The True History of the Pyung Ahn Hyungs

[Makalakumu]

http://www.budget.net/~dnolan/hancock2.htm

Tang Soo Do tradition has always held that Grandmaster Hwang Kee, founder of the Moo Duk Kwan, brought these forms to Korea from China where he had studied in his youth. Most Tang Soo Do Masters will tell you, "Hwang Kee bring Pyong Ahn Hyung back from China, " The Grandmaster' s son himself, Hwang Hyun Chul, Director of the United States Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan Federation (Springfield, NJ), has stated, "My father bring the forms back from China."

As much as any of these masters may wish to convince you of this fact, they should not...because it is not true. The Pyong Ahn forms are not Chinese...they're Okinawan in origin. The fact that this is common knowledge to students of Japanese and Okinawan Karate had led to a good number of insults and more than one rumor that Hwang Kee had traveled to Japan or Okinawa and studied the forms. One myth even claim's Hwang Kee spent a few months on Okinawa studying Shorin-ryu and Goju-ryu Karate. Another states that the Pyong Ahn series were created by both Hwang Kee and Funakoshi Ginchen (the founder of Shoto Kan Karate).

The story goes 'Funakoshi and Hwang traveled to China where they studied Chinese martial arts. Together, they created the Pyong Ahn forms. Each then returned to his respective country and began teaching his own version'. Stories such as this bring mild amusement in their most benign form, and do a great deal of damage to the credibility of Tang Soo Do masters at their worst. A simple check of facts can quickly show how great a fallacy the story is.

While Hwang Kee did travel to China, there is no evidence he and Funakoshi were traveling companions. This is easily denounced by the fact Funakoshi never traveled to China. He was an Okinawan who relocated to Japan where he lived out his life. Lastly, Hwang and Funakoshi were not contemporaries in the sense the story implies. Funakoshi was born in 1868. In 1927, he relocated to Japan where he remained until his death in 1957 (Funakoshi, 1975). Hwang Kee was born in 1914 just north of Seoul, Korea. In 1935, following completion of High School, Hwang traveled to China as part of his job, and remained until 1937 (Hwang, 1995). If you do the math you will see that Funakoshi was 46 years old when Hwang was born. By the time Hwang left for China, Funakoshi was 67 years old, while Hwang was only 21. Unless the Japanese Empire regularly sent senior citizens into hostile occupied areas, it isn't at all likely Hwang and Funakoshi even ever shared the same train. Comtemporaries...not!

Nonetheless, some rumors have perpetuated that Hwang Kee studied from Funakoshi at the Shoto-Kan. However, no evidence has ever surfaced that Hwang and Funakoshi ever trained together, nor even ever met one another. Pyong Ahn is the Korean pronunciation for the Chinese characters associated with this series.The forms were first created in 1901 by Itosu Yasutsune, a Shorin-ryu Karate master on Okinawa. The Okinawan dialect pronounces these characters 'Pin An'.

The study of Karate was still a secret practice during Itosu's early life. Dojo (martial art schools) were no more than small groups of initiates who carried out their practice discretely and in private. The training was typically brutal and the curriculum focused on forms training and its application in prearranged sparring sequences . Itosu himself was a school teacher and he recognized in Karate a method by which Okinawan youth could strengthen their bodies while building good characters. Itosu, however, did not believe that young people should be taught the secrets of Karate with its potentially fatal uses until they had successfully proven themselves. Therefore, he set out to create a style of Karate that could be easily instructed and learned. His brainchildren were the Pinan Kata which were created by combination of two older forms, Kushanku (Korean: Kong Sang Koon) and Chiang Nan (Korean: Jae Nam) (or, at least, that is the oral his tory) .

A total of five forms were created and introduced into the Okinawan public schools as instruction for children at the elementary school level. From 1905 to 1909, one form was introduced each year. Itosu, in time, would teach his art to another Okinawan, Funakoshi Ginchen, who eventually would prove to be a significant figure in the migration and modernization of Karate. Funakoshi was destined to travel to Japan and teach a version of the Pinan forms and to eventually rename them Heian. Other former students of Itosu, such as Mabuni Kenwa (founder of Shi to- ryu ) , would also relocate to Japan and teach versions of the Pinan Kata. This series eventually would make its way into Korea through Koreans who studied in Japan, such as Lee Won Kuk (Chung Do Kwan), Choi Hong Hi (Oh Do Kwan), Yoon Byung In (Chang Moo Kwan), and Ho Byung Jik (Song Moo Kwan).

In 1978, Hwang Kee published Tang Soo Do (Soo Bahk Do). On page 372 of this book, Hwang elaborates on the Pyong Ahn Hyung as follows:

Originally, this form was called 'Jae Nam' Approximately 100 years ago an Okinawan Master, Mr. Idos, reorganized the Jae Nam form into a form closely resembling the present Pyong Ahn forms...

