Charles Lee and Koshoryu

Reviews, Videos, and Everything Else Bullshido.ORG Martial Arts Encyclopedia Discussion
1

What with all the controversy around James Mitose, who his successor is and what Koshoryu might be in the first place, it;s interesting that nobody talks about a non-controversial side of it: That Charles Lee inherited the Mitose style taught at the Official Self-Defense club.

I first ran into information about this on Usenet. Google search strings are too long, but if you search Good Groups for “Charles Lee” and Kosho you’ll get two of the posts I’m talking about. Look for “Charlie Lee” and Kosho as well.

Mitose’s karate-style arts apparently went to Thomas Young, and from there to Simeon Eli. At Eli’s death, the American Jujutsu Institute (a group focused on Danzan-ryu, started by Okazaki and others) passed it on to lee by unanimous vote.

Here’s a tinyurl of a post about this: http://tinyurl.com/de7ka

Here’s a bio of Lee. Note the diploma with the Koshoryu crest:

http://www.usadojo.com/martial-artists-biographies/martial-artist-charles-lee.htm

This is the AJI’s page listing Lee:

http://www.edixi.com/users/theaji/officers.htm

Now I can speculate about why this branch is virtually unknown. Part of it is that kenpo folks who want anything to do with the Mitose legacy (not EPAK) either want to claim direct lineage (Juchnik, Barro-Mitose, Nimr Hassan) or have let things slide to either the Tracys or William Durbin when it comes to historical reasearch. But from what I can tell, nobody at all disputes the Mitose-Young-Eli-Lee branch.

What I’d like to know, then, is what Charles Lee is teaching when he teaches Kosho? I’ve heard everything from it being one kata and makiwara work nicked without credit from karate to a complete classical MA with an unlikely background.

What katas does he teach? What schools does he run? What’s up with this really, really obscure guy who seems to be virtually unknown, but less dodgy than most?

2

It is ture that the original black belts of the Self Defense club are not discussed when talking about lineage, outside of Chow that is. Now I don’t believe that Mitose ever officially handed the system to Young did he? I thought gave Young permission, if you will, to open up a school and teach.

A reason why we don’t hear about Young’s decendants is most likely a “squeaky wheel” scenario. Juchnik, Barro-Mitose and Namir have been the most vocal about their lineage, so people just assume that it all flows through them. You raise a good question though, what happened with the other original black belts of the Self Defense club? Did they go on to open their own schools or did they just go on with their lives without martial arts? We all know what became of Chow, and we know that Thomas Young passed away several years ago. I know of Yamaguchi still being alive and doing seminars from time to time. What about the rest? Anyone? Anyone?

3

Bobby Lowe became a Kyokushin guy
Yamaguchi
You don’t here really anything abouth the rest

4

Well, it was Young who actually promoted Chow, apparently. In a dispute over lineage, Young’s line is oldest and most direct and would probably be given preeminence. I’ve also read at least one of Juchnik’s students saying that Lee’s right to the system is “not in dispute.”

The trouble is (of course) that Juchnik couldn;t have had an physical training from Mitose and his documentation often looks like personal letrters that have been interpreted to support his view. Even the cretofocate Mitose handed out says nothing about Juchnik being successive head.

My interest, though, is in what Lee’s Koshoryu actually is, since it would be the closest line to what Mitose taught, which would provide some evidence about whether it’s misappropriated karate or something else.

5

If Lyle Ho is really a Kosho Guy, it was pretty hard and linear. Alot closer to KaJukenpo in terms of aggressiveness and closing in on the guy

6

Jason Spencer at link: http://tinyurl.com/de7ka wrote that Juchnic was sent to prison, where he met Mitose. This is incorrect. Juchnic never did time. He was a Tracy’s kenpo bb at the time, and found out about Mitose from a fellow kenpo man who was a guard at San Quentin. Through the proper channels, Juchnik made the acquaintence of Mitose, and visited him in prison.

How much anyone could have learned from Mitose while he was a prisoner has long been debated. At the end Mitose decried karate and body-contact martial arts in one of his last books and started promoting a form of “Kosho-Shorei” yoga. Over the years, one of the sons Mitose gave up for adoption, Thomas Mitose (who changed his name from Barros, that of his adoptive parents), Juchnik, and Nimr Hassan have laid claim to Mitose’s art. Thomas Young was the quiet fellow who practiced and taught. Young never made any outlandish claims. Juchnik made the effort of seeking him out to learn more.

Most of Kosho as it is know today was developed after Mitose’s death. During his life, Mitose claimed to teach kempo-jujutsu when Okinawan karate and jujutsu were popular in the islands, koga-ninjutsu when that art became an item of interest in the US…and Kosho-Shorei yoga when he was imprisoned, convicted of inciting a faithful student (Hassan) to commit a violent crime in the name of loyalty. I personally believe Mitose was an opportunist who used every angle he could to get what he wanted. At the end he was trying to fit the mold he’d created of “man of peace” to win release from prison. But he did not succeed. He died in prison.

Happiness,

M.C. Busman

7

I’m hoping that some description of Lee’s syllabus would help point things one way or another. Certainly I’m inclined to believe that Mitose was primarily a confidence man, but just like modern McDojoism, it’s no guarantee that there wasn’t something actually being taught.