Adriano Emperado
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Adriano Emperado is the main of five martial artists, who have developped kajukenbo - the system of self-defence.
Emperado had a hard time of being a child in Honolulu. At the beginning, his training of martial arts was in escrima, which later influenced different sides of his kajukenbo. After that, Emperado interested in kempo and reached black belt of fifth degree under the direction of William K. S. Chow.
In the year 1947, five martial artists met in Palama Settlement - an area of Honolulu. They named themselves Black Belt Society. Their purpose was to develop the highest system of self-defence. They were: Peter Y. Choo (tangsudo - Korean karate), Frank Ordonez (jujitsu), Joseph Holck (judo), Adriano Emperado (kenpo and escrima), and Clarence Chang (Shaolin wushu- "Chinese boxing"). After two years, these five martial masters created a system which worked well in street fights. This system gained its name ("kajukenbo") from the first letters of the four systems of which it is made up. Since then, the kajukenbo has gained an opinion as "the perfected art of dirty fighting on the street," as one member said.
The first school of kajukenbo was opened in the Palama Settlement, and directed by Emperado and his brother, Joe. In order to be undefeated on streets, kajukenbo students had reasonable, but unkind and severe training. They fought with full contact. Various injures were an everyday event, and the number of persons at the school soon decreased to few faithful men. Emperado's school gave several future instructors who would gain a high position in teaching and influenced the international community of martial arts: Sid Asuncion, Tony Ramos, Charles Gaylord, Aleju Reyes, Joe Halbuna and Al Dacascos, in order to name just a few of them.
In the year 1959, Emperado began making wushu a part of kajukenbo, moving the special care from the hard way of karate to a result of combining hard and soft techniques. Kajukenbo has developped slowly into a system open to act of improving and ready to accept what is effecient.
The modern kajukenbo uses anything gained from its founders, but it cares about its opinion as an art that has been prepared for any street fight. Because of Emperado's life directed towards teaching the martial arts, Black Belt Magazine has named him its Instructor of the Year 1991.