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5 responses so far ↓

• 1 Mark // Jun 7, 2009 at 3:02 pm

  I remember when he was promoted to 3rd dan, and that was by an American Goju-Ryu master.

  He used to have a certificate on his site, stating how his students got together and decided to award him the title of Shihan.

  Admittedly, self promotion is how most Grandmasters get there, but time is a better judge of the accuracy of the title.

  I can think of five 10th dan Grandmasters of Shaolin Kempo off the top of my head.

• 2 Mark // Jun 7, 2009 at 3:06 pm

  That’s five Grandmasters besides Christopher Geary.

  Fred Villari
  Steve DeMasco
  Charles Mattera
  Cal Carozzi
  Jim Brassard

  Anybody else have a 10th dan Shaolin Kempo Grandmaster to add?

• 3 matt // Jun 7, 2009 at 6:50 pm

  Let me think about that – there’s got to be more. I feel like there’s at least a couple we’re leaving out.

• 4 matt // Jun 7, 2009 at 6:58 pm

  Bobby “Tokyo Joe” Lamattina. I knew there was at least one more. There’s probably more around here somewhere. How about Al Cunningham? Of course those guys started training about the time the gentleman from Omaha was born.

• 5 Todd // Nov 3, 2009 at 12:24 am

  What about Ed Parker, and Nick Cerio (10th dan)? Whatever happened to Fred Bagley and that other guy…… John Fritz, was that his name? I recently saw that Joey Esposito (apparently promoted himself) to 10th dan “Grandmaster” in “his Kenpo”, he’s in “d’lake” section of Newton (Nonantum).
  Well, of course James Mitose, and now his son Thomas Barrio Mitose, William Chow (and what about his brother?, forget his name). What about some of the other original students of James Mitose in Hawaii? What about Jack Tatum? That’s all I can think of at this moment. As you said, all, or almost all (except James Mitose) have been “self promoted” to 10th dan Grandmaster, usually by breaking off from their instructors school/system and starting their own, usually for money. But as you also said, it takes alot of years of continuous study, training, acquiring knowledge, teaching, etc… to beable to legitimately name yourself a 10th dan. One usually has to create something wholly new, like Wally Jay developing Small Circle Jujitsu, which differs from other styles of Jujitsu.

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