Not to be confused with
Kendo.
KenpōAmerican Kenpo |
| Also known as | Kempo, Kenpo |
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| Focus | Hybrid |
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| Country of origin | Japan |
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| Creator | Unknown |
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Kenpō (Japanese: 拳法,けんぽう) is the name of several martial arts. This term is often informally transliterated as "kempo", as a result of applying Traditional Hepburn romanization, but failing to use a macron to indicate the long vowel. The word Kenpō translates to "Fist Method", "ken" meaning "fist" and "po" meaning "method/technique". The generic nature of the term combined with its widespread, cross-cultural adoption in the martial arts community has led to many divergent definitions. For example, in Suiō-ryū Iai Kenpō it refers to "Battlefield sword against sword forms". In modern Japanese, the term is generally used to describe any primarily striking based system, especially of Chinese origin.