The fifty year occupation by the Japanese greatly influenced Korean martial arts. Japanese educational curricula was imposed in all Korean schools, which meant that before the Japanese banned the practice of fighting arts in Korea in 1909, all Korean boys were taught the sportive forms of judo and kendo. The Japanese ban on the martial arts in 1909 was not able to suppress their practice completely. In fact, Yeon-Hee Park and Bong-Soo Han believe that the ban actually increased their practice, which moved to the Buddhist monasteries, a traditional place of refuge for out-of-favor warriors. Despite its unsavory association with young brawlers, t'aeggyon continued to be practiced at Tan O Nol ("youth festivals") until the art was outlawed in 1920. Among its practitioners were Dok-Ki Song and Il-Dong Han. According to Hancock, Kee Hwang (b. 1913) studied t'aeggyon with "family friends" and subakki with "an uncle." Masutatsu Oyama (born Yong-i Choi) also recalls studying chabi (aka. taiken; "a combination of kempo and jujutsu") in a Korean primary school in 1932, as well as from a North Korean farmhand who also taught him "Shaolin kung-fu" on his father's farm. Nam-Suk Lee and a few of his friends began training after discovering a few martial arts books in Chinese that the Japanese had failed to destroy. Lastly, Ki-Whang Kim (1920-1993) was able to begin judo in Korea in 1931, despite the Japanese ban.

Of course, the ban on fighting arts did not include members of the Japanese army stationed in Korea, and several important martial artists began their careers there. About the time of the Russo-Japanese war, British judo pioneer Gunji Koizumi studied kenjutsu and jujutsu in Korea at a school run by Nobukatsu Yamada. Many years later, Teruo Yamaguchi began learning karate-do while stationed in Korea.

Nor did the ban include Koreans training in Japan. At least nine Koreans trained in Japan: Yong-Shul Choi, Geka Yung, hyung-Ju Cho, Won-Kuk Lee, Pyong-Chik Ro, Hong-Hi Choi, Yong-i Choi, Ki-Whang Kim, and Pyung-In Yun. Yong-Shul Choi (b. 1890) claims to have trained for many years in Daito-ryu aikijutsu under Sokaku Takeda, although his claims are not recognized by the followers of Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of aikido. Choi later returned to Korea and taught yusul (jujutsu), which one of his students, Ji-Han Jae, later called hapkido ("coordinated energy way"). The other eight Koreans trained in karate-do. Geka Yung was the head instructor of the Kanbukan ("Korean martial arts hall") in Japan, which was later renamed the Renbukan ("training martial arts hall") under Norio Nakamura. Hyung-Ju Cho (b. 1907) moved to Japan, changed his name to Neichu So, and trained in Goju-ryu karate-do under Chojun Miyagi in high school, becoming a karate-do instructor in 1939. According to Hancock, Won-Kuk Lee learned Shotokan karate-do while attending school in Japan. Pyong-Chik Ro studied at a Japanese university during the Second World War, during which time he also studied under Gichin Funakoshi and earned his first dan (black belt rank) in karate-do before returning to Korea in 1944. Hong-Hi Choi (b. 1918) and Yong-i Choi (b. 1923) both went to Japan in the late 1930s, earned their second dan in karate-do before being drafted into the Japanese army in 1943, and later became famous Karateka ("karate experts"). Hong-Hi Choi went to Japan in 1938, earned his second dan in karate-do at Tokyo University, and then taught at the Y.M.C.A. in Tokyo. After the war he returned to Korea and later became known as the "father" of taekwondo. Yong-i Choi went to Japan in 1937 to study at a boy's military academy and later at Takushoku University in Tokyo. He studied karate-do at Gichin Funakoshi's Shotokan dojo, served in the Japanese army, and then trained in Goju-ryu karate-do for two years under Neichu So. He went on to become the most famous karateka in the world, although Japanese immigration laws had forced him to take a new Japanese name. The name he chose was Masutatsu Oyama, and he became famous as the founder of Kyokushin-kai karate-do, who fought bulls with his bare hands. Ki-Whang Kim began judo in 1931 and earned his first dan from the Kodokan five years later. He went on to study karate-do at Nihon University in Tokyo, where he captained the team and was nicknamed "Typhoon." He later spent two years "studying kempo and kung-fu in China," probably as one of the draftees of the Japanese Army. Pyung-In Yun (b. 1918) was raised in Manchuria and studied quan-fa there before also attending college at Nihon University. He trained there with one of the faculty members, Kanken Toyama (1888-1966), who also happened to be the founder of Shudokan karate-do. Before Yun returned to Korea, Toyama recognized him as a fourth dan in his style.

