Articles / Interviews

Interview with Thomas Mitose

WARNING

THE VIEWS AND OPINIONS EXPRESSED BY GRANDMASTER THOMAS B. MITOSE IN THIS INTERVIEW AND THE JAMES MITOSE'S UNTOLD STORY ARTICLE ARE NOT NECESSARILY SHARED OR SUPPORTED BY PROFESSOR CHRISTOPHER N. GEARY OR CHRISTOPHER N. GEARY'S SHAOLIN KEMPO KARATE.

Introduction:

David M. Wallace

Interview with the 22nd Great Grandmaster of Kosho-Ryu Kenpo
Thomas Barro Mitose
January 3, 2005 / Recorded live 21:45 central time
By Professor Christopher N. Geary

Geary: How are you doing Grandmaster?

Mitose: Pretty good.

Geary: Do you have a couple of minutes to do that quick interview?

Mitose: Yeah. I can only give you some things from May 1950.

Geary: Ok.

Mitose: You know, information. Because other than that, everything is just hearsay or whatever. I mean I'm just like you, because when he was married to my mother, my mother didn't even know that he was teaching kempo. And when I told her sister a few years ago, she started to laugh. He kept them in the dark, he never said anything, he was a very strange man, but go ahead and let's see where we can go.

Geary: You were talking about his wife? Your mother?

Mitose: My mother yeah, even his students didn't know his family life like that. I mean... you know, he was very much to himself. Like Thomas Young, especially Thomas Young, he didn't know much about Mitose. And you'd figure that Thomas Young would know about him and all that... nothing.

Geary: So he was a pretty private man?

Mitose: Yeah. Even with me he never spoke about anything, I mean he was very... he never said much. I got a letter that was written by Thomas Young and he states in this letter that all these things that we mentioned to him, he didn't even know.

Geary: Like what do you mean?

Mitose: Like about the art and things, the name and so forth like that. That's how it was, all they did was they went to class to train and that was it. Everybody went home. It was no hanging around or nobody going over to his house or anything like that.

Geary: What was your Mom's name?

Mitose: Mildred.

Geary: Mildred? And what was her last name, her maiden name before Mitose?

Mitose: Why do you need her Maiden name?

Geary: Well, I'm just asking some questions, there was some stuff on the internet where people where saying that Mitose wasn't his real last name, that he used his mom's maiden name or this or that or whatever.

Mitose: Until they can prove where they got this information, until all the information can be proved... prove it. Then I'll go with whatever they say. Because I'm in the dark myself. But as far as Mitose using my mothers name... no.

Geary: What style was your father teaching?

Mitose: See and here's another thing, a lot of people say it was Shorinji Kempo because he mentioned that in his book. Did you read that book where he mentioned Shorinji Kempo... "Karate History and Traditions?"

Geary: No. I haven't read that book.

Mitose: Ok, nobody knows. Just what he said it's a family style or it goes back so many years, all this hasn't been proven. They say they've found the temple, why? They say because his name was at the temple but they don't understand that. That the temples in Japan goes like the Catholic Church in the Philippines and so forth. This is where they kept records of birth. I mean, you know, if you where born in the Philippines, you didn't go to the city to get registered, it was the church that put your name down. And this is what they're going by. Because his name was there and they say that was his temple...no. Well, when he referred to the temple, that's where he worshiped. There's a bunch of things that people say and they just make the story bigger and bigger. Until it's a proven thing, then I think people should go by. Because I'm in the dark myself.

Geary: Do you know who your Father's instructor or main teacher was?

Mitose: No. All he would say was, "It was an art passed down through the family" he wouldn't say a specific person like his dad and so forth.

Geary: So he was born in Hawaii right?

Mitose: Yes. The big island.

Geary: Ok, and then his parents took him back or sent him back to Japan to train and it was at that temple you were talking about?

Mitose: Oh yeah. But see that's another thing to because I've heard that they have some records of him beginning in school in Hawaii, grammar school. But they have to prove this to me but this is what I've heard. I don't want to give you any information that comes out wrong. Like I say, I've heard that... through the grape vine that they have pictures of him in a grammar school in Hawaii. But I've never seen it. This is what they say. You know what I'm saying? And if they have pictures of him in grammar school, then how could he have gone back to Japan?

