[3] 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 [4] back to Japan to be given formal education and upbringing with family living there.

James returned to Hawaii on February 25, 1935, arriving at Honolulu on the SS Tatsuta Maru at the age of 18.

[5] His martial arts practices contained marked similarities to Okinawan karate and Japanese jujutsu.

When the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred, Mitose enlisted in the Hawaii National Guard but was honorably discharged after three weeks.

[8] After his release in 1942, he spent most of the war teaching Kenpo in Hawaii to prepare American civilians for a possible Japanese invasion.

[9] Michael Brown of Rhode Island Martial Arts possesses documents showing three families of James Mitose.

Higaonna Kamesuke stayed in Hawaii after 1933 with Thomas Miyashiro, and taught classes in Kona.

Mitose ultimately called his style Kosho Shorei-Ryū Kenpo, which can be translated as "Old Pine Tree School Fist Law".

Kenpo was based from Shuri-te that Ankō Itosu Gichin Funakoshi and Motobu Chōki learned.

When Mitose first began teaching in 1936, he called his art Kenpo Jiu-Jitsu ("fist law flexible technique") and would later refer to it as Shorinji (small forest temple) Kempo (a Japanese translation of "quánfǎ," which means "fist law" in English) or goshin jutsu ("self-defense technique").

The word "Shorin" is characteristic of styles from Okinawa, although in modern times "Shorinji Kempo" is used to refer to an unrelated Japanese martial sect founded by Doshin So in 1947.

"[citation needed] The description or lineage Mitose gave for his style also emphasized its Chinese roots.

He privately taught a few students in that time, including Terry Lee (known today as Nimr Hassan) for about a year.

According to trial transcripts, James Mitose denied inciting Lee to commit murder but took responsibility as his martial arts instructor.

Lee also testified that Mitose and his wife Dorothy had given him a rope, a knife, a screwdriver and an air pistol in order to carry out his actions.

In James Mitose's final days he was visited by his wife Dorothy, son Alvin, and Bruce Juchnik.