Gichin Funakoshi! How should he be looked at as far as TKD History?

We would have still ended up with WTF sparring? Interesting!

 

I think so. WTF sparring was designed to evoke Taekkyeon, or perhaps even to be Taekkyeon in a modern idiom. The only reason that the art was not called Taekkyeon was the absence of Hanmoon characters for Taekkyeon, as it is an organic Korean word for an art that was not practiced by the highly educated. The goal of either recreating Taekkyeon or evoking it in some way was there early on, and certainly long before Taekwondo's development arc completed in 1978.

Having seen videos of Taekkyeon, WTF sparring really evokes it rather than emulates it; the participants move differently, but WTF sparring achieved it's major goal of being distinctively Korean.

 

this is actually making my head hurt from the effort it takes to stop myself from posting......

 

So post...let's hear the twin fist wisdom!

 

Kano didn't really intend it to be the sport it's developed into since then, either-what Kano did, and what his intention was, was to make a system for teaching jujutsu that could be taught in schools, practiced lifelong, and fostered good character:

Something of a social Darwinist, actually....

 

On Social Darwinism and martial arts:

Isn't it irresponsible (or worse) to teach technique without also working on the character and judgment to use it responsibly?

I think it's a parallel to the idea that an armed society is a polite society. If more people trained in TMA, I'd expect to see more behavior consistent with the five tenets.


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Back in the late 60's any Korean master I spoke with never mentioned any history they just taught, They also never mentioned any other style or system of self defense from Korea unless they where asked about that system and then all you got was "its not worth studying".
To ask, back then, if a Japanese could be considered the originator of there style or even remotely connected to their style was an insult to them
Having made these statements I think Gichin Funakkoski should be included in the history of Korean arts for the part he played in bringing striking arts to the land and helping to formulate the arts into what they are today
[h=2][/h]

 

Never tried to speak with any in the 1960's but in the 1970's most I enounterd spoke little or poor english so they said little except "not like this, like this."

 

The only master I knew was Jhoon Goo Rhee. It never occurred to me there were different styles in Korea MA, so I never asked, and I don't recall it ever being mentioned.