Taekwondo, like most martial arts, has a history shrouded in mastery, and people have debated on what faqs are true and what are falls. This debate is centered around, what influences have actually lead to Taekwondo’s creation. Many speculate that the influences on taekwondo was from japan’s Karate. While others, manly the korean people, say taekwondo has its influences rooted deep in history through korean traditional martial arts.
Taekwondo was created after World War 2, on April 11 1955. After the Japanese occupation, that was ended by the Allied forces, Korea was placed in a state of distress trying to regaining its national identity. In this time of rediscovery, several martial arts schools sprung up called Kwans. These kwans were known as Chong do Kwan, Song Mu Kwan, Mu Dok Kwan, and Ch’ang Mu Kwan. Each school depicted there own martial art, based on the school founders. To help with the rebuilding the korean national identity, a meeting was held to unify all the school under one martial art name. General Choi Hong Hi suggested “Taekwondo” and it was favored due to its likeness to Taekkyon (a old traditional korean martial art). General Choi was the founder of the Chong do Kwan and he will do more than many to develop the art of taekwondo that we know today
General Choi was born in December 22, 1918, in the Hwa Dae, Myong Chun district. General Choi in 1937 moved to Japan to study wester science and law. During that time he gained a second degree black belt in Shotokan Karate. Then after the liberation of korea in 1945 lead to General Choi coming back to korea and continuing his military career in Korea. Like many other Korean martial artist who studied in japan he started teaching what he knew in Korea.
Most of the kwans founders are masters like General Choi who studied Japanese martial arts and brought them back to Korea. This faqs has lead many people to say that Taekwondo has its roots in Japanese martial arts, and many faqs back up this claim. For example, most of the structure of how classes are organized and run are similar to that of Karate. This could be a coincidental but with also most of the notable masters recognized for taekwondo’s development having roots in Karate it is hard to just dismiss. Also a lot of the style of traditional taekwondo has a the same movements and linear quality used in Karate. Both these faqs alone lead to a strong argument that taekwondo linage is from Japanese Karate not korean traditional martial arts.
Korean traditional martial arts, like most martial arts, is not well recorded. So it is hard to depicted how the arts got started or developed. Korea recorded history of martial arts originates during the Three Kingdom era. The three kingdoms depicted during this era are Korgyo, Peckche, and Sillia. In the small kingdom of Sillia there were known a group of worriers pledge to protect the kingdom and the people, kind of like knights or samurai. They practiced the art of Subok that was practiced both as a sport and a military practice. The end of the Three Kingdoms came about from the small kingdom of Silla uniting the country. During this time martial arts were denounced due to lack of military interest and manly became a sport known as Taekkyon. Today Teakkyon is still practiced as a martial art separate from Taekwondo, but people still say is had a lot to do with taekwondo’s creation due to the similarity and use of kicks and foot work. These similarities leads people to believe that Taekwondo has roots still in korean martial arts.
So in the end taekwondo has a proven point of both japanese and korean influences. If one actually looks at the martial art, it is clear through the movements of the districted straight line movements of Karate. Also along with it the much wider use of kicking that taekwondo implements shows its history through the art of Taekkyon as well as the fast foot work. Even though not really discussed but hinted at in the movements of the art is the Chinese circular motions in the kicks, example would be the tornado kick. Also it has been recorded that master that put a lot into the creation of Taekwondo, like General Choi. has also implemented there Karate training with the korean traditional arts. One thing is clear that due to the Korean people Taekwondo has come up with there own philosophy and stand point of strategy and use of the techniques of Taekwondo. Today taekwondo is a thriving martial art both in tradition and in sport. Weather it came from japanese linage or from korean martial arts one thing is proven, that taekwondo is a unique martial art.
web sorces
www.worldtaekwondo.com/history.htm
http://home.att.net/~taekwondo.junkie/TKDHistory.html
http://www.barrel.net/history.php#history
http://www.natkd.com/history_of_tkd.htm
Book sorces
“Taekwondo” by Marc Tedeschi
“Taekwondo” By Yeon hee Park, Yeoh Hwan Park, Jon Gerrard
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