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Hwarang
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Why Hwarang Do is not Hapkido - aka a history of the modern Korean martial arts
This text is probably too long for most people to bother reading, but I have to take it step-by-step, otherwise the Korean MA history does not make sence. So here goes.
First of all there are a few ground rules we have to agree on:
1) GM Choi Yong Sul did not teach Hapkido, he taught "Yawara", sometimes called by the full name "Daetong Ryu Yusul" which is the Korean pronounciation of "Daito Ryu Aikijutsu". He did not use the name Hapkido until very, very late (~1968). His original students learned "Yawara" from him, not "Hapkido"
2) The original masters who trained under Choi Yong Sul trained privately (they did not know who else trained there), they came with different previous martial arts experience, and did not learn the same things from GM Choi. He did not have a formal school and he simply taught what he felt like.
3) This also means that "Hapkido" "back in the old days" was NOT one original style. People used the name for many different (also technically different) styles from the start.
Different lineages, different concepts, different arts - same name.
4) At first there were very, very few martial arts schools in Korea.
There were very, very few masters at first, it was not until the mid 60s that the number of masters, schools and styles suddenly increased. Therefore the original masters certainly knew each other and their background, whereas later masters might only know their own master(s).
This is basic stuff, without knowing this there is no way of understanding the history and development. If you disagree with any of the above you are certainly welcome to bring it up though.
Let's make a timeline, I suggest:
1. MA in Korea before Yawara influence
2. Yawara
3. The early styles
4. "Hapkido"
5. Unification attempts
6. Final breakup
7. Continious development
1.period: MA in Korea before the Yawara influence
What martial arts were in Korea after World War2?
During the Japanese occupation Kendo (Kumdo) and Judo (Yudo) were certainly taught in Korea. GM Choi Yong Sul trained Yawara (Yusul), or full name "Daito Ryu Aikijitsu" (Taedong Ryu Yusul) in Japan and brought it to Korea. Among the millions of Koreans who were in Japan others are likely to have trained martial art. Koreans serving in the Japanese army whould probably have trained JuJutsu(?) and we know many trained Karate.
Korean monks still today train martial arts, and are known throughout Korean history to have trained martial arts.
The Chinese minority in Korea are likely, as Chinese in other countries, to train martial arts. There is a large Korean minority in Manchuria, which also were occupied by the Japanese. So there were definitly martial arts in Korea.
The whole idea that Korea, as the only country in Asia, did not have any MA (Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, India, the Philipines, Japan, China etc certainly do) seems strange to me.
2.period: Yawara influence
Everybody agrees, according to ground rule #1, that GM Choi Yong Sul taught Yawara, not Hapkido. It seems that everyone with a background in Korean MA - who could afford it - went to Taegu and trained under him. Some trained for a long time, some for a short time but all the original masters were there.
My personal guess is that GM Choi became famous in Korea, and everyone who were already training some form of martial art wanted to see what he was doing. People who were interested in MA, but hadn't trained before also went, probably because they had heard about him.
This often happens in Korea - something gets popular and soon everybody does it, or would like to do it. It's a very homogenious country.
There were probably also others (very few) who taught other Japanese styles, but these were much less influencial, and are only interesting when documenting their lineages.
3.period: The early styles are taught
In the late 50ies and early 60ies the early masters started teaching (for instance GM Lee: Hwarang Do, GM Ji: Yusul, Suh Bok Sup: Yu Kwon Sul). Shortly after, people started using the Hapkido name. There are many stories about who started using the name, for now the interesting part is that 'Hapkido' was used *after* the other names were used.
4.Period: the "Hapkido" name is used
So as it often happens in Korea something spreads and very soon everybody does it. From ~1961 all Korean (non-"Taekwondo") martial arts used the Hapkido name to describe their styles. People were still doing their own thing as they had from the beginning (teaching their own styles), they just used the Hapkido name as a common identifier - ground rule #3 (maybe as in America "Karate" can mean any MA?).
Some people, like GM Joo Bang Lee, had extensive previous MA experience before training Yawara, other started with Yawara, but they all learned different things from GM Choi. They took their knowledge and taught their individual styles, Hanpul taught Hanpul, Hwarang Do taught Hwarang Do, Seong Mu Kwan taught Seong Mu Kwan. And they all also used the Hapkido name.
