The constant pursuit of unity "Bunbi-Itchi: the feather and the sword are one. The history of Shaolin Kempô has been written up already several times. What is striking here is that it in turn to the creation and dissemination of many stories is that you may or may not also believe. Of those who could describe in particular the origins and beginnings in Holland, unfortunately hardly there is. The following article about the history of Kempô in the Netherlands is based on the publications of Dr. Harry de Spa dating back to 1994 in the Budo No Kokore and recordings of Olaf Bock Hanshi, founder of Shôrin Kempô. The constant pursuit for unity describes best this story. The period of 1960-1980 The history of Kempô in Holland in the fifties of the last century began with Carel Faulhaber. Carel Faulhaber was born on November 2, 1923 in Semarang (Indonesia). According to his own statements, was his first encounter with the kuntao (Chinese karate) from his father Friedrich Andries Faulhaber, who in turn had learned it from his father. In January 1954, Carel Faulhaber came with his Indonesian wife and four sons in the Netherlands. After repeated move he settled down early in 1961 in Renkum. His four sons were all personally teaches from her fifth year in the kuntao. DHR. Schilder (born 1926) and Wim Hof (born 1926), owner of the fitness studio Noviomagum, even Judo veteran and former Kempoka and both former members in the Dutch East India army then remember Carel Faulhaber as excellent Kempô master and as the one who has the Kempô introduced in the Netherlands. 1959 joins Faulhaber with his Kuntao of Judokwai in Holland and changes its name to Shaolin Kempô. 1962 Corporal Gerard Karel Meijers makes contact with the former Sergeant of 1st class Carel Faulhaber. Gerald Karel Meijers had come in 1950 from Indonesia to the Netherlands and signed up a few years later as a volunteer at the Korea Corps. He stated at Faulhaber that he had experience in Military Combat and have acquired the 1st Dan in Taekyon, visited Japan in 1954 and was on his return to the Netherlands Corporal Assistant of Sergeant Van de Stormbaan in Harskamp where he got interested in Kuntao. Meijers had some time Judo and Jiu-Jitsu at Boersma in Amersfoort and Kyokushinkai Karate with Sensei Jon Bluming trained. At the urging of Jon Bluming, Meijers opened in June 1962 his first school in Ede 1. One of his first students was Camine Tundo. During this time he also, as a student of Carel Faulhaber, train Kuntao. After Faulhaber and Meijers had separated in the dispute brought Meijers his Kempo, partly at the urging of still underage sons of Faulhaber, under the name of Shaolin Kempo, as Faulhaber called his Kuntao since 1959, to the 1 Note: Why Blumimg has insisted is not clear. According to Harry de Spa there was dispute between Blumimg and Meijers.
outside. From late 1966 to mid 1967 there was the Kempô section Faulhaber and the Kempô grouping to Meijers, from which later the ENSKB was built, in the Netherlands Judokwai. The Meijers Kempo was in the beginning, despite the basis of Kuntao from Faulhaber, weak. The core of the Meijers Kempo were 5 short Kata forms called Sifats, supplemented by Kumite forms from the Kyokushinkai and the Dju-Su, a form of self-defense which was based on his experience in Judo and Jiu-Jitsu. All this was then compensated under the influence of Kyokushinkai, by loving attention to free fight. Shortly thereafter, in 1968-69, collapsed the Kempo section of the Judokwai. Most of the teachers from these groups went on their own way and taught a kind Pentjak Silat or Kempo Pentjak mixed forms. Hardly anyone believed in the persist of Kempo Martial Arts. Meijers traveled in 1966, after the break with the family of Faulhaber, to Japan and Southeast Asia. He was coached by Gogen Yamaguchi and Doshin So and went to Taiwan and Thailand to take classes in Kung Fu. From this time, a couple of things in each case had influence on his Kempô. The fist of the Yamaguchi family decorated the black and white Kempo-Gi and the kata Sanchin and Tensho were part of the Kempô curriculum but that in the later years, mainly in Germany but also in the Netherlands, no longer were known. At the beginning of the seventies of the last century Meijers went to Germany and attracted much attention with his Shaolin Kempô Kung-Fu. Carel Paatje Faulhaber died in 1974 at the age of 50. Also in Germany at the time was Sensei Ted Verschuur, a student of Faulhaber. Sensei Verschuur went his Kempo way after the break in the Judokwai and taught a Kempô Pentjak hybrid graduated in 1972 in the IBF. In Holland Cees van der Wielen, 4.Dan from Apeldoorn and former student of Meijers, took over the leadership in Shaolin Kempo. The city of Arnhem played a special role in the Kempô of Netherlands. Arnhem was in the late sixties of the last century the Kempô City of the Netherlands with people like Jan Brüger, Carmine Tundo and Cor Brugman. They were teachers of Ed Speijers, Menno Albouts, Olaf Bock (founder of Shôrin Kempô), Roberto Tundo, Edward Hartman. They will play a major role in the Kempô especially from the mid1970s. Mid-1975 through the idea Klaas Padberg and Harry de Spa, a student of Ted Verschuur, to bring the Kempô in the Netherlands again under one roof what was implemented in late 1975. On the 18.01.1976, the first demonstration of the interest group of Shaolin Kempô Netherlands (BSKN) took place in Nijmwegen. On the 01.02.1976 was held a meeting at the headquarters of the IOG (International organisatie Gevechtssporten) to discuss whether the Shaolin Kempô to accommodate may be in the IOG. On 15.02.1976 the first open Dutch Kempo Championships of the IOG took place in Den Haag. An important substantive change for the Shaolin Kempo in the Netherlands but had been launched already in December 1975 which resulted in the course of the year 1976 on the establishment of the Shaolin Kempo Organization (SKO).
