Korean History brief: submited for your approval

[m4949]

I have been asked by a friend to write up a generalized history for his students. If I left this to him, he'll probably go to Wikipedia and have some "Korean Martial Arts is 1 million years old..." crap.

I know what ever I come up with will likely, in some way, piss someone off. Rather than worry about feelings I am trying to stay with facts. I'd like to have the least amount of bullshido as possible within his breif.

So I submit for your approval...

Our Karate style combines elements of Tae Kwan Do (Chung Do Kwan) and Tang Soo Do (Moo Duk Kwan).

Tae Kwan Do (Way of Kicking and Punching):
Formally, there are two main styles of Tae Kwan Do. One which and is governed by the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF). The other comes from the International Tae Kwan Do Federation (ITF). The WTF style is highly visible as the style used in the Summer Olympics and is sometimes referred to as “sport” Taekwondo. The Tae Kwan Do style of our school is more traditional and in line with the ITF style. The term "traditional" typically refers to the martial art as it was established in the 1950s and 1960s prior to efforts to nationalize all the different schools (kwans) into a unified system.

Tang Soo Do (Way of the Chinese hand): is a Korean martial art that has its roots in Okinawan martial arts, specifically, Shotokan. At the time of the liberation of Korea in 1945, five martial arts schools (kwans) were formed by men who were primarily trained in some form of karate and at some point associated their schools with the term “Tang Soo Do”: Chung Do Kwan (Lee Won Kuk), Jidokwan (Chun Sang Sup), Chang Moo Kwan (Yoon Byung In), Moo Duk Kwan (Hwang Kee), and Song Moo Kwan (Roh Byung Jick). Some of these Kwans opted to join into The Korean Tae Soo Do Association, and eventually became unified under the name “Tae Kwan Do” . Our style of Tang Soo Do comes from Hwang Kee’s Moo Duk Kwan (“Way of Martial Virtue”).

Karate is from Japan, how can you have Korean Karate? Actually, Karate is from Okinawa. Near the turn of the 20th century, Okinawan Karate masters began to become increasingly more open about their art. Most notably were Gichin Funakoshi, who began teaching in Tokyo in the 1920s, and Kanken Toyama who came to Tokyo in the 1930s. During this time Okinawan Karate rapidly gained popularity in the colleges and universities of Japan as well as within the military. During the Japanese occupation of Korea (1895-1945), Korean martial arts along with other aspects of Korean culture were outlawed. Some 20 years into the occupation, as the Japanese were exposed to Karate, Koreans too were being exposed to Karate either by Japanese living in Korea, or by exposure in the very same clubs and universities that the Okinawan masters were now running in Japan. After the end of the occupation, these Korean students of Okinawan Karate would open their own schools. Following the Korean War, American service men were being taught Korean martial arts and were introducing that it to the US. Eventually in Korea, the Kwans were abolished and absorbed into WTF governed Taekwondo. However, schools that were already exported outside Korea, either by servicemen or the expatriated Kwan masters, continued to teach their arts, which could be best described as Korean Karate.

I will now, duck, and cover.

[kenikim]

i am not an expert on TKD history, but from what i know, as far as a concise general description goes, i thought it was pretty good, aside from minor spelling and stylistic issues.

i came across this page last week. have a look. it might be of some interest to you. the excerpt is taken from Mr. Jong Soo Park, a well known TKD figure in Canada. i thought it was refreshing and unusual to hear from such a high ranking korean TKD practitioner, i believe he is 9th dan, to speak so candidly about the true history of TKD.

http://www.jongpark.com/images/photo...rk%2072dpi.pdf

Park said, “Many Grandmasters and Masters have lied about Tae Kwon Do’s roots. The fact that Tae Kwon Do does not go back 1,000 years should not embarrass us! Tae Kwon Do is new and it is exciting!” “In fact Tae Kwon Do goes back to the end of WW2 when our founder was in prison in Kyoto, Japan and a fellow Korean named Kim - who was a guard - befriended him and taught him the basics and the forms of Japanese karate (probably what later became known as ‘Shotokan’. General Choi was sentenced to death but fortunately he was released at the end of WW2 and returned to Korea where he began his life’s dream of establishing a Korean hand-tohand system of combat.” “Yes it is true!” said Park, “that our Tae Kwon Do does have much more kicking than the other arts but the truth is that our Tae Kwon Do came from Japanese Karate in the same way as Karate came from Okinawan Karate, and the same as Okinawan Karate came from Chinese Kung Fu. This is nothing to be ashamed of because it is the truth!’”

[DSL]

Overall it's pretty ok. Have you read the history of TKD by Won Sik Kang?
www.umactkd.com/Student/resources/Modern_History_of_Taekwondo.pdf

It gives a pretty accurate timeline and study of the Kwans. Your overview seems to focus primarily on TSD. Another thing is MDK's art was Su bak do, then Tang Su Do, Taekwondo, then split into MDK TSD and MDK TKD (early 70's).

You might also hit on Kong Su Do (just names right? heh).

The problem is, how 'in-depth' do you go right? Too little and someone says 'what about', too much and they fall asleep or simply don't read it.

Another thing you might note, due to already mentioning Funakoshi and Lee Won Kuk, is that Lee was Funakoshi's student at one time, so Chung Do Kwan _really_ had the Shotokon origins. MDK is more often tied to Chinese arts, but again most of Hwang Kee's history is hard to find any proof one way or the other on.

[m4949]

Thanks for your feedback. Yes, I needed this to be brief. I didn't want to get too deep because one could probably write 10 different dissertations on the history of modern Korean striking arts. My goal was the write up a quick synopsis that was fairly accurate and did not go down in flames here ;)

[m4949]

Ok I really have to say thanks for the links. Those are great!

[DerAuslander]

You spelled TKD wrong.

[DSL]

Lol, Errant where have you been?

Ps: TKD = TGD ;)

[Daniel Sullivan]

Looked okay to me overall.

Only two nits to pick.

First, the WTF regulates sport taekwondo and really is not a style. Kind of the way that UFC is not a style. Both are rule sets. The WTF regulates the sport of taekwondo, so yes, WTF taekwondo is sport taekwondo.

Second, WTF practitioners practice Kukki taekwondo, which has a set of forms and a syllabus that, while minimalist, does go well beyond what one sees in WTF sparring. One thing that you could touch on is that the nine kwans were absorbed into the Kukkiwon (same big national org that promulgates 2000 year old taekwondo). The WTF does not rank its members, but only recognizes rank issued by the Kukkiwon.

The two are technically separate organizations, but it is rather challenging to tell where one ends and the other begins. At one point, they were actually housed in the same building.

As far as pissing anyone off, I would not worry about that. The people who get pissed off insist that Taekwondo has absolutely no relation to Karate and that evidence of it being two to five thousand years old has been found in caves.

More often than not, these are people of no importance, though they will argue vociferously and make all manner of personal attacks in response to your heresy. In my experience, they are generally non Koreans (white guys who want to be Korean) and have no argument to the contrary beyond "my GM says so, and I trust him." When it comes down to it, some people have a mental insecurity causing them need for their art to be a thousand-plus year old tradition, and facts to the contrary threaten this mental insecurity.

Presenting a truthful, verifiable, and factual account will win you points with people who you might care to actually know.

Daniel

[m4949]

Thanks Daniel. I plan on going more in depth with the students themselves.