The Japanese ban on martial arts in Korea was lifted in 1943, first for judo and then for karate-do and Chinese martial arts. For the two years before the surrender of Japan, the martial arts enjoyed a new popularity in Korea. The actions of Korean martial artists in Korea in those days remains largely unknown.

At least four Japanese martial arts remained popular in Korea after liberation, albeit under their Koreanized names. Koreans continued to study yudo (judo), komdo (kendo), yusul (jujutsu), and kongsudo (karate-do). The Korean Yudo Association was founded in October of 1945 by Mum-Suk Lee and Jin-Hee Han, and the Korean Komdo Association (K.K.A.) was organized in Seoul in 1948. The K.K.A. became affiliated with the Korean Amateur Sports Association on Nov. 20, 1953, and in the same year the Korean Yudo College was founded with Dr. Je-Hwang Lee as its first president. Both yudo and komdo remained virtually unchanged from their Japanese namesakes. On the other hand, the arts of yusul and kongsudo have changed greatly since Korean liberation. Yusul developed into hapkido and all of its derivatives (kuksul, hwarang-do, etc.), while kongsudo would eventually go through the greatest changes of all, developing into tangsudo and t'aekwondo.

The various kwans ("schools") of kongsudo retained much of the style of karate-do for many years, including the various Kata or forms of karate-do. Many tangsudo schools today still retain the forms of karate-do. As late as 1965, Hong-Hi Choi (the "Father of Taekwon-Do") was still teaching Shorin-ryu and Shorei-ryu forms (including Heian 1-5, Empi, Rohai, Bassai, Kusanku, Jion, Tekki 1-3, Hangetsu, and Jitte) along with his own forms, called the Ch'ang Hon set. "Tae-kwon do is identical to Japanese karate," asserted Sihak Henry Cho in 1968. Cho also noted that "some of the Korean public still use the 'karate' pronunciation in conversation."

All authorities are agreed that at least five kwans ("schools") of karate-do appeared in Korea in the two years following liberation. According to John Corcoran, the Ch'ongdokwan, Mudokkwan, and Yunmukwan were the first to surface, but were quickly followed in 1946 by the Ch'idokwan, Changmukwan, & Sangmukwan. Kee Hwang says that the Mudokkwan, Yunmukwan, Changmukwan, Ch'ongdokwan, and Sangmukwan were all "in existence" at the end of the Japanese occupation. All of these schools were located in Seoul, with the exception of the Sangmukwan, which was first located in Kaesong but later moved to Seoul. At least two of these kwans -- the Ch'ongdokwan and the Changmukwan -- were founded by Koreans who had studied karate-do in Japan.

Won-Kuk Lee (aka. Won-Gook Lee) founded the Ch'ongdokwan ("the true path hall") after his return from Japan in January, 1944. Lee's school was located in Yong Chun, Seoul. When Lee retired, Duk-Sung Son took over the kwan, which would become one of the largest and most important of the kwans. Son recalls that there were many gangsters and American soldiers in Seoul after the Second World War, and as a result, "Fighting was rampant." The kwans helped the police, and anyone with a black belt was given "an honorary badge."

Kee Hwang (aka. Ki-Chang Hang) founded the Mudokkwan ("martial virtue hall") on Nov. 9, 1945. A railway worker, Hwang is said to have studied Chinese kuo-shu while working on the Japanese railroads in Manchuria in 1936 and after. Robert Shipley believes Hwang "probably studied a hard style of karate similar to shorin" as well. This is supported by Hancock, who notes that Hwang claimed Gogen Yamaguchi "as a personal friend." Yamaguchi, nicknamed "The Cat," was the founder of Japanese Goju-ryu Karate-do and was also in Manchuria in 1939, so Hwang could have studied with him at that time. Yamaguchi was a Japanese intelligence officer stationed near the Russian border, and Hwang also was near the Russian border during at least one point in his travels (he has mentioned being at the town of Man Chu Li). From an examination of his later writings, Hwang certainly seems to have been much more influenced by Japanese karate-do than by Chinese kuo-shu. The basic pumsae ("forms") of tangsudo are nearly identical to the kata ("forms") of Shotokan karate-do. They include the three Kijo pumsae (based on the three Taikyokyu kata), the five Pyong-Ann pumsae (based upon the five Heian kata), and "Basahee" (Bassai). On the other hand, the advanced pumsae are named after Chinese styles, including T'aigukkwon ("Great Absolute Fist", or Taijiquan) and Jangkwon ("long fist").