Geary: Do you think that Kempo was being taught on Hawaii before your father started teaching?

Mitose: No. I don't think so. Well, you had - who was he Miyagi who went there?

Geary: Miyagi went to Hawaii?

Mitose: Yeah. He was there and also Motubu was there but Motubu, from what I heard, when he went to Hawaii he couldn't enter the islands. Because in order to enter the islands, he needed somebody, some family there in the islands. And this is what people where saying that Motubu was his uncle and so forth and a lot of people went for that story. Until I disproved this and then the Tracy brothers brought the Motubu family to Vegas, I guess they thought that where going to say that yeah Mitose was a relative and at this gathering they disproved it they said they didn't even know who Mitose was. So when they made that announcement at this gathering, it was a blow to the Tracy's. Because here they thought that now they really found the link to Kempo, Mitoses relatives. Well they didn't even know Mitose. Then all of the sudden they needed to scramble around, scramble around and out of the blue sky they bring me up there on the platform to say here's our link to Mitose. They where trying to get Motubu's family, that is a big old thing and then this guy has the nerve to come on the stage and say that "This is my instructor", (I never trained the guy, he was one of Tracy's people) to all the Kempo people there.

Geary: One of the Tracy people were saying that they trained underneath you?

Mitose: One of the guys said that he was, that I was his teacher.

Geary: Who was that?

Mitose: I don't want to bring up names but it was false. You know, I never trained with that guy. But anyway, it's just a big, oh you know. When I hear things like this, it goes in one ear and then goes out the other ear. The only thing that nobody else can claim is that I am his son and I am his bloodline, you see? No matter what anybody says, they can't say that there's bloodline. Did you ever read Mitose's last book that he wrote?

Geary: What was that called?

Mitose: "What is true self defense" it's a big black book, a leather bound book.

Geary: No I never did.

Mitose: Well, in than book he states, "The only Grandmaster besides him that can assume Grandmaster ship in Kosho Ryu, they have to be of bloodline."And then Bruce Juchnik went around and started telling people "Oh no, that's not true because the Samurai code was different"and all that other baloney. But the book states it, it's the last thing that he wrote and it's in the book.

Geary: What are your feelings about Bruce Juchnik, for him claming to take over?

Mitose: Bruce Juchnik is just full of it you know; he's just full of it. He's no threat to me and when he sees my students or he meets my students he goes into this same old routine... if he's in a group with people he brings the student aside, the black belt aside and he talks to them in private and he says the same thing, "You know I love Tom"and a bunch of bull. The guy is something else. But I heard that he's saying a lot of things about me and the bad thing about it is that the people who know, they don't want to come out and say what was said to them because there is a lot of people that know that Bruce, you know, how he is. Listen to this, he claims that he has this certificate and in this certificate it says that he is a master of Kosho Ryu right? There's also this guy, I don't know his name, it's a Mexican guy who was in prison with Mitose and he also made him a master. This master, one, two, three four five, I mean it's unbelievable. A lot of them didn't even spend maybe, two days with him. Never trained that's for sure with him. So, you know, it's all a bunch of bull.

Geary: How long did you train with your Father?

Mitose: About a year and a half. The training is different; I don't what you think - what is training. The training he did was not your typical - everybody line up in the dojo and you go through strikes and you go through your kicks and so forth. You know how like a person would run his classes. And no his training was very different. He would put me in a spot and he would ask me questions like; stand on this chair and he would say to me now, I mean you could barely understand the man anyway. He would say, "Push off the cliff - how are you going to defend yourself?" And in my mind, I'm going to do something physical, you know what I'm saying? Then after you give him an answer he says, "No no no no, no... you grab!" Yeah you grab, why don't you complete what you're trying to tell me... grab? And you know what the answer was? As you're falling down the side of the cliff, you try to grab something. I mean, that's the way that he taught, you know.

Geary: You were telling me the last time we talked Grandmaster about a time that you guys were out for dinner.

