Kenpo, is a type of Martial Art which is a mixture of five cultures, namely, Chinese, Japanese, Okinawan, Hawaiian and American culture.

Amongst all forms of Martial Arts, Kenpo's history is the most confusing and also the least understood by practitioners all over. The biggest confusion however lies in the original definition or the meaning of its name. In the 16th century, the Mitose family studied this original art form in China and brought it to Japan. The Mitose family originally belonged to Japan. Hence, they used Japanese language to describe the art, rather than Chinese. They later named it "Kosho-ryu" (Old Pine Tree Style): "Ko" (old) "Sho" (pine tree) "Ryu" (school/style). Mitose wrote the first English book on kenpo in 1953 called 'What is Self-Defense: Kenpo Jiu-Jitsu'. James Mitose can thus be credited as being the person who introduced Kenpo to the world.

To add further to the confusion, in modern days, the terms, "Kung-fu" (Chinese Mandarin dialect) or "Gung-fu" (Chinese Cantonese dialect), "Wu-shu" (Military/War Art) and "Kuo-shu" (National Art) all mean and describe the same art of Kenpo.

"Kung-fu" also pronounced as  "Gung-fu" is the disciplined technique, skill, time, ability or strength, specifies the period of time used by a person to do a specific type of work. It is also a generic term for exercise.  "Kung-fu" is the term used outside of mainland China most notably the United States to describe any of the Chinese martial arts.

In China, this martial art was also referred to as "Ch'uan-fa" which means the first law. The same "Ch'uan-fa" is pronounced by the Japanese characters as "KENPO" -- or "KEMPO".  'KENPO' indicates the chinese origin, while 'KEMPO' incorporates the Japanese culture. The art of KENPO was established by James M. Mitose, whose family moved from Japan to Hawaii. This original art taught in Hawaii was called the "Kenpo Jiu-jitsu."

"Kenpo Karate", which uses the original Chinese characters, clearly defies KENPO and distinguishes it from the Japanese and  Okinawan written characters (kanji) which define Karate as "empty hand(s)".

This art of Kenpo was introduced to American community in 1941. Since then, it has been under constant transformation. From the earliest days in the Official Self-Defense Club in Hawaii to present day American Kenpo schools, you would be hard pressed to find any similarities from one school to the next.

The United States Karate Association (USKA), recognizes Kenpo under its first style name Kosho Shorei Ryu Kempo.