History

During the Joseon-dynasty (also known as the Yi-dynasty. 1392 A.D. - 1910 A.D.) this emphasis on military training disappeared. King Taejo, founder of the Joseon-dynasty, replaced Buddhism by Confucianism as the state religion. According to Confucianism, the higher class should study the poets, read poems and play music. Martial arts was something for the common, or even inferior, man.

Modern-day Taekwon-do is influenced by many other Martial Arts. The most important of these arts is Japanese Karate. This is because Japan dominated Korea during 1910 until the end of World War II. During WWII, lots of Korean soldiers were trained in Japan. During this occupation of Korea, the Japanese tried to erase all traces of the Korean culture, including the martial arts. The influence that Japan has given to Taekwon-do is the quick, linear movements, that characterize the various Japanese systems.

After World War II, when Korea became independent, several kwans arose. These kwans were:

The earliest records of Martial Arts practice in Korea date back to about 50 B.C. These earliest forms of korean martial arts are known as 'Taek Kyon' . Evidence that Martial Arts were being practiced at that time can be found in tombs where wall-paintings show two men in fighting-stance. Others reject this evidence and say that these men could be simply dancing. Back then there were three kingdoms, Koguryo (37 B.C. - 668 A.D.), Paekje (18 B.C. - 600 A.D.) and Silla (57 B.C. - 935 A.D.).

Silla unified the kingdoms after winning the war against Paekje in 660 A.D. and Koguryo in 668 A.D. The Hwa Rang Do played an important role at this unification. The Hwa Rang Do was an elite group of young noble men, devoted to cultivating mind and body and serve the kingdom Silla. The best translation for HwaRang would probably be "flowering youth" (Hwa ="flower", Rang="young man"). The HwaRang Do had an honour-code and practiced various forms of martial arts, including Taekyon and Soo Bakh Do. The old honor-code of the HwaRang is the philosophical background of modern Taekwon-do. What followed was a time of peace and the HwaRang turned from a military organization to a group specialized in poetry and music. It was in 936 A.D. when Wang Kon founded the Koryo dynasty, an abbreviation of Koguryo. The name Korea is derived from Koryo. During the Koryo Dynasty the sport Soo Bakh Do, which was then used as a military training method, became popular.

General Choi Hong-hi required the army to train Taekwon-do, so the very first Taekwon-do students were Korean soldiers. The police and air force had to learn Taekwon-do as well. At that time, Taekwon-do was merely a Korean version of Shotokan Karate. In 1961 the Korean Taekwon-do Union arose from the Soo Bakh Do Association and the Tae Soo Do Association. In 1962 the Korean Amateur Sports Association acknowledged the Korean Taekwon-do Union and in 1965 the name was changed to Korean Taekwon-do Association (K.T.A.). General Choi was president of the K.T.A. at that time and was asked to start the I.T.F. as the international branch of the K.T.A.

The Kwans united in 1955 as Tae Soo Do. In the beginning of 1957, the name Taekwon-do was adopted by several Korean martial arts masters, for its similarity to the name Tae Kyon.

Chung Do Kwan Yun Moo Kwan Oh Do Kwan Chi Do Kwan

Moo Duk Kwan Chang Moo Kwan Ji Do Kwan Song Moo Kwan

The southern government was overthrown in 1961. General Choi Hong-hi left for America and established I.T.F. (International Taekwon-do Federation) Taekwon-do, as a separate entity, two years later.

Demonstrations were given all over the world. It took a while before real progress was made, but eventually, in 1973, the World Taekwon-do Federation (W.T.F.) was founded. In 1980, W.T.F. Taekwon-do was recognized by the International Olympic Commitee (I.O.C.) and became a demonstration sport at the Olympics in 1988. In the year 2000 Taekwon-do made its debute as an official olympic sport. There were several attempts to unify I.T.F. and W.T.F. Taekwon-do, but unfortunately, these failed.

The World Taekwon-do Federation (WTF) which was formed in 1973, is made up of Taekwon-do NGBs. These NGBs are members of the WTF, and not individuals. Individuals may be affiliated to the WTF through their NGB, but individuals cannot join the WTF directly. Dr.Un Yong Kim became the 5th President of the KTA in 1971. Dr. Kim subsequently became the 1st and only President of the WTF in 1973 and around 1990 he gave up the post of KTA President.

In the year 2000 Taekwon-do made its debute as an official olympic sport. Taken from a post in the dojang-digest The Korea Taekwon-do Association (KTA) is the National Governing Body (NGB) for Taekwon-do in the Republic of Korea (ROK), just like the United States Taekwon-do Union (USTU) is the National Governing Body for Taekwon-do in the United States of America.

Mr. Choi, Sae-Chang became the 6th KTA President after Dr. Kim stepped down due to his expanded responsibilities in the International Sports community. Mr. Choi was a former four star general in the ROK Army and also held the post of Defense Minister. Mr. Choi was replaced by Mr. Rhee, Pil Gon in 1996.The KTA is alive and well and probably is the llargest, most active NGB for Taekwon-do in the world. For more information, you can write to the KTA.

As mentioned earlier, Gen. Choi established ITF-Taekwon-do (which practices a more traditional form of Taekwon-do) while WTF-Taekwon-do (which has a strong emphasis on sparring) became an Olympic sport in 2000.

A good-will trip to North-Korea in 1966 caused General Choi to fall in disgrace in the eyes of the South-Koreans. Choi resigned as president of the K.T.A. and founded the I.T.F. on March, the 22nd of that same year. The headquarters of ITF were established in Canada.

ITF started concentrating on the forms developed by General Choi, while the KTA (which later, on May 28, 1973, became the WTF) concentrated on the Palgwe's. Later the WTF abandoned the Palgwe's and started concentrating on Taeguks. Slowly, the WTF emphasis turned to sparring. This is also the reason why a lot of people rather call (WTF) Taekwon-do a martial sport than a Martial Art.

The American Taekwon-do Association (ATA) is a smaller organization, and has many similarities to the ITF. The ATA has a copyright on the forms of the organization, so these forms cannot be used

on competitions by non-members. There are many organizations, but the three mentioned above have the most members.

ITF practices the so-called 'semi-contact' part of Taekwon-do, while WTF practices the so-called 'full-contact' part. ITF focuses more on the traditional way of Taekwon-do. Since the break-up, there have been many attempts to reunite WTF and ITF, so-far without success. There probably will never be a union within Taekwon-do.

The history of TKD is copyright (c) 1994-2005 by Barry Nauta (barry_at_nauta_dot_be. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts and no Back-Cover Texts.