Mitose: Oh, about the food. The food was placed and all that stuff? Yeah, he had a lot of, when he taught you, he had a lot of insight to your techniques. And like I say, this one time being pushed and being pushed hard, you know when you really think about it, it's true. If somebody walks up against you and he pushes you, just like that and there is a wall behind you. I've seen some so called high ranking Grandmasters in the old style and I've seen them teach some techniques, some wall techniques, where if the guy pushes you, you slap the wall and you draw a front thrust - their kicks are a snap to the guy. But if you're being pushed that hard, there's no way. But I've seen what Mitose can do. And I think that I'm the only person... alive, since after nineteen... like 1950 that has actually seen... Mitose in action.

Geary: What was he like in action?

Mitose: He was totally different; I mean his eyes and so forth. We went down to Black Belt magazine because he was mad, this was in LA because there was an article in there that stated that he had given out black belts - high black belts and he was upset about that. And so we went down to Black Belt and he told the guys, "He didn't give out black belts!" And then he started saying that Kosho Ryu can be a killing art and he demonstrated on one of my students and he looked... let me tell you man, he looked like a different person, facial expression and so forth. But you know that's how he was. And then with other people he would do stuff that would - not because he wanted to show the technique like multiple strikes and so forth, he would do just one strike but people didn't understand what he was trying to do. I mean he wasn't, you need to talk to people that worked out with him, you know like Emperado. Emperado has worked out with Mitose. As far as I'm concerned, the person that really worked out with Mitose was the old guy's, you know like Emperado, Thomas Young is gone, the only one that's left is Emperado and some other guy in Hawaii. And you should ask them about Mitose and they'll tell you the same thing.

Geary: Did your Father ever promote anybody to the rank of black belt?

Mitose: This... I don't know. Emperado has a teaching certificate. Chow was going to the house to get some extra training and the Naihanchi, ok let's put it this way, everybody's talking about the Naihanchi's... right? That it was the only form that Mitose taught. Now everybody pretty much well knows what the Naihanchi's or Tekki's looks like. They're like the Okinawan or Shotokan one two and three kata's and everybody pretty much knows what it looks like. And so they're all saying that Mitose did the Naihanchi's but did you know that Naihanchi, when it was taught - it was totally different in the traditional way of doing it. And you know who backs this up?

Geary: Who?

Mitose: It's Emperado. Emperado used to take hard style karate and he demonstrated the moves to Naihanchi and which I recognized right away - that was your traditional Naihanchi but he told me the form that he learned from Mitose didn't look like that. And it's one of their forms that they teach. I mean it looks kind of like the Naihanchi but it's not, it doesn't look the same.

Geary: Was Mitose Emperado's only teacher?

Mitose: No. Chow, Professor Chow.

Geary: So Emperado pretty much learned everything from Chow then.

Mitose: Yeah. And when Chow was teaching, Emperado told us that when Chow was teaching, he basically taught whatever Mitose was teaching then and then later on incorporated this so called Gung Fu moves. As far as we're concerned, there's this guy that we talked to in Hawaii and the techniques that Emperado did, they were basically changed, a little strike added here, something added here. The forms, they were talking about the forms, oh yeah we just added some moves to make it look fancy and so forth.

Geary: Do you know when your father started teaching in Hawaii? Was it in the late 30's?

Mitose: You know, I really can't say. I'll I know is that he started teaching at the military... this was in the 40's. But like I say, nobody knows. My mom didn't even know and she was married to that guy. The only reason why Professor Chow, (Professor Chow, we know about Professor Chow and so forth) is because Professor Chow used to live with my parents. He used to drive Mitose around... he used to take him around. In fact, Professor Chow was in love with my mother.

Geary: I didn't know that.

Mitose: There are a lot of things that people don't know. He was in love with my mother.

Geary: So was it just one of those things? Was there an affair or anything?

Mitose: No. There wasn't an affair but he was in love with my mother.

Geary: Did you grow up with your parents?

Mitose: No, I was adopted and then later on... got hooked up with them. It was my mom first and then him. I mean I'd seen him around, I knew that he was teaching up the hill at that Chinese mission. You know, stuff like that.

Geary: When did you meet your father, do you remember?

