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Korean martial arts

Encyclopedia : K : KO : KOR : Korean martial arts

Korean martial arts, referred to in Korean as Moo Sool (무술 hanja: 武術) or Moo Yae (무예 hanja:武藝), are the various martial arts that originated or were modified in Korea. The most famous Korean martial arts in the West are perhaps Taekwondo and Hapkido, although there has been a revival of the bladed arts of Korean swords and swordsmanship as well as an interest in Korean knives and knife-fighting as well as the revival of archery on foot and on horse-back. The complexity of the Korean martial arts world and its ever-increasing schools rising from obscurity make interesting study.

Contents

Origins

Ancient origin

As with many other martial arts, Taekwondo as it is known today was systemized during the 20th century. Although there are references to and drawings of fighting techniques in ancient documents, the relationship between these references and the schools that systemized Korean martial arts in the 20th century is difficult to document.

Only a few martial arts practiced today in Korea can accurately be said to be traditional Korean martial arts, unbroken, living traditions. Because of Neo-Confucianism, disinterest in martial arts, Japanese occupation of Korea and the Korean War, some of Korea's traditional arts are survived only by fragmentary records, while others have been preserved in more-or-less complete form.

This is complicated by the use of ancient terminology by modern founders of new schools. For example, Hwarangdo, a modern art similar to Hapkido, claims its roots in the Hwarang (花郎 "flowering knights" which means "chosen knights") of Silla, although very little is known about the martial training of that time.

Taekyon, however, was fairly well known as an ancient Korean tradition that survived the Japanese occupation, if barely. Many modern Korean martial arts systems have consciously incorporated Taekyon's emphasis on kicks and other techniques.

Martial arts

In the 20th Century, Koreans were exposed to Japanese versions of Chinese martial arts such as karate. A great deal of systemization of martial arts came from Japan to Korea during Japan's colonization of Korea through outlawing traditional Korean practices and only allowing the Japanese education system to be lawful. Even with the ban on Korean practices some Koreans were able to influence Japans martial art style, most notably Choi Yeong-Eui, who practiced martial arts in Korea at an extremely young age then moved to Japan and began learning Shotokan karate from Gichin Funakoshi at age 15, then later as an adult he developed Kyokushin karate. Other Korean students in Japan also studied Japanese martial arts. A number were students of Funakoshi. Their mastery of karate led to its modification developing a new martial art called Taekwondo. Also at the same time, many Koreans studied martial arts in neighboring Manchuria and China. After the 1945 liberation, Korean martial artists made conscious efforts to re-establish Korean martial arts and distance themselves from the influence of Japanese occupation, including incorporating or preserving what remained of traditional Korean arts.

Many modern Korean martial arts have been influenced by both traditional and imported Korean martial arts, while some have also relied on the Muyedobotongji (武藝圖譜通志), said to be the only surviving old text dealing with traditional Korean martial arts, to recreate lost arts, much like in . There are also many Korean modern martial arts that are recompilizations or reorganizations of techniques from traditional or imported arts. Many of the arts here visually appear to have more of a Chinese influence than other Korean martial arts (except for Taekyon). Others have been influenced by boxing or other Western influences as well.

Additionally, it is not clear who created these arts in the first place in their most ancient form - often, exponents of Korean martial arts argue that Korea in fact created these arts in ancient times, which then passed over to Japan, and then were later reimported back to Korea. Historically, many cultural features, including Chinese calligraphy, Buddhism, pottery techniques, city design, and political systems, were transmitted from China to Korea, and in modified form, retransmitted to Japan, which further modified them. As with other adjacent cultures, constant borrowings and adaptations in various directions make claims of origin very difficult to prove using only fragmentary evidence.

The only martial art which today can be viewed as being a traditional Korean martial art (as opposed to modern Korean martial arts) is taekkyon. Taekkyon is also the only Korean martial arts which received that status of 'intangible cultural asset' (no. 76) from the Korean government.

Teaching methods

Korean martial arts are taught in a way very similar to modern Japanese martial arts, i.e. barefoot, with uniforms, classes executing techniques simultaneously following the teacher's commands, and sometimes, showing respect to portraits of the founder by bowing to the picture or national flags. Again, very similar to modern Japanese martial arts, many Korean martial arts also make use of colored belts to denote rank, tests to increase in rank, and the use of Korean titles when denoting the teacher. These include:

These korean terms are based on Confucian rank systems (with the same Chinese characters).

Many schools also make use of Korean terminology and numbers during practice.

Terminology

Korean martial arts are usually practiced in a dojang (도장) which can also be referred to as chae yook kwan (체육관). The practitioners wear a dobok (도복) with a belt or Tti (띠) wrapped around it. This belt usually shows which grade the practitioner has. A student usually starts of with a white belt and through a range of colored belts (which differ from style to style) finally gets his black belt. The grades before black belt are gups (급) while the grades from black belt on are dans (단). Some styles use stripes on the black belt to show which dan the practitioner has. It is common for a system to have 9 gups and 9 dans. While it might only take a few months to go from gup to gup, it can take years to go from one dan to the other. In some styles, like taekkyon, the hanbok is worn instead of a dobok. The v-neck that many taekwondo uniforms have, was supposedly fashioned after the hanbok.

Styles of Korean martial arts

Traditional Korean martial arts

Modern Korean Martial Arts

Lost traditional Korean martial arts

See also

External links

 

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