In his latest book, The History of Moo Duk Kwan (1995), which is available through the United States Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan Federation, Hwang Kee states on pages 15 and 16 that his knowledge and understanding of the majority of forms taught within Tang Soo Do, including the Pyong Ahn Hyung, came through reading and studying Japanese books on Okinawan Karate. Hwang discovered these books in the Library of the train station in Seoul where he worked in 1939 (Hwang, 1995). We can only speculate as to which books these were, but it is known that Funakoshi and others published books on Karate as far back as 1922.

While the above information was withheld for 50 years, the clue could always be found within the forms themselves. It has been known for many years that the Karate-Ka in Japan switched the order of the first two forms from their original. Hence, anyone who trains in a traditional Okinawan school have the original order, while those that trace lineage through a Japanese school have Pinan No. 2 as their version of Pinan No. 1, and vice versa. Tang Soo Do practitioners need to take note here as their order is the same as used by the Japanese schools.

 

[MBuzzy]

So to bring up an old thread....

Does anyone know who this Mr. Idos is? I haven't searched in TOO much depth, but I can't find any mention of him outside of TSD/SBD references by GM Hwang Kee.

 

[JT_the_Ninja]

I've never heard anyone from my school claim those things of GM Hwang Kee, to counter the author of that article. Secondly, I tend to look critically at anyone whose personal webpage hails himself as "The Man, The Myth, The Legend."

And no, I've never heard of Mr. Idos, either.

 

[exile]

I've never heard anyone from my school claim those things of GM Hwang Kee, to counter the author of that article. Secondly, I tend to look critically at anyone whose personal webpage hails himself as "The Man, The Myth, The Legend."

And no, I've never heard of Mr. Idos, either.

Guys... `Idos' = Itosu. Anko Itosu...

 

[MBuzzy]

Guys... `Idos' = Itosu. Anko Itosu...

I suspected as much....just wanted to hear it from someone more knowledgeable than me.

When I questioned some of the Dans at my Dojang last night, they had never heard of Itosu, but had all heard of Idos. Since it is Soo Bahk Do, and GM Hwang Kee called him Idos, that makes sense.

 

[Lynne]

Japanese switched the order of Pinan No. 1 and No. 2? Ah ha! This must be why students complain about Pinan No. 1 being harder than No. 2! I was wondering about that.

And Master Hwang Kee said himself that he learned the Pyung Ahn forms from books?

Thank you for the clarification, Upnorthkyosa. It's important for us to be aware of the history of our art.

 

[DavidCC]

I was looking for this book on Amazon, and they don;t have it (apparently out of print, some used ones for $100 or more only). but I did find

Complete Tang Soo Do Manual, from White Belt to Black Belt, Vol. 1

and in that book he has a chart that lists some facts about each form. He credits the Pyung Ahn to "Mr. Idos" and lists their creation date as "Approximately 1870". It appears he is just re-stating what was in Hwang Kee's book... and not even that accurately!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/097...1454520-8749218?v=search-inside&keywords=idos

 

[MBuzzy]

I was looking for this book on Amazon, and they don;t have it (apparently out of print, some used ones for $100 or more only). but I did find

Complete Tang Soo Do Manual, from White Belt to Black Belt, Vol. 1

and in that book he has a chart that lists some facts about each form. He credits the Pyung Ahn to "Mr. Idos" and lists their creation date as "Approximately 1870". It appears he is just re-stating what was in Hwang Kee's book... and not even that accurately!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0971860963/ref=sib_dp_srch_pop/105-1454520-8749218?v=search-inside&keywords=idoshttp://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/097...1454520-8749218?v=search-inside&keywords=idoshttp://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/097...1454520-8749218?v=search-inside&keywords=idos

If you're looking for GM Hwang Kee's book, you can either e-bay them or get them directly from the US Soo Bahk Do Federation.

My copy of Master Pak's book is still in storage, so I didn't have a chance to look in there yet, but I remember the chart.

 

[Boomer]

Coming from a shotokan background, I find all this inter-art stuff pretty fascinating. I work out and spar about once a month with some TKD friends and we've compared notes several times.

To aid in understanding and clairfy what was written in previous posts I just wanted to add a few details.

The Japanese usually say the vowel sound "u" VERY softly if it is at the end of a word. So it is easy to see why "Itosu" became "Idos". Both would have pretty much the same phonetic pronunciation: EE-tohs

Also, shotokan founder Funakoshi changed the order of the Pinan kata, and their names. The Pinan were then called Heian. Here's a clip of Heian Shodan (Japanese), formerly known as Pinan Nidan(Okinawan):

The part I found most interesting was the reference to "Chiang Nan". I couldn't figure out what this word was...after racking my brain, I called my dad (who has a ridiculously keen brain for history) who told me that was the Chinese pronunciation for what the Okinawans called "Channan". Channan, as the legend goes, is the great Pinan Dai form. This form was done in the original order of the Pinan, not the heian, and corresponded to the elements of earth, water, fire, wind, and void (aka:ether). There's still debate on whether or not this is a Chinese form rehashed, or if Itosu created it himself from other forms.

More on Channan/ Chiang Nan/ Jae Nam: http://www.fightingarts.com/reading/article.php?id=127

 

[rmclain]

If anyone has any more information, such as someone performing the Channan form, please let me know. I've seen many articles written about this form, but nobody seems to know it, physically.