Mitose: I was about six years old.

Geary: What year was that?

Mitose: Maybe 46... 1946, somewhere around there, I was only a kid.

Geary: So do you teach Kempo now?

Mitose: Yes.

Geary: And is that your main job?

Mitose: Oh no. I'm retired.

Geary: How old are you now?

Mitose: I'm 64 going on 65. I do seminars. If you were to look at me you would think that I was in my... maybe late forties (laugh).

Geary: So you're in pretty good shape?

Mitose: Yeah.You know, a lot of people mistake my age.

Geary: So did your father pass the system down to you when he passed away, or did he do it beforehand? How did that work?

Mitose: It started with, I guess in the 60's, the late 60's when he told me that... we were talking about ranking and he said to me, "You can be any rank you want" he says... "You have my blood in you... you can be any degree that you want now."

Geary: And is this after you trained with him?

Mitose: Yeah. No this was while we where working out - messing around. And then, you know people question this. I have a couple of people that were there with me and who'd seen the training and so forth. I don't understand, some of the people... they, I'm sort of like Mitose, I don't say very much. I go to tournaments... I'm unapproachable; people find it hard to approach me. It's just the way that I look and carry myself. If you ask anybody... when they first see me... it's kind of hard, should I talk to him or what? But I'm a nice guy (laugh). I'm a really nice guy, it's just that I'm not the kind of guy that it's easy to come up and talk to and approach.

Geary: What year did you meet up with Bruce Jucknik?

Mitose: This is when they had a tournament in San Jose for Emperado. Bruce Juchnik thought that because he wined and dined Emperado - that he would go with Bruce. And then a few months later, an article in black belt magazine came out and Emperado fully supported me (laughs).

Geary: What do you think your fondest moment with being with your father would be?

Mitose: I think it would be when he was in prison... when he was in prison. And to see this man who really humbled himself. Not to me but to the Lord Jesus Christ. You know when he was in prison, he really got turned around, he really got into the bible. And he actually had bible study with my ex-wife who's also into the Christian thing; in fact she bought him this bible. There was a lot of harmony but I think when he accepted, well he had already accepted the Lord Jesus Christ but to see him the way he was you know, it just made everything alright.

Geary: So he was at peace with himself?

Mitose: Yes. When he died he wasn't... I mean, I knew where he was going and then here's another thing, Bruce Juchnik says he was the only one that was visiting Mitose during his last days. That's funny; I never met up with him while I was there. The only guy that was going to Folsom was Arnold Golub. And when Mitose was in prison, during his last days, they had just put him in a room... with a nightstand and nothing else. There was no equipment or anything like that.

Geary: Did Bruce Juchnik ever train with your father in prison?

Mitose: No. No he never did (laughs).

Geary: Is that even possible to do?

Mitose: No. It's impossible... they don't even allow martial arts in prison. This is was he was saying in the beginning; that he trained with Mitose, then I came out with an article and I said "How could you train with Mitose... they don't allow that in prison?" Which is true. So then he changed his story - "Oh, it was just through conversation" like this and so forth. And then he said that he had this guy Santana who was the guard there at that time, (laughs) that he set up things like that, which was untrue. Because you know why? Santana was a friend of Bruce Juchnik; try calling him up and asking him about Bruce Juchnik (laughs). See, all of Bruce Juchnik's followers at one time... are no longer with him. They're no longer with him.

Geary: Did Bruce Juchnik train with the Tracy brothers?

Mitose: He trained with... I don't know what Tracy brother... Tracy brothers but I know that he was in the Tracy's system. The guy is from Chicago. There was this senior instructor; I don't have his name off hand. I think it was Babcock or something like that.

Geary: When was that?

Mitose: That was back in the late 70's I think. He also trained under Rick Alemany and then he also trained under Andy Ah Po, a Tang Soo Do stylist and then he went with this guy, I forgot his name, Tracy's right hand man. Then he got his forms from Santana, who was a Shotokan stylist, which he incorporated into Kosho Ryu (laughs). And called it, you know the forms that Kosho Ryu did.

Geary: So he just found out about your father through probably those guys or the Tracy's or someone along the line?

