James Masayoshi Mitose (born Masayoshi Mitose, December 30, 1916 – March 26, 1981) was a Japanese American martial artist who brought the art of Kenpo to the United States starting in 1936. Many Kenpo teachers trace their lineage to him. Mitose was and remains a controversial figure in the history of Kenpo in America. He was convicted of murder and extortion in 1974 and given a life sentence. He died in prison in 1981 due to complications from diabetes. Martial arts training and lineage James Masayoshi Mitose (Masakichi Kosho Kenposai) was born in Kailua-Kona, North Kona District, Hawaii on December 30, 1916. On October 22, 1920, at the age of four, he and his two sisters were taken by their mother back to Japan to be given formal education and upbringing with family living there. While there, in addition to their schoolwork and university studies, they trained in the art of Kenpo and reading Sanskrit. James returned to Hawaii on February 25, 1935, arriving at Honolulu on the SS Tatsuta Maru at the age of 21. His martial arts practices contained marked similarities to Okinawan karate and Japanese jujutsu. Mitose always claimed his art was Japanese rather than Okinawan. Mitose began teaching Kenpo in Hawaii in 1936, and in 1941 set up a martial arts school. He gave the style he taught several names during his lifetime, including "Shorinji Kenpo" and "Kenpo Jujutsu," (both names of recognized Japanese martial arts), but over time, settled on the name Kosho Shōrei-ryū Kenpo. The word "Kenpo" (or "Kempo") is the Japanese pronunciation of "Ch'uan Fa." When the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred, Mitose enlisted in the Hawaii National Guard but was honorably discharged after three weeks. He was later interned in Sand Island, a camp on the north side of Oahu. After his release in 1942, he spent most of the war teaching Kenpo in Hawaii to prepare American civilians for a possible Japanese invasion. He worked as an herbalist and was known to be an extraordinary healer. Tracy's Kenpo has martial lineage through Ray Arquilla to James Mitose and Will Tracy trained under GM Fusae Mitose (Mitose's sister). Mitose claimed that his family in Japan lived near a "Mt. Akenkai's Shaka-In temple." Tracy believes that Mount Akenkai might be Mount Kinkai, near the town of Kinkai, Nagasaki on the island of Kyūshū. This may have been where the Kosho sect of the