What is the difference?
Okinawa, and China
Shaolin is a temple in China…
5 animal kempo means a style of kempo.
lol
sorry
Hit the nail on the head.
Kempo, or kenpo (same thing different spelling) was founded in Okinawa by Shoalin monks in the late 15th century.
KeMpo and KeNpo are not the same thing.
“Kempo” is usually associated with “Professor Chow” and is subsequent lineage.
“Kenpo” is usually associated with Ed Paker and his subsequent lineage.
Marked differences have evolved between the two sects.
was founded in Okinawa by Shoalin monks in the late 15th century.
Says you.
My understanding is that Kenpo or Kempo (I’ve never been able to keep the names straight), at least as usually found here in the U.S., is karate that’s made an attempt at becoming kungfuized.
What? I know you guys are probably referring to junk in America with these Ed Parker and ‘Professor’ Chow characters, but kenpo and kempo are the exact same word and the exact same pronounciation. Basically it refers to any boxing method (that is not karate) that exists in Japan or Okinawa. The two bigger arts that use ‘kenpo’ in the name are Shorinji kenpo (Shaolin boxing) and Nihon kenpo (Japanese boxing, includes throws and locks).
Yep. Kem(n)po loosely translated is “law of the fist”. I said that it was founded in the 15th century because it was. Spacifically with the Northern Okinawan Monistary. Pai Lum’s claim to Kempo comes directly from this source. Grandmaster Pai was sent there to sudy as a child. He was taught the Pai Family style by his grandfather after returing from the monistary. This is why Pai Lum falls in with the “Kung Fu crowd”. The Parker system was mixed with Karate. This is why they went that way.
I have taken the time to check out the Parker system. And what I found was much as it is taught by my sifu. The signifigant diferences was not in the Kempo side but with the other stuff it gets blended with that makes it either Chinese Kempo or Japanese Kenpo. But Kem(n)po itself is an animal syle of boxing. It is hard to find in and of itself, because it is somewhat limited in scope. It is usually found incorporated into a bigger style.
Odd
I thought that Ken Po was okinawa for (chinese fist)
Chuan Fa
Ken (Fist) Po (Chinese?)
similar to How in Japanese it’s Kara Te , Empty Hand , which was also derived from Chinese Hand. Or so I was led to believe… 
After endless searching (oxymoron)
My search for the definition of KenPo has turned up only either “Law of the Fist”
or Ed Parkers Kempo/KenPo
The mentality of Kenpo practicioners based on what I’ve read from a few websites seems to be very hardcore, and no nonsense.
They may or may not have the material to back it up though…
Most are very no-nonsence. Some are not. There is one here in Denver which claims to teach only Kempo, but the “Korean way”, (aka, Japanese 
)that looks more like Tai Chi than a fighting art. But black eyes, split lips and messed up knees are common in every Kempo-based program I have ever found, even the Tai Chi-like ones. 
Ed Parker spells it Kenpo. I had the pleasure of studying at one of his schools while stationed in Hawaii, though not as a serious student. It’s a good system, and was referred to me by my Ninjitsu teacher as a place to work out while he was on deployment. I was thrilled to find a system here in Colorado that fit so well with what I already knew.
Po in my limitied Japanese understanding is more closely akin to “path” or “method” than “law”. The “law” spin on it is something wholly related to Parker’s take on it.
The Chuan Fa (hate that term) translation moves directly over…
Chuan - Ken — Fist
Fa - Po — Method
Which doesn’t explain why the Chinese Kempo calls it this, as well. The problem with trying to fix a spacific name to anything crossing over from Chinese to japanese (or any other language) is that there may be 300 pronunciations for any given word and it is rearly stated which dialect the root came from…
Ummm… cause there’s no such critter as Chinese kem(n)po???
Damn. So I’ve been studying a fake style that is well known and international for years?
Or you just aren’t aware of any Chinese Kempo, AKA Keng Fu and Kempo blended? And the 500 year old Chinese Monistary in Okinawa must be fake, as well.
Maybe… but then again I just said there’s no such thing as Chinese Kem(n)po…
I didn’t say what you did was fake or false or anything else. I just said there’s nothing from China that exists called Kem(n)po… now did I?
Hold the press. . . . I thought Kem(n)po was a blend of karate and kung fu? (Which is like blending coal and diamonds)
Becca… since you study Pai Lum… here’s a conversation from another board involving a guy who apparently knew DKP pretty well as well as his training resume…
fa - a long long way to run
Fa has two definitions: 1. law (as in abide the law) and 2. method or way (as in teaching or pedagogical methodology). Usually people use the second definition when it comes to quan fa.
Shorinji Kempo was founded by a man named Michiomi Nakano who was a member of the a japanese criminal organization (Black Dragon Society) which began acting in concert with the imperial government at that time. Nakano reputedly acted as an agent providing intelligence to Japanese authorities in manchuria. After the wall he claimed he was initiated in the the Giwamonken temple which he eventually became successor naming taking the budhist name “Doshin SO” and refering to his style as Shorinji kempo.His claims were hotly contested and In 1972 he was on the losing end of a law suit by a group of chinese living in japan and as a result the japanese court action agreed to refer to his style as “Nippon Shorinji Kempo”. A little research will reveal to you that his “System” is in fact a creative Blend of Kango Zen , Shorinji Kenkokan Karate (Nakano trained under Masayoshi Hisataka for a while)and Hakko ryu Jujutsu (which he studied under Okuyama Ryuho)and both of these unique systems are clearly visable in the training of Nippon Shorinji Kempo.