| I happened upon:
http://www.tracyskarate.com/faq/faq_kenpo.html
and /faq1.html
..in which Will Tracy of Tracy brothers fame goes on at truly
extraordinary length about the kempo/kenpo distinction, which he
refers to as Kenpo's number one controversy. (!)
It is such a shameless mix of useful information and utter crap
that I couldn't resist sending him e-mail.
His distinction is made simply, between those who say:
kenpo - are literate and know Japanese "grammar"
kempo - are ignorant, arrogant, know little about the Japanese
language... et cetera.
I noted examples of the use of m in words like telegram (dempo),
and constitution (kempo) in two reference texts I had at hand, and
said it is just a feature of the famous Hepburn system of
romanization. Ken or kem are not "right" or "wrong", just from
different systems.
Historically the Hepburn system is passe now, so you can make a
guess that any such usage was made more than twenty years ago.
Gunma prefecture, north of Tokyo for example, used to be commonly
written "Gumma". So if you see Gumma on a map or something, it's
probably an older text.
I pointed out some other errors, (the kana versions all say "kenbo"
in his examples, the common mistake "romanji").
To my surprise he replied to my mail and asked if I would like to take
over ownership of that page for them. Yikes, I don't think so.
In terms of pure sociological interest though, Tracy's version of
the rise of American Kenpo ( same URL as above /kv1.html) is
fascinating, convoluted reading. The baloney and petty squabbles
among the various factions, about the lineage of kenpo, is amazing.
It's got Mormons, patches on the wrong lapel, accusations of invented
rank, sashes/belts, betrayals. Way off track from what I ever thought
should be important in martial arts, but a terrific read. Krazy!
Neil
|
| It sounds like he has gotten the Dave Lowry syndrome. Dave Lowry does
editorials for a couple of the MA publications. The gist of his
message is; if anybody doesn't understand all Japanese language
intricacies as well as he feels he does, or if somebody is doing
something innovative that breaks any sort of tradition then these
people are obviously some kind of cretins. Ironically, he sometimes
uses Judo and Aikido in his examples which would not exist if not for
some people deviating from tradition (relatively recently , I might
add) and developing their own arts. Oh well, I suppose it's time to
step down from my soapbox.
Ernie
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| Now he's gone and put my name on the page, thanking me and entering
part of my mail message in the middle of it.
He doesn't seem to realize, though, that what I said exactly
contradicts the point he is trying to make. Oi, I give up.
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