Mitose: He found out through this George Santana that Mitose was in Folsom and went to visit him. You know, you hear a story here and you here a story there, it's like a circus, I'm not kidding you... nobody can prove anything yet.

Geary: Do you have a school?

Mitose: No. I had a school.

Geary: How long did you have a school?

Mitose: Oh, I just moved back to Antioch, I think that I had the school for maybe like eight years or so. And before that I had a school in San Mateo. Whatever location that I moved to, I usually open up a school.

Geary: Where did you say that you where living now?

Mitose: I moved back to Antioch in July. But I still have my black belts. And I have this class that I'm teaching - so there's about nine of them... that I teach.

Geary: How many black belts have you promoted?

Mitose: Not too many (laughs)... not to many.

Geary: Would you say more than five?

Mitose: Oh, yeah. I mean, unlike some systems, in a year they promote twenty, thirty black belts... yeah.

Geary: Who would you say your most senior student is, or who you're most proud of?

Mitose: Everybody has their thing... you know. We have like, Tolentino... Bill Tolentino he's a form man. And then you have Ken Torres who also does forms and he kumites. And then you have Tim Bowles who's a combination Chinese stylist... you know, Kempo and also a good free stylist. I can take credit for Tim, because Tim's dad is a student of mine. But I say maybe Tim Bowles for all-around and at one time, Bill Tolentino because he won the Triple Crown, that was in self-defense... you know, stuff like that. But you know, there's a lot of students... and then you have, we have a student that's... he just got back from out of the Marines, he was one of my good students and now he's into grappling.

Geary: What's his name?

Mitose: Botccio, Nick Botccio.

Geary: What would your father think about the Kempo world today in 2005?

Mitose: Well, I don't know. I mean, he started it... it's his fault. You know everything that's happening now is his fault (laughs) he had no control over what he was doing. And he left them, he deserted his students.

Geary: Did he just feel that they weren't learning the right way or... ?

Mitose: Well, he wanted them to become the... you know... turn your cheek the other way kind of students and you know starting in Hawaii, Hawaii wasn't like that. There were fighters in Hawaii. So he stopped teaching there in Hawaii, then he came up here. And then he started to teach and then stopped and then never went back to it.

Geary: Where was this?

Mitose: This is when he moved to LA. He never got involved with the martial arts. And then... the late 60's he got sparked up again and then in the 70's he was pissed off man, really pissed. He called me up and blamed me for everything... for getting him to come back into the art and so forth. Oh man, but anyway... it's personal things that he had said... and that was it.

Geary: Did your father ever tell you what is was like back in the 40's and stuff like that when he was teaching?

Mitose: No. He just taught. Like I said, you need to ask the old timers and let them tell you and you would be surprised by what type of person he was. Like I said, the only person that knew him that well and still didn't know him personally... but as an instructor and that's alive now and seen some of the things - the outbursts that he did, would be Emperado. I can tell you what he did, but if I tell you, you would think that I was making it up. But if you get it direct from the person (laughs), then you're going to know how he was. Anybody that tells you anything different, all you got to do... they've got to show you proof, they can't just say this and say that and say, oh, that... Mitose was here and he studied here, he studied under this person and that person, you've got to have proof. Now I hear that they're saying that he had taken lessons in Kempo (laughs) from some guy in Hawaii... I mean, there's all kinds of stuff going around and you just can't go by that.

Geary: What about the prison thing Grandmaster, do you think that he deserved to be put in prison?

Mitose: Well, if he was a part of that scheme, yeah... anybody else would go to prison too. But see his personal life... you've got to separate that from his martial arts abilities. And you know who tried to do that... was Ed Parker, this was at the Grand Nationals in Florida. Steve Anderson, I think that he was the head of the hard stylists US and then you have Trias which was USKA and Parker had a conversion with Anderson and told Anderson and Trias why that guy was in prison - like that... because I was going to be there too. See I was there to accept an award, they where giving me an award and he says that Mitose was in prison and so forth. Did you know they clamed Parker up by telling him - "Don't mix his personal life with him as a martial artist."

Geary: What year was that, do you know?