Besides these two famous kwans, there were four other early kwans about which little is known. Both Corcoran and Hwang agree that Sang-Sup Chun founded the Yunmukwan in 1945, but all we know about Chun is that he was lost during the Korean War. Corcoran & Farkas say that Yon-Kue Pyang (aka. Yun-Gae Byang, or Yun-Kwei Byong) founded the Ch'idokwan in 1946, while Hwang simply states that it existed before the Korean War. Pyung-In Yun (aka. Byung-In Yoon) established a club at Kyung Sung Agricultural High School in Seoul on Sept. 1, 1946. Yun then founded the Changmukwan teaching what he called kwonbop ("fist method") at the Y.M.C.A. in Seoul. Yun may have had some training in Chinese quan-fa ("fist method"), which he taught under its Korean name of kwonbop, but it is more likely that he taught the Japanese style of Shudokan karate-do, in which he was a fourth dan. The reason for this possible deception is that many of the members of the Korean Y.M.C.A. had been members of the independence movement during the occupation, and certainly they would have insisted that no foreign art be taught at the gym. On Mar. 5, 1947, a second club was opened at in the Ministry of Communications office, and taught by Nam-Suk Lee (b. 1925). When Yun was listed as missing during the Korean War and later declared legally dead, Lee gained control of the kwan. Yun's surviving instructors built a central dojang in Seoul on Oct. 5, 1953, with Nam-Suk Lee elected as its second president. Pyong-Chik Ro (aka. Byung-Gik No, or Yung-Chik Roh) founded the Sangmukwan in 1944 after earning his first dan in karate-do in Japan and then returning to Korea. He first tried to open classes in an archery school in Kaesong, but this attempt failed. He tried again in May, 1946, this time opening his own dojang, which was quickly forced to close because of the onset of the Korean War. At the end of the war in 1953, he finally opened a successful school in Seoul.

At least eight other schools appeared around the time of the Korean War (1950-1953). These schools included the Odokwan, Hanmukwan, Kangdukkwon, Kangmukwan, Chongmukwan, Chongkyongkwan, and the Kukmukwan. Kee Hwang claims that these were all present before the start of the Korean war, while Corcoran claims that the Odokwan and Sangmukwan were all founded in 1953-1954. The Odokwan was founded in 1953 and the Kangdukkwon was founded in 1956 (proving Hwang partially in error) but several sources claim that the Sangmukwan was founded in Kaesong before the Korean war (proving Corcoran was also partially incorrect). Therefore, the time that most of these schools appeared can as yet only be approximated as the late 1940s or early 1950s. Most of the new kwans were offshoots of the original five. The Hanmukwan developed from the Yunmukwan, and was founded by Kyo-Yoon Lee. The Kangdukkwon, Kangmukwan, and Chongmukwan were all associated with the Changmukwan, while the Chongkyongkwan, Kukmukwan, and Odokwan were all associated with the Ch'ongdokwan.

Martial arts in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (D.P.R.K.; North Korea) probably disappeared after the communists took control in the 1950s. They were certainly gone in 1981 when Karl Nicoletti visited the D.P.R.K. with a demonstration team led by Hong-Hi Choi and Chuck Sereff. Nicoletti reported that "the martial arts in general, and taekwondo in particular, are virtually unknown in North Korea." The only martial art he could discover was an informal form of unarmed combat called "kuok sul" (kuksul) that was practiced by the military. Private instruction in the martial arts would tend to support resistance to the state, and like the Japanese before them, the communists did not allow such resistance. Official discouragement of private martial arts was definitely a pattern in the D.P.R.K.'s neighbour, communist China. Nigel Sutton has reported that private martial arts in the People's Republic of China (P.R.C.) were largely reduced because the communists believed that "in our socialist society we do not need to fight or to be able to defend ourselves." In fact, at least one martial arts teacher in the P.R.C. was "beaten to death by a crowd armed with clubs, who urged him to use his 'gongfu' to defend himself." The loss of North Korean arts is regrettable, since they would have provided an excellent source of comparison for the development of taekwondo in South Korea.