5.period: Unification attempts are made
As ground rule # 4 says - during the 60s the number of schools and masters drastically increased and some attempts to unify the schools were made. In 1965 'Taekwondo' was unified and recieved strong goverment backing, and after this several attempts to do the same with the many different styles using the 'Hapkido' name were made.
But where the different Karate styles were relatively easy to combine, this was not the case for 'Hapkido', which of course where very different styles from the start. And for this, and other, maninly political reasons, it was impossible to unify the 'Hapkido' styles.
6. Final breakup
In 1968 GM Joo Bang Lee had enough. He had been a founding member of the Kido Hwe, had been promoting both the HanKUK MuSOOL HyupHWE (Kuk Sool Hwe) and the big unification drive in 1967-68 and now he said stop. He dropped all ranks and started from the bottom, swearing never to use the Hapkido name. He built Hwarang Do in Korea from 1968 and when he left Korea for America in 1972 there were 68 Hwarang Do schools in Korea (16 in Seoul).
Many people in 'Hapkido' would certainly have prefered GM Lee to work for them, but after promoting and using the 'Hapkido' name together with the Hwarang Do name for 7-8 years (1961-1968) he has never since used the name, and he has never since promoted himself as a 'Hapkido' grandmaster. Eventhough he received the highest ranking in HKD by GM Choi.
7.period: Continious development
GM Lee has continued to develop Hwarang Do for 35 years and the various 'Hapkido' styles have developed in their separate directions.
Today there is not *a* style called Hapkido, there never were, and there never will be. The styles are just too different.
---
We can try another way - why do people say Hwarang Do is a Hapkido style?
a.k.a. I've heard that GM Joo Bang Lee taught Hapkido, is that true?
Answer: Yes, sure, absolutely true but! - and the but! is important.
GM Lee opened his first Hwarang Dojang in 1960, this was before anyone used the Hapkido name in Korea. If he was teaching before the Hapkido name was used, how can it be a Hapkido style?
From ~1961 to ~68, that is 7 years, GM Lee used the Hapkido name together with Hwarang Do. During the last 36 years he has not used the Hapkido name. Is it a Hapkido style then? Is Tugong Musool a Hapkido style?
Please understand that if GM Lee wanted he COULD promote himself as a senior Hapkido Grandmaster, together with GM Ji he WAS the higest ranking master at the time. But he does not. In 1968 he had enough of the politics and went his own way.
Eventhough he had been promoting the Hapkido name he dropped all ranks and started from the bottom with his own style. He swore not to take advantage of the Hapkido name and left it for the people who wanted to use it.
So to put it nicely, for people to call Hwarang Do a Hapkido style is to pi** both on his work and on his influence on the Korean martial arts.
Q and A:
Q. GM Joo Bang Lee trained under GM Choi?
A. GM Choi taught Yawara, not Hapkido
Q. Why do you keep it secret that GM Lee trained under GM Choi?
A. It was never a secret. Why would you keep it secret, and how could you? There are thousands of Koreans who knows GM Lee as one of the leaders of "Hapkido".
GM Lee left the name with the 'Hapkido' people in 1968 because he was tired of the politics, and he has *never* used 'Hapkido' to promote neither himself nor Hwarang Do. However, he has *always* said he had two teachers when you talked with him (the monk Suam Dosa and GM Choi (Yawara)). It is in writing in Dojang Magazine (1995) : http://www.hwarangdo.com/dojang1.htm, in the 2000 Black Belt articles and on hwarangdo.com
Q. OK, but why did GM Lee not write anywhere that he also learned Hapkido from GM Choi?
A. GM Choi did not teach Hapkido, and the 'Hapkido' people were promoting their various styles as an ancient Korean martial art.
Why should GM Lee destroy their stories by telling people about Yawara?
Q. My master says/I have heard/I have read that Master XYZ says he taught GM Joo Bang Lee
A. People promote themselves, things gets lost in translation, things are misunderstood. I will say this though: If your master claims that he taught GM Joo Bang Lee please do me a favor. Politely let him know that I am a student of GM Lee and I'll be happy to let GM Lee know that the person said he taught GM Lee. Please make sure the person understands that this is a public request.
Disclaimer: This was written in 4 hours, there might be errors - let me know.
Please see http://www.hwarangdo.com/hrd2.htm for details, there is a lot more information than you think.