Mitose: Maybe 85 I think. When Trias threw his... it was either in Florida or Chicago. Somewhere around in the 80's anyway.

Geary: Did your father ever meet Ed Parker?

Mitose: Yeah.

Geary: How did that go, do you know?

Mitose: They thought that he was a joke (laughs)... that's what I heard.

Geary: Your father thought Ed Parker was a joke?

Mitose: No. Ed Parkers group thought that he was a joke (laughs) because they didn't see all these strikes... you know, you know how Ed Parker... I don't know if you're an Ed Parker stylist. What stylist are you anyway? What style are you? American Kenpo?

Geary: Shaolin.

Mitose: (laughs) Ok when you say Shaolin, is it from the Castro side?

Geary: Well, it came from Chow and then I've been promoted by Sijo Gascon and Hanshi Lou Angel. So it's Shaolin Ch'uan Fa - the fist way.

Mitose: Ok, so you guys call it the right way. You don't call it Shaolin Kempo.

Geary: Well, I pronounce it properly - Shaolin Ch'uan Fa.

Mitose: Ok, ok... all right that's good. Yeah, I don't know what to say.

Geary: I also got my first degree from Nick Cerio back in the early part of the 90's. Did you ever meet Nick Cerio?

Mitose: No. I've heard of him. But like I say, if somebody says something they've got to show you some kind of proof. Like this Motubu thing, it was an ongoing thing until the family finally came out and said; "No, we don't know this person, he's not a relative." That put a stop to it but if you go to the web site I think that there is some people that still claming Motubu as Mitoses uncle (laughs). So like I say, if you have proof - fine. The only things that I believe now is what I've heard from Emperado and putting things together, putting some of the forms together, getting some stuff from Trias and then putting it with the Kajukenbo people... it makes sense. And Emperado did train with Mitose and he's got some tales to tell.

Geary: Who do you think trained with your father the most, would you say it was you?

Mitose: As far as the 50's on up?

Geary: Well, I'm just talking about, just in general.

Mitose: No. I can't say that because what they where doing back in Hawaii, I don't know what they where doing. My training wasn't how they where training in Hawaii, it was nothing about techniques itself... if you were to be able to meet him now and you were to bring up techniques... tricks... like that, he'll tell you straight to your face - techniques are techniques... it's just tricks... that's all it is (laughs).

Geary: So one last question. When your father passed away, did you automatically just assume the title...

Mitose: Oh, I have a last will and testament... from him, which he had... it's a last will and testament that I have and I haven't put it on a web site or anything like that, I don't need to. I feel it's my personal... why am I going to do this to prove to people but I've shown it to some people, they've read it. And also, how Bruce got a hold of that, a copy of that... a copy of that last will and testament, I don't know, unless Mitose decided to give him a copy so that he would know... you understand what I'm saying?

Geary: No... that you're the true successor?

Mitose: Yeah. Because you know why? There's some people in the east coast, one of the black belts, they had a school up there, one of the black belts found going through somebody's thing, found a copy of the last will and testament and contacted me and told me that when he read this last will and testament, he tore up his certificate from Bruce Juchnik. He was so upset... can you imagine, all those people (laughs).

Geary: All that money that you spend.

Mitose: All that money, all the tapes. He sent me a shoebox full of tapes that Bruce was selling, that he went and purchased.

Geary: So what exactly did the last will and testament say, it just said that your the legitimate successor to your father or?

Mitose: It's a last will and testament of saying that; his books, his money, I give to the Great Grandmaster Thomas B. Mitose and all that... my son and you know stuff like that. If you were to read it, anybody can see and then you have to remember; a master is a master.

Geary: What do you mean?

Mitose: The certificates that he was giving out were all masters certificates.

Geary: Do you think that Bruce Juchnik got a masters certificate from your father?

Mitose: No, that masters certificate... no. The certificate he has was forged by Arnold Golub.

Geary: Who's that?

Mitose: Bruce's... he was supposed to be the head master of Kosho Ryu. There's only one certificate that was signed by Mitose and that was for that... a teachers certificate. The rest of them where all signed by Arnold Golub. You know, I spent a lot of money through a handwriting analyst to tell me that the signature on that certificate that Bruce had was forged. And so Arney could have saved me a lot of time and money.

