Professor William Kwai Sun Chow

     *Kwai Sun (William) Chow, also known as Professor Chow was born in 1914. He learned and started his martial arts training studying Five Animal Shaolin Kung Fu from his father, Hoon Chow. Then William Chow was a student of JamesMitose for many years. Eventually he united, like many Kempo masters before him the arts of Kosho-ryu Kempo and his family Kung Fu to form a new art which he would eventually name Kara-ho Kempo. In 1949, Chow had attracted a number of students to his own teachings and opened a dojo of his own at a local YMCA. To make a distinct variation from Mitose's Kempo, Chow initially referred to his art as Kenpo Karate. Also adding to the mixing of the arts, some of Mitose's students including Mr. Chow & brother, John Chow Hoon, and possibly Chow himself were also students at the Danzan-Ryu JuJutsu dojo of Heny Seishiro Okazaki. All were influenced by Okazaki, who had blended a number of styles to form a complete system. Throughout the next few decades Chow made many innovations to the system including the use of circular techniques of his Kung Fu, as well as various kata or forms based on the primary linear and circular techniques of his art. William Chow's Kenpo was a quick, vicious style, which allows a defender to defeat more than one attacker simultaneously. He was reportedly both a great martial artist and innovator and a deadly combatant. Among his students were prominent martial artists like Ed Parker (the founder of American Kenpo Karate) and Adriano Emperado (the driving force behind the founding of Kajukenbo). William Chow died in 1987.