High Desert Martial Arts
High Desert Martial Arts

Kosho ryu Kenpo Jiu jitsu

Masayoshi (James) Mitose

21st descendant in the Kosho ryu Kenpo jiu jitsu lineage

 

 

     James Masayoshi Mitose, Born December 30, 1916 Kaelakekua, North Kona, on the big island of Hawaii.

 

    At the age of three years, 10 months and eight days, James Masayoshi Mitose along with his older sister would set sail for Japan on October 22, 1920. A family friend named Muriki would take them to Japan. Starting at age four, James Mitose was trained and educated to assume the responsibility and obligations of becoming the 21st Great Grand Master in the family art of Kosho-Shorei Kenpo at the family temple on Mt. Kinkai. During his time in Japan James Mitose would live in several different parts of Japan, but always with his grandparents. James Mitose was not the founder of Kenpo, he was the 21st generation blood descendant who had been trained by, among others, his grandfather Sukuhei (20th Great Grand Master) and his uncle, Choki Motobu to become the head of the system. This position was his by blood at his birth as the 1st born son of Kiyoko (Yoshida) Mitose, Seventeen years later, Masayoshi would return to Hawaii on February 23, 1937.

 

    In the 1930s, after returning to Hawaii he would teach the art to American soldiers stationed on the islands. The day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Mitose made one of the most difficult decisions of his life: He turned his back on his cultural heritage to defend his homeland and on December 8th 1941 James M. Mitose enters the Hawaii Territorial Guard.

 

    The territorial guard was disbanded in 1942 and Mitose started the “Official Self-Defense Club” at the Beretania Mission in Honolulu, where he taught his family art to the public. In 1953 James M. Mitose retired from teaching and handed over the “Official Self-Defense Club” to his student Thomas Young as he is the only one of the Shodans to follow closely the teachings of Mitose. Mitose moves to the United States Mainland to get his Doctorate in Theology and Philosophy, and become an ordained Christian minister, he leaves behind six Shodans: Thomas Young, Jiro Nakamura, William K.S. Chow, Paul Yamaguchi, Arthur Keave, and Edward Lowe.

 

James Masayoshi Mitose passed away in 1981 leaving behind a legacy being taught across the nation and the world.

 

Kenpo – Ken = fist, Po = law, meaning law of the fist.

Koshoryu – Ko = old, Sho = Pine tree, Ryu=Style/School. Meaning Old Pine Tree Style or School.

Koshoryu Kenpo Jujitsu is a jujitsu style Martial art with an emphasis on Blocking, Striking, and Kicking in addition to the Throws, Locks and Chokes of traditional Jujitsu.

 

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