Geary: If he had been honest with you?

Mitose: Yeah, that he signed it.

Geary: Did he ever admit to signing it?

Mitose: Arney?

Geary: Yeah.

Mitose: Yeah.

Geary: He did?

Mitose: Yes. He had to because where else would he get that certificate? His certificate looks exactly like Bruce's. Exactly like Bruce's but him as a head master. So hey... but anyway... you know... that's how it is (laughs).

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James Mitose's Untold Story
Son of the Late Kempo Master Reveals Startling Details
About his father's Crimes

Black Belt Magazine / November 1992
By Jane Hallander

      "Kempo does not mean violence. If you were to ask me who, in American history, was the best master of kempo, I should say Abraham Lincoln. I should choose Lincoln because of his honesty and gentle disposition. He was gentle as a women and his faith was like a child. But to protect human rights he fought wholeheartedly and with unwavering determination to win. Though the odds were overwhelming, he would still fight for the right. This is the mark of a true master of kempo."
-James Masayoshi Mitose, from his book What is Self-Defense?

      Are those the words of the uncaring killer, as some people have portrayed the late James M. Mitose, or are they the words of a dedication teacher of kempo karate who took responsibility for his students' actions, no matter how heinous their crimes?

      According to Mitose's son, Thomas Barro Mitose, his father got a bum deal-from both the American legal system and some of his disciples. James Mitose spent the final years of his life behind bars, and died in California's Folsom Prison in 1981 for a crime that was committed by one of his students.

      What are the facts behind James Mitose's bizarre case? Was he simply taking the responsibility for the actions of one of his students, and if so, why did a jury convict him of murder? Why was the alleged killer allowed to go free after serving just three years in prison? Was Mitose a cult leader, as some claimed at his trail, or was he merely a martial arts instructor interested solely in the betterment of his students? There are many questions, but few definitive answers to the Mitose mystery.

      One person who can shed some light on the case is Mitose's son, Thomas, who heads the kosho shorei-ryu kempo system out of his school in Antioch, California. Thomas Mitose, now in his late 50's, is in perhaps the best position to clear up the controversies surrounding his enigmatic father, and to lay to rest once and for all the speculation and untruths which have plagued the Mitose family since James' murder conviction. Thomas Mitose offers the following account of the life and times of his embattled father.

      James Mitose was born in Hawaii in 1916, then sent to Japan at a young age to learn his family's traditions and their martial art, kosho-ryu. In the 1930s, he returned to Hawaii and taught 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, enlisting in the 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. Among his students was William K.S. Chow, who would become one of kempo's most noted instructors. In 1956, Mitose moved to California, where he continued teaching kosho-ryu. Things went relatively smoothly for nearly 20 years, but on March 20, 1974, tragedy struck when a Los Angeles strawberry farmer was murdered in his home. Portrayed as a Japanese Charles Manson, Mitose was convicted of first-degree murder, conspiracy, extortion and grand theft, and was sentenced to life in prison even though he was not the man who did the killing. The actual killer plea-bargained his way to a prison term of just over three years. Mitose, meanwhile, spent the next seven years in prison and died just one month short of his parole date.

      Thomas Mitose didn't get to know his father until later in life. Unable to support a child during the war years, Thomas' parents placed him up for adoption, and he became Thomas Barro. His real father and mother later divorced and Thomas located and was reunited with James in Los Angeles in the '60s. Thomas legally added the Mitose name to his own, keeping the name Barro as well in respect for his adopted family. He then began years of intensive kosho-ryu kempo training under his real father.

      According to Thomas, kosho-ryu was originally developed by the Koshogi monks of Japan, who combined jujutsu and other Japanese cultural traditions with the shaolin chuan fa kung fu system brought to Japan from China. Kosho-ryu is a spiritual/philosophical system that includes yoga and meditation, and each physical technique has a spiritual complement.

      Much of what is now called kempo and kajukenbo came from James Mitose's kosho-ryu. Both kempo instructor Chow and kajukenbo founder Adriano Emperado were students of Mitose. Chow even lived with Mitose for a time, working as a houseboy. Although a loyal and dedicated student, Chow later altered the kosho-ryu kempo taught to him by Mitose, adding techniques from the Chinese martial arts he learned from his father.