Carsten Jorgensen
cj@hwarangdo.dk
This text is probably too long for most people to bother reading, but I have to take it step-by-step, otherwise the Korean MA history does not make sence. So here goes.
First of all there are a few ground rules we have to agree on:
1) GM Choi Yong Sul did not teach Hapkido, he taught "Yawara", sometimes called by the full name "Daetong Ryu Yusul" which is the Korean pronounciation of "Daito Ryu Aikijutsu". He did not use the name Hapkido until very, very late (~1968). His original students learned "Yawara" from him, not "Hapkido"
2) The original masters who trained under Choi Yong Sul trained privately (they did not know who else trained there), they came with different previous martial arts experience, and did not learn the same things from GM Choi. He did not have a formal school and he simply taught what he felt like.
3) This also means that "Hapkido" "back in the old days" was NOT one original style. People used the name for many different (also technically different) styles from the start.
Different lineages, different concepts, different arts - same name.
4) At first there were very, very few martial arts schools in Korea.
There were very, very few masters at first, it was not until the mid 60s that the number of masters, schools and styles suddenly increased. Therefore the original masters certainly knew each other and their background, whereas later masters might only know their own master(s).
This is basic stuff, without knowing this there is no way of understanding the history and development. If you disagree with any of the above you are certainly welcome to bring it up though.
Let's make a timeline, I suggest:
1. MA in Korea before Yawara influence
2. Yawara
3. The early styles
4. "Hapkido"
5. Unification attempts
6. Final breakup
7. Continious development
1.period: MA in Korea before the Yawara influence
What martial arts were in Korea after World War2?
During the Japanese occupation Kendo (Kumdo) and Judo (Yudo) were certainly taught in Korea. GM Choi Yong Sul trained Yawara (Yusul), or full name "Daito Ryu Aikijitsu" (Taedong Ryu Yusul) in Japan and brought it to Korea. Among the millions of Koreans who were in Japan others are likely to have trained martial art. Koreans serving in the Japanese army whould probably have trained JuJutsu(?) and we know many trained Karate.
Korean monks still today train martial arts, and are known throughout Korean history to have trained martial arts.
The Chinese minority in Korea are likely, as Chinese in other countries, to train martial arts. There is a large Korean minority in Manchuria, which also were occupied by the Japanese. So there were definitly martial arts in Korea.
The whole idea that Korea, as the only country in Asia, did not have any MA (Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, India, the Philipines, Japan, China etc certainly do) seems strange to me.
2.period: Yawara influence
Everybody agrees, according to ground rule #1, that GM Choi Yong Sul taught Yawara, not Hapkido. It seems that everyone with a background in Korean MA - who could afford it - went to Taegu and trained under him. Some trained for a long time, some for a short time but all the original masters were there.
My personal guess is that GM Choi became famous in Korea, and everyone who were already training some form of martial art wanted to see what he was doing. People who were interested in MA, but hadn't trained before also went, probably because they had heard about him.
This often happens in Korea - something gets popular and soon everybody does it, or would like to do it. It's a very homogenious country.
There were probably also others (very few) who taught other Japanese styles, but these were much less influencial, and are only interesting when documenting their lineages.
3.period: The early styles are taught
In the late 50ies and early 60ies the early masters started teaching (for instance GM Lee: Hwarang Do, GM Ji: Yusul, Suh Bok Sup: Yu Kwon Sul). Shortly after, people started using the Hapkido name. There are many stories about who started using the name, for now the interesting part is that 'Hapkido' was used *after* the other names were used.
4.Period: the "Hapkido" name is used
So as it often happens in Korea something spreads and very soon everybody does it. From ~1961 all Korean (non-"Taekwondo") martial arts used the Hapkido name to describe their styles. People were still doing their own thing as they had from the beginning (teaching their own styles), they just used the Hapkido name as a common identifier - ground rule #3 (maybe as in America "Karate" can mean any MA?).
Some people, like GM Joo Bang Lee, had extensive previous MA experience before training Yawara, other started with Yawara, but they all learned different things from GM Choi. They took their knowledge and taught their individual styles, Hanpul taught Hanpul, Hwarang Do taught Hwarang Do, Seong Mu Kwan taught Seong Mu Kwan. And they all also used the Hapkido name.
