today this is what many people call the art. Technically, however, the actual name of my art is Kosho-Ryu Kenpo. In English, it means “Old Pine Style of Fist Law” (Ko means Old, Sho means Pine, and Ryu means style or school: Kenpo means Law of the Fist or simply Fist Law). Many people who do not study true and pure Kenpo and Karate think that Kenpo, the Law of the Fist, is a set of powerful techniques for fighting. The true meaning of the “Law of the Fist,” however, is that the left hand (symbolizing the spiritual side of people) should always cover the right fist (symbolizing the physical side of people). That is, the ultimate lesson taught by Kenpo is that physical violence is not a solution to conflict.
I hope you find this site informative and useful as a source of information about true and pure Kenpo and Karate.