PRESALE: Black Robe: The Kempo/Kajukenbo Connectiom - 10 Year Anniversary Edition
David Tavares
Ten years after its original publication, Black Robe: The Kempo/Kajukenbo Connection returns in an expanded 10th Anniversary Edition that goes deeper into the people, events, and history behind one of Hawaiʻi’s most influential martial arts traditions.
Drawing upon the knowledge and personal experiences passed down to author David Tavares by Professor Walter Godin, Black Robe explores the connections between Kempo and Kajukenbo and the remarkable story surrounding Joe Emperado. Tavares brings together martial arts history, firsthand accounts, photographs, and documentary evidence to preserve a story that might otherwise have been lost to time.
This special anniversary edition expands the original work with newly included court documents and historical records, providing readers with additional primary-source material connected to the events described in the book. It also features a new author’s preface, written ten years after the book’s first publication, in which Tavares reflects on Professor Godin, Joe Emperado, the martial artists who influenced his journey, the brothers and loved ones he has lost, and what decades in Kempo have taught him about martial arts, brotherhood, legacy, and life.
More than a martial arts book, Black Robe is an effort to document and preserve a piece of Hawaiʻi martial arts history through the memories of those who lived it and the surviving records they left behind.
For longtime readers, this 10th Anniversary Edition adds important new material to the original story. For a new generation of Kempo, Kenpo, and Kajukenbo practitioners, it offers an opportunity to discover the people and events that helped shape the arts they practice today.
The road behind is a long one. The road ahead is borrowed time. The legacy lives on.
“Live Chinese Kempo.” — Professor Walter Godin
RELEASE DATE: October 10, 2026
GENRE: MARTIAL ARTS
FORMAT: Paperback
ISBN-13: 9798997146214
TRIM: 7in × 10in
