Kajukenbo was founded in 1947, combining western boxing, judo, jujutsu, kenpo karate, Tang Soo Do, and kung fu. Brief histories of this art can be found here and here. Grandmaster Sonny Gascon trained in Kajukenbo and developed Karazenpo go Shinjutsu. This would eventually transform into Shaolin Kempo Karate.
Some would argue that the arts are so divergent that they are not just different arts but unrelated arts. I believe the problem originates from a typical Shaolin Kempo Karate (SKK) practice, which allows lightly trained Black Belts to run schools. Oftentimes, these ambitious and enthusiastic students jump at the opportunity to run a school. The problem is they aren’t proficient enough in the art, or do they know enough about the history? I, too, didn’t know about our actual roots. I did, however, take the time to learn what I could.
My knowledge of Kajuenbo is not comprehensive, but I feel I have enough understanding to make comparisons. Like SKK, Kajukenbo’s curriculum is structured around katas, combinations (known as punch counters), weapon defenses, and escapes (referred to as grab arts). Kajukenbo’s 21 punch counters (PCs) are the parent techniques of most Combinations and Kempo in SKK. Here’s a quick reference for you all.
- PC1-4 and 17 are Combo 6 variants
- PC6 is a Combo 4 variant
- PC8 and 10 are Kempos I got at Black Belt
- PC19 is Combo 7 done opposite (kick with left)
- PC20 is Combo 8 without blocks
- PC21 is Combo 30, the beginning only
The other PCs (5, 7, 9, and 11 through 18) are club and knife techniques or Kempo variants. Some rarer Kempos and higher-level Combinations are similar to or a copy of Kenpo Karate. I don’t have a comparative list at the moment, but that would be a great benefit for the records. I assume this developed during the early 60s when Prof. Cerio met with GM Chow and other Kenpo practitioners. Or it could be a parallel development based on core concepts.
Kajukenbo also has 14 kata* called Pinans or Monkey Dances, depending on when you learned them. GM Gascon added six to eight new katas to this list during a formative stage at his school. The first five eventually evolved into Kata 1 to 5 in the Shaolin Kempo Karate system. I believe the rest were forgotten or lost to antiquity. This is the main reason many Kajuenbo artists don’t recognize the SKK kata — because they were late additions to Karazenpo Go Shinjustu.
Have opinions or other examples? Let me know in the comments below.
* There are some traditional schools of Kajukenbo that have 26 kata.