5.period: Unification attempts are made
As ground rule # 4 says - during the 60s the number of schools and masters drastically increased and some attempts to unify the schools were made. In 1965 'Taekwondo' was unified and recieved strong goverment backing, and after this several attempts to do the same with the many different styles using the 'Hapkido' name were made.
But where the different Karate styles were relatively easy to combine, this was not the case for 'Hapkido', which of course where very different styles from the start. And for this, and other, maninly political reasons, it was impossible to unify the 'Hapkido' styles.
6. Final breakup
In 1968 GM Joo Bang Lee had enough. He had been a founding member of the Kido Hwe, had been promoting both the HanKUK MuSOOL HyupHWE (Kuk Sool Hwe) and the big unification drive in 1967-68 and now he said stop. He dropped all ranks and started from the bottom, swearing never to use the Hapkido name. He built Hwarang Do in Korea from 1968 and when he left Korea for America in 1972 there were 68 Hwarang Do schools in Korea (16 in Seoul).
Many people in 'Hapkido' would certainly have prefered GM Lee to work for them, but after promoting and using the 'Hapkido' name together with the Hwarang Do name for 7-8 years (1961-1968) he has never since used the name, and he has never since promoted himself as a 'Hapkido' grandmaster. Eventhough he received the highest ranking in HKD by GM Choi.
7.period: Continious development
GM Lee has continued to develop Hwarang Do for 35 years and the various 'Hapkido' styles have developed in their separate directions.
Today there is not *a* style called Hapkido, there never were, and there never will be. The styles are just too different.
---
We can try another way - why do people say Hwarang Do is a Hapkido style?
a.k.a. I've heard that GM Joo Bang Lee taught Hapkido, is that true?
Answer: Yes, sure, absolutely true but! - and the but! is important.
GM Lee opened his first Hwarang Dojang in 1960, this was before anyone used the Hapkido name in Korea. If he was teaching before the Hapkido name was used, how can it be a Hapkido style?
From ~1961 to ~68, that is 7 years, GM Lee used the Hapkido name together with Hwarang Do. During the last 36 years he has not used the Hapkido name. Is it a Hapkido style then? Is Tugong Musool a Hapkido style?
Please understand that if GM Lee wanted he COULD promote himself as a senior Hapkido Grandmaster, together with GM Ji he WAS the higest ranking master at the time. But he does not. In 1968 he had enough of the politics and went his own way.
Eventhough he had been promoting the Hapkido name he dropped all ranks and started from the bottom with his own style. He swore not to take advantage of the Hapkido name and left it for the people who wanted to use it.
So to put it nicely, for people to call Hwarang Do a Hapkido style is to pi** both on his work and on his influence on the Korean martial arts.
Q and A:
Q. GM Joo Bang Lee trained under GM Choi?
A. GM Choi taught Yawara, not Hapkido
Q. Why do you keep it secret that GM Lee trained under GM Choi?
A. It was never a secret. Why would you keep it secret, and how could you? There are thousands of Koreans who knows GM Lee as one of the leaders of "Hapkido".
GM Lee left the name with the 'Hapkido' people in 1968 because he was tired of the politics, and he has *never* used 'Hapkido' to promote neither himself nor Hwarang Do. However, he has *always* said he had two teachers when you talked with him (the monk Suam Dosa and GM Choi (Yawara)). It is in writing in Dojang Magazine (1995) : http://www.hwarangdo.com/dojang1.htm, in the 2000 Black Belt articles and on hwarangdo.com
Q. OK, but why did GM Lee not write anywhere that he also learned Hapkido from GM Choi?
A. GM Choi did not teach Hapkido, and the 'Hapkido' people were promoting their various styles as an ancient Korean martial art.
Why should GM Lee destroy their stories by telling people about Yawara?
Q. My master says/I have heard/I have read that Master XYZ says he taught GM Joo Bang Lee
A. People promote themselves, things gets lost in translation, things are misunderstood. I will say this though: If your master claims that he taught GM Joo Bang Lee please do me a favor. Politely let him know that I am a student of GM Lee and I'll be happy to let GM Lee know that the person said he taught GM Lee. Please make sure the person understands that this is a public request.
Disclaimer: This was written in 4 hours, there might be errors - let me know.
Please see http://www.hwarangdo.com/hrd2.htm for details, there is a lot more information than you think.
Carsten Jorgensen
cj@hwarangdo.dk
