THE TRACY SYSTEM OF KENPO

LIBRARY SERIES

HARD TO FIND BOOKS

JAMES M. MITOSE

There are actually five books to look for:

The first book by James Mitose was copyrighted in 1947 - He then used the title of Professor.

1.    What is Self Defense by Kempo Jiu-Jitsu - James M. Mitose - 1947
This original book was written by James Mitose - in Japanese - and translated into English. The book was mainly about the abstract principles of Kenpo. The translation was poor at best. A few volumes were published and a few given to government officials and libraries.  For all practical purposes this book no longer exists. No one has seen a copy of it in over 40 years.

HISTORICAL NOTE: This is the only time James Mitose would ever write  Kenpo as KeMpo. The reason for this is he had used Choki Motobu's book as a guide. Motobu's book was written in Japanese in 1921! Then translated into English by Oyata. It would be Oyata who would use the spelling of Kempo which was quite common in Okinawa! This book by Motobu would set the standard physical layout form most of the original Martial Arts Books until  Nishayama and Brown published their book (Karate Empty) hand which set a new standard for all martial arts books at that time.

2. Mitose's second book would be financed by one of this black belts Arthur Keawe. The book had been revised to give a good historical background supported by historical drawing and photographs. Then the rest of the book was devoted to Kenpo; mainly waza or tricks (self defense techniques - 90 to be exact). Ed Parker would later use this book as his "blueprint" for his first book Kenpo Karate!