The SKO was founded at the behest of Klaas Padberg intentionally to give an organization of all Chinese martial arts in the Netherlands. The Shaolin Kempô of the sixties, which Japanese content was, was included in the Group of Chinese martial arts. Padberg and Hesselman were editors of the magazine Samurai. The Kempô received increasing attention by many articles from Padberg on Chinese martial arts. On 15.10.1977 the first open Dutch Kempo Kung Fu Championships of the SKO took place in Arnhem. Highlight of the SKO were the open Kempô Kung Fu Championships at 12.02.1978. At the end of the seventies the SKO broke apart. Some members of the SKO joined the Karate Bond Nederland on1981 others went their own ways. The period from 1980 In 1978 founded Meijers the WMAA. Through the contact of Meijers to John Bontje (Chairman of Karate Bond Nederland-KBN) occurred on April 25, 1981 the first meeting between representatives of the KBN (Karate Bond Nederland) and Kempô teachers in Utrecht. Meijers himself was not interested in the KBN 2. 1981 some Kempo teachers were already driven several times to Mönchengladbach to workout at Meijers. But apart from good food, socializing and lots of meetings happened what Kempo concerned nothing. He repeatedly emphasized the pragmatic character of Kempo and referred to the management of the organization WMAA based in Taipei. Kempô was Meijers and Meijers was Kempô and thus all was said 3. Nevertheless drove some Kempo teacher as Speijers, de Spa, Brügers, C. Tundo, Bock, Theloesen, Hartman and some more to the squad training of the WMAA in Mönchengladbach and Doetinchem. At the meeting on April 25, 1981, the establishment of the Shaolin Kempô and kenpō karate sections decided within the KBN. At the 03.10.1981 started for the joined Kempô teacher then under the organization of the KBN state-approved teacher training Karate Do. A chore, where no one was happy with but had no other solution. A large group of Kempô teachers left the KBN, because they believed that the contents of the Shaolin Kempô would be distorted by the influence of Padberg`s Pack Mee Pai Kung Fu. By Padberg Katas as Fa Kuen and Lau Gar Kuen came out of the Hung Gar Kung Fu in Shaolin Kempô that which have been officially notified from 1982 within the BSKN the KBN. The BSKN existed until the end of the 1985th The SKB (Shaolin Kempô Bond Nederland) was founded in 1989 where many of the former Kempoka ENSKB, WMAA and SKO as JCA Brugman, O. Bock, C. Tundo, R. Tundo, E. Hartman, M. Albouts etc. joined forces itself. A contact to Meijers, who was back in the Netherlands since 1982, existed only sporadically.
2 Note: This is where opinions differ. The fact is that the proposal of the connection at the KBN at least came from Meijers. In the records of Harry de Spa shown somewhat contradictory. 3 Note: This statement is a personal, resulting from many conversations assessment of Harry de Spa.
In 1993, through various Kempô organizations and in cooperation with the NOC / NSF, will be founded the Kempô Associatie Nederland (KAN) as an umbrella organization with the goal of uniting different Kempô styles in the Netherlands. The KAN united in the Netherlands the organizations of the American Kenpō Karate (H. Hesselman), the Kempô Kuntao Long Fu Moon (R. van Kraft van Ermel), the Shaolin Kempô Hsinshih (Tj.W.E. Laeyendecker) and the Shaolin Kempô Bond (SKB). In the spring of 2003, the representative of the KAN, E. Hartman, C. Dyster and Tj.W.E. Laeyendecker meet with Olaf Bock Hanshi in the Netherlands to discuss in order the inclusion of the KAN in the International Kempô Federation (IKF). Olaf Bock, who had now established his Shaolin Kempô as Shôrin Kempô, founded the IKF 2002 with the aim to unite different Kempô systems in the world under one roof. Since 2003, the K.A.N. is Member of the globally acting IKF.