| Welcome to the Home of National Korea Martial Arts Federation |
Han Kuk Mu Sul Won National Korea Martial Arts Federation |
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| National Representative Australia Master Nigel May National Administration |
History of Modern Korean Martial Arts After 1945 Independence from Japan: 1945 – Many Korean arts were being taught in to resurrect them after being suppressed by the Japanese. There were strict rules of loyalty that did not allow for anyone to train in more than one art. Then the Korean Martial Arts Instructors Association was formed to allow fellowship and cross training between martial arts masters of all styles. 1948 - PRESENT: DAEHAN GUMDO HWE Korean Gumdo Association: After the independence from Japan, the Korean practitioners of Japanese Kendo changed the name of the art to "Gumdo" and made the first Gumdo organization in Korea. 1948 - PRESENT: DAEHANMINGUK YUDO HWE Republic of Korean Yudo Association: The Korean practitioners of Japanese Judo, Mun-Suk Lee, Ki Pyo Lee and Jin-Hi Han, changed the name of the art to Yudo and made the first Yudo organization in Korea. Current president is Hwe Yul Lee, grandson of founder Ki Pyo Lee. 1953 -1965: DAEHAN TANGSOODO SUBAKDO HWE Korean Tangsoodo Association: Okinawate practitioner Ki Hwang changed to the name of Tangsoodo and named his first organization "Subakdo Hwe.” In 1965 this organization joined the Korean Taekwondo Association. 1962 -1964: DAEHAN KONGSOODO HYUPHWE Korean Kongsoodo Association: Kongsoodo; Chang Mu Kwan, Song Mu kwan, Chung Do Kwan, Ji Do Kwan, and Han Mu Kwan established the first Kongsoodo organization. 1962 - 1966: HANKUK MUSOOL HWE (KUK SOOL HWE) Korean Martial Skills Association: Hwarangdo and Hapkido Founders Joo-Bang Lee and Joo-Sang Lee with YuSool and Shipalgae practitioner In-Hyuk Suh and four other YuSool and Hapkido masters made the first Korean martial skills organization. 1963 - 1986: DAEHAN KIDO HWE Korean Kido Association: The meeting of the first YuSool masters was held in 1963 at Jeong-Yun Kim's Hanpool School in Seoul. At this meeting it was agreed upon to change the name of "Hapkido" to "Kido." The masters that attended this meeting were: Yong-Sul Choi, Bok-Sup Suh, Joo-Bang Lee, Joo-Sang Lee, Han-Jae Ji, Kwang-Hwa Won, Woo-Tack Kim, and Jeong-Yun Kim. After changing the name of the Hapkido art, Bok-Sup Suh and Du-Young Kim registered the organization "Daehan Kido Hwe" with the Korean government. This was the second martial art organization in Korea, however since it was located in a rural area of Korea, namely Daegu, there were no members of schools. Most Korean martial arts headquarters are located in the capital city of Seoul in order to draw on more public support and opportunities, so this became an "empty" organization. In 1986, In-Huk Suh took over this empty organization and gave control to his brother In-Sun Seo. Note: The reason for the name changes of this art can be found in the Meaning of the Chinese characters and the historical context of the period. The occupation of Japan was fresh in Korean's minds, and they did not want to use the Japanese term Yawara (pronounced in Korean YuSool) for their art, so the name Hapkido was created. After learning about the existence of the Japanese art Aikido, which was founded by Morei Ueshiba, the "name of Hapkido" was changed to "Kido" by these first masters because Hapkido and Aikido have identical Chinese characters and meaning. 1964 -1964 (6 MONTHS ONLY): DAEHAN TAESUDO HYUPHWE Korean Taesudo Association: Kongsoodo, Tangsoodo, and Taekwondo masters made their second association, however 6 months later they changed the name to the Korean Taekwondo Association and the Daehan Taesudo Hyuphwe was disbanded. 1965-PRESENT: DAEHAN TAEKWONDO HYUPHWE Korean Taekwondo Association: Oh Do Kwan Taekwondo founder Hong-Hi Choi and six other Kwans founders changed the name of their Organization for the third time to the Korean Taekwondo Association and the Korean government made Taekwondo the national sport. 