A honest history of ……Tae Kwon do????

         

        I have been doing Karate as long as I can remember and studied its history, masters and such and always find it interesting when I get to meet a master of the art or one of their prodigy.  I am often approached to write or talk about Karate because I have studied it so long and more times than not, if they like it or not, I find someone to chat to about Karate and martial arts.  Also, more times than not when I mention I do Karate someone will say “Oh, Tae Kwon Do” to which I say No, Karate. We tend to be snobby and disagree with them when they suggest we are basically the same thing and even get rather offended. Maybe we shouldn’t however.

                The truth is Tae Kwon Do or TKD is more like us than we want to believe, I mean after all…modern Tae Kwon do was created from the genes of Karate.  Its hard to deny that TKD and Karate (Specifically Shotokan too) look a bit alike.  Some back ground on current TKD practices, most of them wear white Keikogi they call Dobok and we call Dogei some times. They use the same belt rank system we use (Stole that sucker from Judo) and for the most part they “borrow” some of our practices….like most if not all. They use Forms or Pumsae (we call Kata), they do Gyeorugi (Kumite or sparring) they Gyeokpa (Tamishiwari – breaking) and they do lots of drills and repetitions of basics as well as using different equipment to hone their skills like striking pads, punching bags ext…..sound familiar yet?

                TKD’s history is said to have started around the 18^th century when a striking art was created name Subak. This art focused on striking with open hands (slaps really) and lots of kicking and tripping. Each area of Korea had this type of system and each of them were slightly different but they also had lots of similarities. Each area of Korea would compete with each other, sending champions around to compete for who was best. Several of the kings in the region were big supoorters of the sport and as such it grew, and over time changed and split into a more sport, less combat focused activitie.  From what I can see on paper the system, that existed during the Yi period, looked a lot more like a cross between French Savate and Sumo wrestling.

                During the Joseon Period Subak transformed in practice and name from a sport minded practice to a softer style calling itself Yusul, meaning soft art. Yusul was more like Jujutsu (Japanese grappling art).  Subak fell pray to the loss of Confucianism as a main gate keeper in solidity. Prior to the Joseon period you had to be in Subak as a fighter to join the military and earn money as a soldier, when this fell away with Confucianism’s grasp on the Korean people the art became little more than dance and a grappling art that morphed in to Ssireum, a game of grappling skills similar to wrestling in high school. Traditional Subak died out replaced more recently by systems borrowing the name or reimagining the system. So, you could say that the early history of Subak and its original fighting are could have influenced modern TKD but honestly its more that the collective memory of the art may bring about pride if you link it emotionally to the history of TKD but we have very little actual proof or evidence it influenced it technically or directly.

 

                Next potential Korean parent system is/was Taekkyeon or Taekgyeon/Taekkyeon. Some tie this system directly to Subak, but no real evidence exists that this art came from the ancient art which morphed into a grappling art and they honestly don’t look at all alike. To be honest I don’t really feel that the Korean historians can be trusted nor can the practitioners of this art be trusted when they say its not only the parent of modern TKD nor when they assert that Subak was its parent. Granted the historians are quick to point out there is actually no real records of Taekkyeon or its creation. Most of what they know or suggest as a history is from folklore and myth. From what I can gather from the very scant truths about Taekkyeon it was formed centuries after Subak fell to the Confusion influence and was basically a foot fighting art that appeared at the end of the Joseon dynasty.  Two versions of this system existed during the late Joseon period, one was used by the military as a fighitn art and the other was a game played by wealthy athletes for entertainment. Taekkyeon also suffered a lot as Neo-Confucianism became wide spread in Korea and near the start of the 20^th Century it was all but extinct.  By the time the Japanese took over Korea in 1910 Korean martial arts were all but gone. So, Taekkyeon is also not the grand parent of Tae Kwon Do…so….how did it happen then?

 

                Prior to World War II the Japanese military invaded Korea (1910-1945) and ran the country as its own.  The military brought about cultural exchanges and not only did the Korean people pass on some of their culture to the Japanese, the Japanese also did the same back. In fact, many of the young Koreans flocked to Japan to study in their universities and take up military training when they could.  This practice did not end after the war as well. Several of the students of a particular famous Karate master moved back to Korea after studying in Japan and brought a curious system of fighting back with them. They opened Kwon/Kwoon or Clubs to teach what they had learned, all under the watchful eye of the government, who was plotting and planning to shuck off the Japanese rule and influence when ever they could.

                Soong Moo Kwan, chung Do Kwan, Moo Duk Kwan, Ji Do Kwan and Chang Moo Kwan all opened up in Korea to spread the system of fighting.  Soong Moo Kwan was formed by Master Ro Byung Jik who had studied under Gichin Funakoshi of Shotokan Karate fame (and its founder). He studied along with Chung Do Kwan founder Lee Won Kuk in Japan while at the universities. Both men opened clubs in Kaeson in march of 1944. Moo Duk Kwan was formed a year later by Hwang Kee who had studied Tai chi and kung fu in China and who had no luck opening a Korean Kung fu school in Korea and after realizing that most Koreans would never study a Chinese based system he incorporated most of the Japanese influence from the first two clubs. They had called their art Tang Soo Do or Tang hand but it was straight out of the Shotokan play book for them.