I lived in Okinawa, Nov, 3-28, 2006, specifically to research and meet Okinawan karate instructors. I didn't meet anyone that knew what I was asking about when I inquired about the Channan form.

R. McLain

 

[exile]

The Japanese usually say the vowel sound "u" VERY softly if it is at the end of a word. So it is easy to see why "Itosu" became "Idos". Both would have pretty much the same phonetic pronunciation: EE-tohs

The fate of `u' in a name like `Itosu' is very much the same as what happens to the `u' in a word like `sukiyaki'. In many dialects of Japanese, the vowel becomes devoiced between voiceless environments: the vocal cords stop vibrating when the `u' is both preceded and followed by a sound in which the vocal cords themselves are not vibrating. In `sukiyaki', the preceding `s' and the following `k' both are voiceless (if you add vocal cord vibration to these sounds, you get `z' and `g' respectively—the phonetic difference between these pairs of sounds is just voicing). If you devoice a vowel, however, it basically disappears off the face of the earth. To the casual hear, the vowel just disappears; so the Japanese pronunciation of `sukiyaki' is fairly challenging for western hearers, because what you hear is an `s', followed by a short hissing-type sound made through rounded lips (all that survives of `u' once the vocal cord vibration is suppressed) followed by `k'; and since final position also has this effect, you wind up with the same thing happening to the `u' in Itosu. Add to that the fact that `t' in Japanese is not very strongly aspirated when it begins a syllable (unlike English), and therefore resembles a `d', and it's not surprising that in Korean, which doesn't have the vowel devoicing rule, `Itosu' will be heard as `Idos'...

 

[Muwubu16858]

In the Kong Soo Do Baek Kwa (Korean copy of the Hyung manual by Sakagami Ryusho [Prior to the untimely death of Grandmaster Kenwa Mabuni on May 23 1952, Ryusho Sakagami Sensei was directed by the Grandmaster to accept the honorific position of "Third Generation Leader of Itosu-ha" {Itosu's Orthodox Style} in early 1952.]). In this book, which I have a copy, he says the Pyung Ahn forms were created by Itosu Anko, which we have cleared so far early in the discussion. That aside, it says here that the techniques are derived from the Kong Sang Goon hyung patterns(as there are more than one version[dai{big}, so{small}, sa bang{4 direction}, etc.]). Now to tackle the Jae Nam that GM Hwang Kee says the Pyung Ahn are from...I'm not a hundred percent sure, and don't quote me, but i heard somewhere that the first two Pyung Ahn's resemble the Channan form, but I may be wrong, since a lot of form history is surrounded by mystery and legend.

 

[stoneheart]

Japanese switched the order of Pinan No. 1 and No. 2? Ah ha! This must be why students complain about Pinan No. 1 being harder than No. 2! I was wondering about that.

Just to be clear, Funakoshi reversed the order because he felt Pinan Nidan (#2) was easier to perform than Pinan Shodan. Thus, Shotokan and Taekwondo/Tang Soo Do people perform them in that order.

It can be a bit confusing when comparing forms with Okinawan stylists since their Pinan Nidan is the 'easier form' since they use the original Itosu names.

 

[Muwubu16858]

Also, Itosu Ryu also has them switched, like the shotokan and tang soo do.

 

[Chizikunbo]

If anyone has any more information, such as someone performing the Channan form, please let me know. I've seen many articles written about this form, but nobody seems to know it, physically.

I lived in Okinawa, Nov, 3-28, 2006, specifically to research and meet Okinawan karate instructors. I didn't meet anyone that knew what I was asking about when I inquired about the Channan form.

R. McLain

The form is known as Jae Name in Korean, Chiang Nan in Chinese, and Channan in Okinawan (Uchina Guchi) and Japanese. The form is said to be the root of the Pinan/Heian/Pyong Ahn forms. Previously it was thought that the pinans were composed of parts of Kong San Kun (Kusanku) and Channan, but now it is thought that the form is mostly parts of Channan with only a minor influence from Kong San Kun...There are at least two versions of Channan circulating around, one by Dr. Elmar Schmeisser (who wrote a book on it)...the odd thing is that the form he presents seems too much like Pinan thrown together in a different order...It is known that Itosu Yasutsune did indeed call the series Channan for a short time before calling them Pinan. SGM Hwang Kee notes in his "Soo Bahk Do Tang Soo Do Vol 1" that the older name is Jae Name as well...There is another version (that I believe is also in a book somewhere) by a fellow called "Mertz" if memory serves me right, and his version comes from Chokki Motobu for what that may be worth...

hope that helps, and happy hunting,
--josh

 

[Chizikunbo]

and Oh, I almost forgot, there was an article about the origin of the Pinan/Heian series in[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif] Classical Fighting Arts #8 which is available at www.dragon-tsunami.org which details (with tons of references) the history of the form, and its really interesting connection with General Qi Ji Kwang and his 32 postures (which is where we get the Mu Yea Dobo Tonji's Kwon Bup chapter)...

--josh
[/FONT]