What was Kempo?
It is much easier to say what Kempo was in former times rather than what it is today. Kempo had its heyday during the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries when the original purpose of this diverse group of crafts was political expediency, that is, they were used to train people whose job it was to maintain the political status quo in the Japan of that time. That basically meant keeping the ascendant Ashikaga clan and its many allied families in power, and helping to facilitate a healthy trade relationship with China that the early Ashikaga Shoguns tried hard to cultivate. Many of the Kempo arts were based on the school of Shinto whose guardians were the Yoshida (formerly Urabe) family. This was not just coincidence, many of the Yoshida were supporters of the Ashikaga, and also it was found that the normal Zen training of the bushi (warriors) was not suitable for many of the kinds of political applications such as the “protection” of strategic members of important families to prevent them from