1973-PRESENT: KUKJAE TAEKWONDO YEONMAENG International Taekwondo Federation: Hong-Hi Choi 1985-PRESENT: SAEGAE SINMU HAPKIDO HYUPHWE World Sinmu Hapkido Association: Since Hapkido had so many organizations Han-Jae Ji created a new martial art in 1985, which he named Sinmu Hapkido and subsequently he founded the World Sinmu Hapkido Association. Note about Taekwondo: After 1973 many Taekwondo and Hapkido schools each had their own organization and most Taekwondo schools used other generic martial arts' names for business purposes. The World Taekwondo Federation began promoting the sport of Kukki-Taekwondo under the single name of Taekwondo and has become an Olympic discipline and has changed from an art to a sport. Since Taekwondo has also become a generic term, many public schools now use other generic art names in conjunction with the Taekwondo name, which has further damaged the traditional Taekwondo identity Note about the current situation of the general martial art community: With the influx of business tactics and the goal of financial success as the primary motivational factor for the majority of martial art school owners, the overall level of quality control has diminished to an alarming level within the martial art community. Many of the arts that once defined the skills and values for their particular art within the sphere of the entire community have become generic. Karate, Taekwondo, Hapkido, Kungfu, to name a few, have lost their ability to govern themselves and even the ability to define common syllabi, concepts, and philosophies. Now that these arts do not have the means to govern their name, many individuals within the martial art community use multiple martial art names (and to some degree techniques) as if they can be combined without losing the integrity of their original traditional identity. In the past, martial arts were divided into two main divisions, hard and soft style. However, now since the mixing of techniques has become a prominent phenomenon, the soft style arts (Hapkido, Kungfu, etc) and the hard style arts (Karate, Taekwondo, etc) now look similar to one another, and the features that once defined these arts and styles have been lost. The wonderful martial art identities that were founded by the those original masters have now become just a synthesis of techniques and their art names are used indiscriminately With the onset of the co-optation of most martial art names by financial motivated individuals, and the public realization of this fact, many members of the martial art community now wish to claim that they have "pure" roots. Whether they are simply unaware of the true development of the modern martial arts or have selfish interests, there are many individuals who are attempting to rewrite the historical development of the martial art lineage in order to cast a brighter light onto themselves for promotional purposes. Unfortunately the ignorance and common place of these new "historical claims" has lead to further degradation of the traditional martial art identities. Now there are multitudes of books, videos, and websites that exemplify these current trends, which are also created by individuals who do not have any qualification. Black belts and even color belts call themselves by a master or grandmaster title without true certification or testing. These are also the individuals who make many of the books and videos that are sold to the public, which in turn has caused somewhat of a proliferation of these false martial art practitioners and claims. This has caused drastic public confusion as to the true nature of these particular martial arts, and now today, in many cases it is hard to tell what the original arts of Karate, Hapkido, and Taekwondo ever were; and moreover what the spirit of these martial arts were. These events and circumstances have been an eye opener to many of the traditional practitioners within the martial art community. In order to truly maintain the level of quality for the representation of a martial art within the public, a strong governing organization combined with thorough awareness of all of the traits that define that particular art (technically, conceptually, and philosophically) for that art's practitioners, is needed. We can also see the need for legal protection which is evident from a few martial arts such as traditional Taekwondo, Hapkido, Yudo and YuSool and other martial arts which are now internationally registered trademarks. This type of action has created strong control of the quality of these arts and also ensures the integrity of their public representation will remain good. A martial art is not a sport. There are traditional virtues and qualities that define all aspects of each particular martial art. It is strongly recommended that if you wish to practice a martial art you thoroughly research which art contains what you wish to learn technically, and which art's identity has a high level of quality and will maintain that level in the future. |
| Sport has brought Martial Arts into the limelight but we are a combat Federation believing in the values of Mudo |