Ed Parkers first teacher was Frank Chow while Ed lived in Utah. Frank is the one who suggested Ed study with William, who I believe was Frank's brother. Now here is where it gets confusing, because William Chow, while Ed Parkers teacher, was also James Mitoses student. There is the argument that William Chow had no formal MA training before Mitose, but that doesn't explain how Frank Chow learned Kenpo, as he was never a student of Mitose's. I have also heard the story that Chow's father was a shaolin priest, but to my knowledge this has never been proven.
My best guess is that William and Frank Chow both studied a Chuan Fa system, but in a less formal atmosphere and to a less detailed degree than some would suggest. The reason I say this is that if the Chows were formally educated in a family kung fu system, William would NOT have studied under Mitose , as culturally this would not be acceptable. If you had mastered your families' kung fu system, why would you want to learn some "inferior" system, from a Japanese, none the less?
Mitose's family did have a Ryu, or family style of Kenpo that appears to have been at least influenced, if not taken whole sale from a southern kung fu system. However , this chuan fa system would have changed during the time between its introduction to the Mitose clan( Mitose is James mothers name, not his family name)and the time James started teaching it in Hawaii, probably getting more "linear" as the Japanese influence was incorporated.
Once Ed Parker got hold of the Kenpo system, there was another influx of Chinese influence. This next section of text I cut and paste from an interview with Grand Master John McSweeny, (RIP) an original Parker Black Belt:
""Then he said, 'I'm going to solve this problem.' And within a month he brought down Jimmy Wu from San Francisco, who was a Kung Fu man, a specialist in White Crane and Tai Chi, and other animal sets, but he especially loved the internal arts. So, Jimmy Wu lived with Parker for a full 12 months. Parker paid his room and board, but unfortunately, not any salary, and that's why Jimmy Wu left us eventually, because he needed more money to survive and Parker gave very little, not enough for his needs, so he left.
"But before he left, Jimmy Wu created our forms. I was there when he created them, with the other belts like Al Tracy and Jimmy Ebrao and Rich Montgomery, guys who were my seniors at Kenpo. I was in the group, and we learned these forms together from Jimmy Wu. Parker learned the forms too, but then Parker made his own adjustments, especially to form one, two and three. He made more linear moves and some Kenpo moves in form two, but if you notice in forms four, five and six, they have the Chinese influence exclusively.
"I would say there was 90% Jimmy Wu and 10% Parker in those forms, and forms one through three would be half and half, Parker and Wu. But without Jimmy Wu, we wouldn't have had forms one through six, a lot of people don't realize that, and it's essentially Chinese and that's the basis of Parkers forms."
the definitive history is at www.tracykarate.com ;)
or you could just as a kosho guy
Mitose was from Japan later Hawaii.
Chow was a Hawaiian/Chinese mix from Hawaii. Chows father was not a Shaolin priest. Chow was Mitose's number one man. Mitose later left to CA and lived there till he got in to trouble and spent the rest of his life in Jail. Chow changed the name of his art many times. Thunder bolt Karate, Kenpo, later he said he had a dream and was told to call his art Kara Ho Kenpo(Emperado). Parker was a student of Chow. Who moved to the mainland as a color belt student, but threw innovation and hard training made a formidable art known as American Kenpo. Emperado was Chows number one man. Later felt, that there should be more to the art as he felt Mitose's training was more one shot one kill mentality(ala Karate). So in 1947-1949 he trained with four other instructors of Karate, Judo/Juijitsu, and american boxing later combining the first letter of each art calling it KAJUKENBO for the street Emperado also grew up learning Escrima from his step father. Now they had the tools to fight stand up, on the ground, & with or without a weapon. There training were legendary and to some brutal as they trained full power, no protective equipment to make it as street realistic as possible. Broken teeth, bruises, and fractures were a monthly event. Emperado felt the training didn't start till the blood hit the ground. Making them the first truly cross-training individuals in America.
Just to throw in my 2 cents,someone mentioned earlier that Tai Chi is supposedly the greatest martial art, yet China has had a lot of problems defending its borders historically. I agree that Chinese martial arts are not always as great as they are cracked up to be (they can't all be the best), but I'm fairly sure that very very few if any Chinese soldiers would have learned Tai Chi or any other "internal" style (except supposedly Hsing-I, which was taught to a small group of officers). Tai Chi was never widely taught until the mid 20th century, where it was prescribed to sick or elderly people by the Chinese government (also to encourage a sense of cultural identity I imagine). Tai Chi is only supposed to have left the Chen village in the late 18th-19th century, and most styles are really fairly modern adaptations. (These guys have a lot to say about it http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/Philosophy/Taichi/history.html )Bruce Frantzis has said in his book "Internal Martial Arts" that most chinese troops were taught only fairly basic skills officially, and higher level training was reserved for officers. Some villages also learnt "farmer styles" which were handed down just within the village. High powered stuff which claims supernatural abilities for its practitioners, like Ba Gua, was taught to body guards and couriers in fairly restrictive schools which guarded knowledge carefully. I trained with a guy who would ignore me for days at a time before showing me something new, so I can easily believe this. Anyway, great forum, sorry to sidetrack you, hope it wasn't too boring.