The similarity in appearance is because Kajukenbo and almost every verifiable kenpo system (especially anything in Ed Parker's lineage) is based on the same Okinawan karate style(s), to various degrees.
By "verifiable" I am referring to a lineage that can be traced back to a root system somewhere.
The "Okinawan karate" is easier to see in Parker's earlier kenpo "versions" or in some "Traditional hard-style" Kajukenbo schools, for example.
People such as Ed Parker, Adriano Emperado, William Chow and more all descended from James Mitose in Hawaii and/or trained with him in varying amounts.
James Mitose almost certainly trained under Motobu Choki's lineage and learned Okinawan kempo / karate despite his later claims to the contrary.
The story of Mitose inheriting some secret Japanese family system has been proved to be bogus.
The "family temple" Mitose (later) claimed to have trained at in Japan never existed.
This is confirmed by people who went looking for it and who also asked people about it who lived in the region their whole lives.
People who knew Mitose in the early days -such as Sijo Emperado himself- have said publicly that Mitose started telling the story of his "family temple" and the"Kosho-Ryu Kenpo" system around the time he went to prison, not in the years beforehand.
The roots of all "verifiable" Kenpo / Kempo and Kajukenbo lineages are based at least in part on Okinawan Karate / Ryukyu Kempo (whatever you want to call it) or -very rarely- on the RyuKyu predecessor Ch'uan-Fa / Te styles.
Likely suspects for Mitose's teachers (or merely training partners...) include people like Motobu Choki himself, Mizhuo Mutsu or even, Kamesuke Higashionna.
It helps if you can read a little Japanese or Chinese.
Here are some rough translations to consider:
(Mitose, in prison) Kosho Shorei-Ryu:
Old Pine Tree School of Inspiration (allegedly a secret
Japanese system)
(Okinawa) Shorei-ryu: "School of inspiration" (Naha-Te style from
Okinawa)
(Okinawan) Shorin-ryu: Little (Small / Young) Forest School
(Japanese) Shorin-ji: Small / Young ("little") Forest Temple
(Chinese) Shao-Lin: Small / Young ("little") Forest Temple
Ken-po / kem-po / Quán Fa / Ch'uan-Fa: Fist Law
Notice that even Mitose's "Japanese family system"
name is merely a derivation of other, older Okinawan systems.
Yes, "shorin-ryu" was/is technically "kenpo". Shorin-ryu is based on the original RyuKyu system(s), and can be traced back to the Ch'uan-Fa / Te hybrid taught by Matsumura Sokon.
The teachings of Matsumura Sokon are probably the "original" Okinawan kempo. After Sokon trained in China he taught a blend of Shaolin Ch'uan-Fa and native Okinawa Shuri-te.
Important students of Matsumura Sokon's "Shorin-ryu Kempo-karate" include people like Choki Motobu (Okinawan Kempo), Choshin Chibana (shorin-ryu), Gichin Funokoshi (shotokan) and Anko Itosu (Shorin-ryu, Shuri-te).
What gets me is how many people do not understand this, including shorin-ryu, kenpo, and kajukenbo people.
I think Ed Parker and his descendants are the main cause since they "took ownership" of the term "kenpo", but that is a different topic.
Without reading Kanji, you can just look at the pictures in Motobu Choki's original book that Mitose later copied, shot-for-shot in "
What is Self-
Defense."
Isn't it interesting that Mitose names Motobu Choki from Okinawa as "the great master of karate kenpo" in his book about his
Japanese "family temple" style"?
Just like Mitose has pictures of makiwara training in his book about the "Japanese" system in which he was the "21st consecutive bloodline kenpo master". Makiwara training is from Okinawa, not Japan.
Besides that, 21st generation? Really? Do the math sometime. It comes out to around 700 years.
Stick with me, it gets better. James Mitose only taught the Naihanchi kata – at least in the early days with people like Chow & Emperado.
The oldest known reference to Naihanchi are in the books of Motobu Choki. Naihanchi was thought to be about 200 years old at the time.
So... Why would Mitose's Japanese "family system" that was supposedly around for about 700 years use a 200 year old Okinawan kata?
"Motobu learned the kata from Sokon Matsumura, Sakuma Pechin, Anko Itosu and Kosaku Matsumora. Motobu taught his own interpretation of Naihanchi, which included Te (Okinawan form of martial arts which predates karate) like grappling and throwing techniques." --
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NaihanchiTalking story and embellishing is one thing. Outright lies, fraud and plagiarism is another.
Where "kajukenbo" may differ from what people recognize as "kenpo" the most is how hard the contact / training is, the amount of other influences a kajukenbo lineage may have adopted -Danzan Ryu / jujutsu (an important part), Kung-Fu, FMA, boxing, JKD, BJJ, etc- and/or the amount of "pressure testing" a lineage does.
Under many circumstances saying things like "kajukenbo karate" or "kenpo karate" is simply redundant.
Kajukenbo is "kenpo" (or at least
was in some cases) but kenpo is not necessarily "kajukenbo"; it is usually a matter of lineage.
Most "verifiable" kenpo and all of kajukenbo can be traced back to Mitose and/or Chow.
But not all of "kenpo" can be traced back to Kajukenbo's "Black Belt Society".
There are some distinctions to be made with ch'uan-fa (quan-fa) but it is literally the same characters for kempo (kenpo) pronounced in Chinese instead of Japanese.
Calling something "Chinese kenpo" might be an oxymoron and/or redundant at the same time.
Kenpo & Kempo are also the same thing. It is merely a matter of pronunciation due to a Japanese language quirk called "rendaku" and leads to confusion going from Romaji to English.
Those are subjects for a different discussion.
Remember: "karate" is originally Okinawan, not Japanese.
That is why some people are adamant about the distinction between karate-do (often Japanese) and karate-jutsu (often Okinawan).
"Japanese" Shotokan karate-do acknowledges it's roots in Shorei-ryu & Shorin-ryu, both Okinawan styles.
Again, people like Choki Motobu (Okinawan Kempo), Choshin Chibana (shorin-ryu), and Gichin Funokoshi (shotokan) all trained under Anko Itosu and/or Matsumura Sokon in Okinawa.
The point is that Kajukenbo *is* Okinawan Karate at least in part.
All "legitimate Ken-Po" styles in the world can trace their roots back to either RyuKyu / Okinawa or China in some rare cases where it may still be called (or based on) "Ch'uan-Fa" / Quán Fa.
One such case is Japanese "Shorinji Kempo", founded after WWII but acknowledging it's (alleged) roots in Chinese Shaolin Ch'uan Fa.
For an enlightening read, look up the "Shorinji Kempo" founder (Doshin So) and compare his habit of walking around like a Buddhist to Mitose's habit of walking around like a minister.
Also compare Japanese-born Doshin So's claim that he inherited the title of the
21st master of the Chinese Giwamon-ken (Yihe Mén
Quán) system to Mitose being the
21st master of Kosho Ryu.
What are the odds that *two* Japanese martial artists were both not only inheritors of obscure quan-fa / kenpo systems but each also
21st generation master of that Quan Fa / Kenpo system?
How could a Japanese person inherit a Chinese system at all, especially in that day and age?
Even Donn Draeger himself questioned why Doshin So would inherit a Chinese system, so I am not alone in this.
This sort of thing is not widely discussed and/or understood for various reasons.
Again, that is a whole other topic.
Hopefully that made sense and cleared things up for you.
Watashi ha nihongo ga sukoshi wakarimasu.
Yes, I am rather pedantic about this sort of thing.
