Frank Ordonez stated that in 1947 he invited his friends Adriano Emperado, Joseph Holck, and Peter Choo to train with him in the martial arts. When Choo arrived, he brought his friend George Chang. Choo stated the group trained at various locations from 1947 through 1949, to include Damon Tract, a former naval housing area, Halawa Housing, where the group trained in abandoned military barracks, and at Professor Henry Okazaki’s Danzan Ryu school located on Kaheka Lane. During their time together the group “Tested Each Other Out” as Emperado described it and combined their knowledge of karate, judo, jujitsu, kenpo, and boxing (both American and Chinese) to create, photograph, and document a series of self-defense techniques that blended both striking and grappling concepts from the various arts.   

When the group disbanded in 1949, Emperado continued to develop the concepts the group used to create techniques of their own, and along with his brother Joe Emperado, began teaching martial arts at the Palama Settlement, a private, non-profit, community-based social service agency serving the Kalihi and Palama neighborhoods. 

Through the 1950s, Emperado and his brother Joe went on to create additional techniques, add forms or katas, adopt protocols, train instructors, and in the winter of 1957, established the Kajukenbo Self Defense Institute (KSDI). It was at that point when the art was formally changed from kenpo-karate to Kajukenbo. Sadly, Joe Emperado never saw the success and growth of Kajukenbo, passing away on May 30, 1958. 

In 1959/60, Aleju Reyes, a direct student of both Adriano and Joe Emperado left Hawaii and began teaching Kajukenbo in Northern California. As a student of Emperado, Reyes not only learned Kajukenbo, but he also served as the secretary for the KSDI and was tasked with the responsibility of recording how the Kajukenbo techniques and forms were to be performed.  

In the 1960s, Kajukenbo found itself at a crossroads. Emperado had been training in kung fu since the later part of the 1950s, and by the early 1960s really begun to embrace the Chinese arts, so much so, that he worked with Al Dela Cruz and Al Dacascos to create different versions of Kajukenbo, which later became known as Kajukenbo Tum Pai and Kajukenbo Ch’uan Fa. These new styles represented a different direction for Kajukenbo compared to the original hardline kenpo-karate version. 

Along with these new styles came new techniques and forms. While many of the schools added the kung fu flavor to their curriculums, one specific school did not. That school was under the direction of Aleju Reyes. Instead of adopting the kung fu techniques and forms into his curriculum, Reyes asked Emperado if he could keep teaching the art just as Emperado taught it to him. Emperado agreed. 

At that time, I do not believe Emperado or Reyes realized the importance of that moment. In asking Emperado if he could continue to teach the art as it was taught to him, Reyes, in essence, preserved the original hardline method of Kajukenbo, which is known today as the Emperado Method. 

That method includes the following:

· 14 Palama Sets (Originally called Pinans)

· 15 Grab Counters (Basic Tricks)

· 21 Punch Counters (Advanced Tricks)

· 15 Knife Counters

· 13 Club Counters

· 8 Two-Man Counters

· 6 Three-Man Counters

· 26 Advanced Punch Counters (Called Alphabets)

In the early 1960s, Reyes promoted his first group of black belts. They are in the following order:

1. Don Nahoolewa

2. Richard Peralta

3. Joseph Davis

4. Alan Reyes

With the passage of Don Nahoolewa, Richard Peralta, and recently Alan Reyes, Joseph Davis is now the last living Reyes Black Belt from the 1960's. The techniques and forms presented on the UKF website came directly from KSDI Senior Grandmaster Davis and represent the Emperado Method as taught to him by Great Grandmaster Aleju Reyes. In addition, the KSDI has approved the UKF curriculum as an authentic and original version of the Emperado Method. 

I would like to say thank you to Senior Grandmaster Davis on behalf of myself, Professor Dennis Peterson, Professor Al Saddler, Professor Walt Schuld, and Sigung Sam Carter, for sharing the Emperado Method of Kajukenbo with us over all these years, and for your role as the Senior Advisor to the United Kajukenbo Federation. 

- Grandmaster Mitch Powell