Sijo Adriano D. Emporado

• 10th Degree Black Belt
• Creator & Founder Kajukenbo System
• Black Belt Hall of Fame
• 75 Years Martial Arts
• June 15, 1926 – April 4, 2009

Adriano D. Emperado created the Kajukenbo System, held it together like glue, and he encouraged young Instructors to create new techniques and forms to strengthen the system, in order for it to grow. He was a humble man and lived his life as such.There will be no one to take his place. His legacy is cut in stone. Sijo Adriano D Emperado was one of a kind. The 5 branches must find a way to keep the system from going their separate ways.
The core of the system must be kept in tact. We will miss him greatly, our love to the family but in Kajukenbo we are all family. Let us dedicate ourselves to keep the system as strong as we can on the Mat.

Adriano D. Emperado was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on June 16, 1926. He was born to Filipino-Hawaiian parents in the poor Palama section of Honolulu. He started his self defense training at the age of 8. At this time in his life both his father and uncle were professional boxers, so of course he was taught how to box.
There he learned the basic 12 strikes of escrima. At age 14 he found himself back in his old Palama neighborhood. There he trained in judo under Sensei Taneo at the Palama Settlement Gym.

A few years later at the age of 20 Emperado undertook the serious study of kenpo at the Catholic Youth Organization in Honolulu. These classes were taught by the legendary Professor William K.S. Chow. Professor Chow had been a student of kenpo jiu jitsu instructor James Mitose, and also held a 5th degree black belt in judo. Emperado trained daily with Chow and soon became his first black belt. Emperado spent years with Professor Chow becoming his Chief Instructor and attaining the rank of 5th degree black belt.

During the developmental years of Kajukenbo, Emperado would train with the 4 other co-founders during the day and then teach classes for Chow in the evenings. After the other 4 went off to war, Emperado started the first Kajukenbo school at the Palama Settlement Gym in 1950. The workouts that took place there are legendary for their brutality. Emperado has been quoted as saying that a workout wasn’t over until there was blood on the floor. He felt “that you have to experience pain before you can give it.
You have to know what your technique can do. “We lost a lot of students in those days, but we also got a lot
from other schools, including black belts. He then described how his first black belt Marino Tiwanak joined his class after being soundly defeated by him in response to Tiwanak’s challenge. What makes this such a astonishing story is the fact that Marino Tiwanak was the flyweight boxing champion of Hawaii at the time of the challenge.

With the success of the Palama Settlement school Emperado started expanding. He left the teaching at the
Palama school to his brother Joe while he started classes at the Kaimuki Y.M.C.A. and the Wahiwa Y.M.C.A..
Soon the Kajukenbo Self Defense Institute of Hawaii, Inc. was the largest chain of karate schools
in Hawaii. Emperado also became instrumental in the development of tournament karate in Hawaii. He sat
on the Hawaii Karate Rules Board, which established standards for competition used throughout the
islands.
A lot of Emperado’s knowledge of street fighting came from his many years in law enforcement. He had
spent 14 years as a harbor policeman for the Hawaii Department of a Transportation, and a year with the
Hawaii Attorney General’s Office. While with the Attorney General’s Office he served as a body guard to
the governor. He then entered the private sector as the security director for a large company. He worked
in the corporate security field until he suffered a heart attack in 1982.

All of his life Emperado has studied various martial arts. In his 30s he expanded his knowledge of escrima
by training with his step father Alfredo Peralta. Peralta taught him a method using the single stick.
Emperado described how they would take 2x4s and taper down handles and then train with them. He said
that “after a workout with the 2×4 you could make a rattan stick go like lighting”.

About the same time he started a serious study of various kung fu systems. He studied under Professor
Lau Bun of the Choy Li Fut system and Professor Wong of the Northern Shaolin system. Several years later
these professors and the Hawaii Chinese Physical Culture Association awarded Emperado the title
Professor 10th degree. Also at this time he was awarded a certificate by Grandmaster Ho Gau of Hong
Kong appointing him as a advisor and representative of the Choy Li Fut system. This certificate was
signed by Grandmaster Ho Gau, Professor Cheuk Tse, and the directors of the Hawaii Chinese Physical
Culture Association. This was truly an accolade when one considers that the Hawaii Chinese Physical
Culture Association was the first kung fu school outside of China.

Because he had been exposed to many fighting systems Emperado has always been one to welcome
innovation. Unlike most of the traditional systems, his Kajukenbo evolves constantly. To date there are 4
systems within then kajukenbo style.

The first of course is the Original Method, sometimes referred to as the kenpo karate branch. This is the
system that Emperado, Holck, Choo, Ordonez, and Chang formulated between 1947 and 1949. The original
method uses kenpo karate as a base and adds selected techniques from the tang soo do, judo, jujitsu,
and sil-lum pai kung fu systems. The second system is the Tum Pai branch. This system was in
development from 1959-1966 by Emperado, Al Dacascos, and Al De La Cruz. Development was suspended
in 1966 when Dacascos moved to the mainland. Its development was then re-activated in 1984 by Jon
Loren. The Tum Pai system incorporates the original kajukenbo techniques along with tai chi chuan
elements. The third system is the Chuan Fa branch. This system started development in 1966. Again this
was a collaboration of Emperado, Al Dacascos, and Al De La Cruz. This system incorporated the Northern
and Southern styles of kung fu with the original method of kajukenbo.

The result was a blend of soft and hard techniques. The Chuan Fa system also opened the door to the
richness and unlimited techniques that the Chinese arts had to offer. The last system is the Won Hop
Kuen Do (combination fist art) branch. This branch was the brain child of Al Dacascos. When he moved to
the San Francisco area in the early 60s Dacascos supplemented his kajukenbo training with an extensive
study of the Chinese and Filipino arts. In 1969 he saw that his kajukenbo was becoming a blend of the
various systems that he was learning. This system that he named Won Hop Kuen Do contained the original
kajukenbo forms and 25 exclusive fighting principles. Like all of the systems, Won Hop Kuen Do is in a
constant state of evolution. Although kajukenbo has 4 systems Emperado has always stressed that no
system is superior to another and that they are not improvements on the original method. They are just
kajukenbo expressions that emphasize different techniques.

In his lifetime Emperado has seen his kajukenbo style grow into a major martial art that is practiced all
across the United States and in several countries.