      Thomas Mitose's kosho-ryu tutelage under his father came to abrupt halt with the latter's arrest and subsequent murder conviction. At the trial, James Mitose was depicted as a sort of Svengali who was able to cast spells on his disciples and get them to do his bidding. Prosecutors alleged that Mitose directed his student to attack the strawberry farmer because the latter owed him money. Thomas Mitose, however, offers another side to the story.

      "My father lent a Los Angeles strawberry farmer $10,000. In traditional Japanese culture, if you prospered, you paid the loan back tenfold. If you didn't prosper, you owed nothing," Mitose relates. "The farmer prospered, and paid my father back $60,000. The farmer's daughter was at that time dating an assistant Los Angeles district attorney. When she told her boyfriend about the $60,000 repayment, he said it was extortion." The strawberry farmer subsequently told Mitose that he would not repay him any more money, causing a heated argument between the two friends.

      "My father felt very bad about the argument," James Mitose recalls. At that time, he had a student who he had been teaching the spiritual concepts of kosho-ryu, and the student volunteered to act as mediator to settle the dispute."

      Instead of mediating, however, the student got into a fight with the farmer and killed him, according to Thomas Mitose. The student was arrested by the police, and in return for a second-degree murder charge, the student claimed James Mitose ordered him to kill the farmer, Thomas Mitose says.

      "My father's English was never very good. Also, his logic tended toward traditional Japanese ways," Thomas Mitose notes. "During the trial, he told the court that he alone was responsible for his student's actions. This was Mitose, the teacher, taking responsibility for his student's behavior - not Mitose, the killer, admitting to conspiracy.

      "The Manson family murder trail was still fresh in people's minds," Mitose adds. "With public opinion and outrage high over the Tate-LaBianca murders, it was easy for the prosecution to label my father the Oriental Charles Manson. They called him a cult leader because of his Japanese philosophy. Even a request by his defense lawyer for a Japanese interpreter to speak for him and explain the cultural side of his actions was turned down by the court."

      James Mitose was a model prisoner at Folsom Prison. He worked for the warden as a gardener and was one of only two prisoners allowed to walk unsupervised throughout the prison grounds.

      According to Thomas Mitose, whenever his father went before the parole board, he spoke in Japanese, because he felt he could only express himself well in that language. When the board members failed to understand him, Mitose became upset, and his emotional outbursts led authorities to claim that he could not function in society. Hence, he was repeatedly denied parole.

      More than one individual has come forth since Mitose's death, claiming to be kosho-ryu's successor after learning the art's secrets from Mitose while in prison. According to Thomas Mitose, however, their claims are invalid.

      "In 1990, an organization was formed to raise funds for my father's appeal," Thomas Mitose explains. "Several black belts from other systems wanted to help, and they began visiting my father, seeking knowledge and rank advancement. They promised my father that they would support his efforts to win an appeal. In return, he promoted many of these black belts to master in kosho-ryu. All but one of them abandoned their promise to my father after receiving their rank certificates."

      James Mitose felt deceived by these individuals, whom he believed were seeking knowledge, not simply higher rank. When Thomas Mitose asked his father exactly what he had taught these men, the latter replied "I gave them spiritual knowledge and guidance." James Mitose was not permitted to teach physical techniques due to strict prison rules. This renders ridiculous any claims by individuals that they have learned fighting techniques from Mitose while inside Folsom's walls.

      Thomas Mitose carries on the family martial arts tradition, teaching kosho-ryu kempo in the central California town of Antioch. He thinks a lot about what happened to his father... and what could have been, had his father never been sent to prison.

      "My father would always talk to me about opening a family dojo (training hall) where we would teach kosho-ryu together," Thomas Mitose asserts. "Unfortunately, his health took a turn for the worst and he was hospitalized in prison. I visited him at his bedside, and he became very emotional. He expressed tearful regrets that he would never teach again. He truly loved the art. He died two days later-ironically, one month before his scheduled release."

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