It was during the Korean war that the first serious efforts were made in the R.O.K. to organize the various styles of kongsudo (Korean karate-do) under a single national organization. The first conference to discuss unification took place in 1946, but it was not until the 1950s that the Korea Kongsudo Association was formed. Chung claims the association was founded at Pusan in 1951, with Cho-Ryon Chi as its leader. Frankovich claims the date was May 25, 1953, and that "this association did not elect a president." Frankovich lists the Vice-President as Young-Joo Cho (a yudo stylist), with Pyong-Chik Ro (Sangmukwan founder) as the Executive Director. The various Directors were Kee Hwang (founder of Mudokkwan), Chong-Woo Lee (Ch'idokwan), Yon-Kue Pyang (Ch'idokwan), Jong-Myung Hyun (Ch'ongdokwan), Nam-Suk Lee (Changmukwan), and In-Hwa Kim (yudo). Pyong-Chik Ro was established as "the master instructor" and as "the chair of the rank promotion committee." Eventually dissension set in, and the association dissolved. Still, the movement had made an impression, for Shipley tells us that the Ch'ongdokwan continued to describe its art as kongsudo until about 1962.

Another contender for leadership of kongsudo was the Korean Tangsudo Association, which was founded in 1953 by Kee Hwang. Hwang's first manual was published in 1950. According to Shipley, the style taught by the Mudokkwan was first called hwasudo ("flowering hand way"), which was changed to tangsudo "in the early 1950's" to reflect "Korea's long cultural brotherhood with China." Hwang discovered a copy of the Muye dobo t'ongji (c1790s) in 1957 and began to study it extensively, using it to link tangsudo to the pre-occupation martial arts tradition of subak. This combination made tangsudo quite successful, as did a tournament that Hwang sponsored on Sept. 18, 1958, between the teams of the national railway in honor of the sixtieth anniversary of the railway. The Seoul Railway team took first place, and by 1960 the Korean government had registered tangsudo as "the Korean traditional Martial Art."

A third contender for the leadership of kongsudo was Hong-Hi Choi's taekwondo. As mentioned before, Choi had been sent to Kyoto in 1938 for an education. Just before he left Korea, he fell afoul of a professional wrestler who promised to tear him "limb from limb" if he ever saw him again. Choi has explained that after this event, "I resolved to become a black belt holder in Karate while I was in Japan." He studied Japanese karate-do, eventually earning his second dan at the University of Tokyo. He then taught the art at the Tokyo Y.M.C.A. until he was drafted into the Japanese army. While stationed at P'yongyang in northern Korea, Choi was implicated as "the planner of the Korean Independence Movement, known as the Pyongyang Student Soldier's Movement" and interned at a Japanese prison camp for eight months. He was sentenced to seven years in prison, during which time he taught karate-do to both jailers and prisoners. Choi was freed when the war ended in August of 1945, after only a few months of imprisonment by the Japanese. His sentence probably helped his subsequent career in the Korean army, which he joined in January of 1946 as a second lieutenant. He became the company commander of the Fourth Infantry Regiment in Kwangju, where he taught karate-do to both Koreans and Americans. According to Choi, "I began to teach Karate to my soldiers as a means of physical and mental training. It was then that I realized that we needed to develop our own national martial art, superior in both spirit and technique to Japanese karate."

Choi rose quickly through the ranks and retained his interest in unarmed combat. He taught martial arts to both Koreans and Americans stationed at Tae-Jon in 1946-1947. By the time Choi became the martial arts instructor for the American Military Police School in Seoul in 1948, he had achieved the rank of major. One year later he was a colonel, visiting the Ft. Riley Ground General School in Kansas. It was during that visit that Choi gave the first public demonstration of kongsudo (Korean karate-do) in the United States.

The Korean War increased attention on Korean martial arts, and gave a further boost to Choi's career. President Syngman Rhee watched a thirty minute demonstration by Korean masters in 1952. He was so impressed by Tae-Hi Nam's breaking demonstration (thirteen roofing tiles) that he questioned Nam's superior, Hong-Hi Choi, about the arts and then ordered all soldiers to receive training in kongsudo. Haeng-Ung Lee later recalled that "there was an instructor shortage" in Korea in the early 1950s, and "it was hard to find a dojang," probably both because of the youth of the art in Korea and because many instructors were in the military. Various military units trained in kongsudo distinguished themselves in the war, including the Korean Twenty-Ninth Infantry Division (formed by Choi in 1953) and the Black Tigers, an elite unit involved in espionage and assassination missions behind enemy lines. Many lives were lost in the conflict. Sang-Sup Chun (founder of the Yunmukwan) and Pyung-In Yun (founder of the Changmukwan) were both listed as missing in action. Chong-Woo Lee took over control of the Yunmukwan, while Nam-Suk Lee took over the Changmukwan. Covert operations in the D.P.R.K. continued after the war, and once again Korean martial artists (including Haeng-Ung Lee) took part.

---

Share Our Martial Arts Features With Your Friends:

Keywords : martial arts, taekwondo, karate do, martial artist, combat, martial arts history

Average user rating

   (0 vote)

Display 1 of 1 comments