                Ji Do Kwan or Jidokwan was opened by Chun Sang sip. His club the Chosun yu mu kwan kong soo do club had actually been the original Kodokan Judo school in Korea and had existed for nearly 30 years. Sip had also studied Shotokan under Funakoshi while he was in Japan and choose to teach Karate under the name Kong Soo Do, however the club voted to change the focus of the Jidokwan after the Korean war to teach only the striking art after Chun Sang Sip disappeared in the Korean war. The last club or the Chang Moo Kwan was opened in the YMCA Kwon Bop club in 1946 by Yoon Byung in, who had studied Karate under Kanken Toyama at the Nihon University. He also went missing after the Korean war and his club was reopened by his top student Lee Nam Suk who changed the name of the school and the syllabus to fall in line with the other five original Kwon.

 

      

          These were the first five clubs. That were formed from students who may have studied a bit of Chinese kung fu and even played a bit with some ancient games….but they studied Shotokan or Shudokan in one case and opened up clubs, teaching things that looked like Karate, used Korean Karate terminology, took the Kata from Shotokan and Created Poomes and even borrowed the gear that Karate guys used (specifically the belts and white Keikogi).  They changed terms only to make them more understandable to the Korean people but other than that…it was for all intensive purposes….Karate. None of the famed Subak or Taekkyeon existed in the system as demonstration or otherwise, pure Japanese Karate…with Korean terms.

                After the Korean war four more clubs were opened up to form the full 9 original Kwans of TaeKwonDo.  Students from the different clubs founded their own schools. The Han Moo Kwan was founded in 1954 by Lee Kyo Yoon as an off shoot of the Jidokwan, Oh do Kwan was formed a year later by Choi Hong Hi who was studied in Japan and at the Chung Do Kwan, Kank Duk waon was formed by Park chui Hee and Hong Jong Pyo as an off shoot to Chang Moo Kwan and the last club to open was Jung Do Kwan which was founded by Lee Yong Woo in 1956 as an off shoot of Chung Do Kwan as well. These four clubs were formed by students of the original clubs but all traveled to Japan to study the real original art Shotokan. At this point the clubs were not using the name Tae Kwon Do or way of the foot to give name to the system, they were still all basically using Tang Soo Do or way of the Tang hand, which was Karate’s original and used name at the time. In the ‘60’s the number of clubs in Korea went from 9 to 40 and then shortly after the Korean war it blew up, but the Korean government consolidated them all under the KTA heading (Korean Tae Kwon Do association) …but Im getting ahead of myself.

 

                After the Japanese occupation and the forming of the Kwons in Soul and the other big cities by individuals who had studied Chinese and most importantly (as it had the biggest influence) Japanese Karate. By this point the indigenous systems were all but forgotten and mostly practiced for folk tradition more than anything. The systems themselves did change slightly with what most Karate folk would say was a de-focusization (Made that word up so I hope you like it) on form and technical skills and more of a focus on speed and flash. In 1952 South Korean president Syngman Rhee watched a Tang Soo Doo demonstration by ROK Army officer Choi Hong Hi and Nam Tae-hi. He felt that the art needed to be supported and also altered to allow the general public to view it as uniquely Korean and less Japanese.

                By the 1950’s the Kwon leaders were all trying to unify the art and create a unque system that looked a lot less like Japanese Karate and more like its own system. They also had to take into account that by then the term “Tang hand” was no longer used by Karate systems as they changed to “Empty hand” and they were still using the old name to describe the system.

                General Choi put forward the use of the name Tae Kwon Do as it described the system they were working on and it also sounded very close to Taekkyeon, which the new president had liked. The leaders of the Kwons originally hated the new name, but the Korean military began teaching the art and if the masters called what they taught Tae Kwon Do the money they would see for teaching it would make it worth the change, personal objections were put aside.

           

     In 1959 General Choi established the first National TKD Federation he named the KTA (Korean Tae Kwon Do Association ) with a mandate to unify Korean martial arts and systematically change the practice, rules and standards of the arts. This meant squashing old practices and old styles of fighting and creating one unified front. He felt that all systems and the original 9 styles or Kwons should adopt his system of Chan-hon style of Tae Kwon do he taught at the Oh Do Kwan. As you can imagine, this did not go over very well with all the masters. The infighting was horrible and then Choi also felt a need to spread TKD to North Korea (a major no no) and also the world. By 1966 he was under personal attack politically in TKD circles and politically. He broke with the KTA and formed the ITF or international Tae Kwon Do Federation after he fled to Vancouver Canada.

                By 1972 the South Korean government withdrew its support of the ITF and the KTA was abolished just prior to that. The South Korean government noticed that General Choi had a great deal of support from North Korea and other countries and they did not want this to influence their martial arts so they formed the WTF or world TKD Federation. The federation was formed directly inside the government and all Korean instructors in South Korea were members. They also established the National Academy of TKD or the Kukkwon. In 2017 the WTF was renamed World Tae Kwon Do due to the “confusion” of the initials used by the group. This new group took the sport morphing changes to a new level and pushed for TKD to be in the Olympics and to be a sport or the focus to be on sport mostly. The Olympic style of TKD was reinforced after it had been made an Olympic sport in 1988. It had been a Pan Am game event as well as a common wealth game prior…interestingly…..So was Karate.  

 

                Now to show the tight link between TKD and Karate, some of the original Forms that were used to teach TKD were taken directly from Shotokan Karate. These are normally refered to as Hyeong in Korean.  Poomsae were created by the kukkiwon style and ATA style TKD and Teul were used by the ITF style TKD.  All of the forms follow the same primary ideas of Karate Kata however.

 

It is safe to say that Karate, Shotokan specifically is the parent style of TKD and that any of the changes that came about could have been due to politics or just instructors coming up with their own ideas, but the fact is that the masters who created TKD started off with a Shotokan root system and built what we now know as TKD from that source.