Ed Parker, the founder of Kenpo Karate, derived the Martial Art from Southern Chinese Kung Fu and other Martial Arts found in Hawai. Tremendous modifications was made, including theories and terminology. He basically made a rapid-fire Martial Art, designed to overwhelm the enemy.

Kenpo Karate is largely known as a self defence style. Many Kenpo Karate clubs of various styles can be found all across the US.

Parker wanted to make a Martial Art unique to western civilization. When he first started to transform Asian Martial Arts into an "American Style", he was still a brown belt. People liked to call it Kenpo Karate, because the word "Karate" was and still is directly related to Martial Arts. In his struggle to shape Kenpo Karate into a distinct form, forced him to replace most Asian terms into english ones. Entirely new priciples had to be invented to express Asian idesas such as qi. Such a task was difficult and time consuming, but at the end he succeeded at harmonizing Asian culture with American culture.

New forms, patterns and techniques was invented and restructured by Parker. He tried his best to make his art a unique one, and thereofre moved away from techniques and forms that was related to another art.

4 Years before Parker died, his art was finished. America's own Karate