ED Parker’s 6th Degree from Sijo Emperado… And then wow.

I recently saw a post of an Instructors Certificate for Ed Parker and connected it with a letter I found in the Kajukenbo archive. Let me just say that I am no expert on Ed Parker or American Kenpo’s history. I just found this interesting and worthy of reposting.

As the story goes, Ed Parker, the founder of American Kenpo Karate, began his martial arts journey with Judo and later studied Kenpo under William Chow. In 1953, he earned his black belt from Chow. Adapting the art to be more applicable to American streets, Parker developed American Kenpo Karate. Interestingly, Sijo Emperado of Kajukenbo, who was Chow's first black belt, played a role in Parker's journey. Although it is said that Chow’s and Parkers relationship soured, Sijo Emperado acknowledged Parker's contributions by promoting him to 6th, 7th, and 8th-degree black belt for his role in spreading Kenpo on the mainland. I imagine this is the fundamental commonality between American Kenpo and Kajukenbo, at least Hard Style anyway.

While this document fills in some of the gaps about our two arts as well as why my grandfather Aleju “Al” Reyes, Sijo, and Master Parker worked so closely together promoting their tournaments, (Northern Pacific Nationals and Mr. Parker’s Long Beach Internationals,) the real kicker of this story for me was at the end of this letter. Sijo goes on to tell grandpa about one of his students that will be visiting him in Hawaii. Miss Kuglin, happens to be my Mother and of course SGM Alan Reyes became my father. 1967, was 2 years before I was born. How’s that for finding some randomness in our endeavors to preserve our Kajukenbo history.

-Christopher Reyes

Ed Parker’s 6th degree certificate from Sijo Emperado.

Sijo Emperado’s letter to Aleju Reyes regarding Ed Parkers Promotion.