Kajukenbo Ohana Association - KOA

Grand Master Donald Nahoolewa began Kajukenbo training in 1959 under the legendary Aleju Reyes in Sui Sun , California while stationed at Travis Airforce Base. Mr. Nahoolewa was the first Black Belt promoted by Mr. Reyes. GM Nahoolewa is the originator of the American Kempo Association and later the American Kajukembo Association.

The American Kajukembo Association consists primarily of martial artists descending from Aleju Reyes, who brought the Emperado Method, aka Original Method to the mainland in 1959. This lineage represents the "hard style" of Kajukembo also referred to as the Kenpo Karate branch.

The use of the "M" in place of the "N" in Kajukembo was originally incorporated by Don Nahoolewa in the early 1970's. In 1974, Don Nahoolewa and Richard Peralta met with their instructor, Aleju Reyes and the founder of Kajukenbo, Adriano D. Emperado to discuss the forming of the American Kempo Association and the use of the M in Kajukembo.

Both Emperado and Reyes agreed and gave them a signed letter recognizing the Kajukembo branch. The reason to change was twofold. First, Kempo was originally pronounced with an M, and the Chinese spelling uses the m sound. Second, Nahoolewa and Peralta had wanted their schools to be identified.

Schools using the "M" today are either from the Nahoolewa branch, or the Peralta branch. From these two instructors are the American Kajukembo Association, Kajukembo Self-Defense Systems, Jukensa Kajukembo, Thunderbird Kajukembo Association, International Kajukembo Association, American Kempo Association and Asociacion Espanola de Kajukembo.

Source: http://www.akaohana.com/