Hankumdo is a Korean sword-art where the basic techniques are based on the letters of the Korean alphabet,

Hangul The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The let ...

Goal

The goal of hankumdo is to teach people how to defend themselves and at the same time offer them exercises to stay healthy. It also is meant to give practitioners the means to come to a deeper understanding of martial arts principles. It aims to make this easy by using the Korean writing system to systematize the techniques.

History

Hankumdo was developed by Myung Jae Nam, who first taught his sword techniques as a separate art in 1986 and was first publicized in 1997 during the 3rd International H.K.D Games. Hankumdo originated from the techniques used in

Hankido Hankido is a new martial art style developed by Myung Jae-nam using circular flowing movements owing to Myung Jae-nam's background in traditional Korean dance. Etymology The name hankido is a mix of the name ''Hanguk'' (the Korean name for Sout ...

to defend against sword attacks. Though first presented as a subset of the larger Hankido curriculum under the name hankumdobub (hankumdo techniques), Myung Jae Nam later decided that it was an art that could stand on its own merits and is often taught as a separate discipline. Hankumdo doesn't have clear roots in other sword arts, since Myung Jae Nam never received any formal education in other sword arts. The subset of techniques is quite limited, and consists only of the basics strikes and blocks found in most sword arts. GM Myung organized his sword art, HanKumdo, around the calligraphy of the Korean Hangul alphabet. It is claimed that using the five basic striking techniques one can write the entire Korean alphabet as a series of fencing combinations. In this way, Hankumdo would seem to mirror the tenet of Chinese sword practice which suggests that all sword work can be reduced to the strokes necessary to write the single Chinese character, “eui”. This tenet surfaces routinely among a broad spectrum of Oriental fencing arts and over a wide time frame.

Meaning

The word hankumdo actually consists of three different words: *

Han Han may refer to: Ethnic groups * Han Chinese, or Han People (): the name for the largest ethnic group in China, which also constitutes the world's largest ethnic group. ** Han Taiwanese (): the name for the ethnic group of the Taiwanese p ...

(한 / 韓): Korea, Korean culture and mentality (see

Names of Korea There are various names of Korea in use today, all derived from ancient kingdoms and dynasties. The modern English name "Korea" is an exonym derived from the name Goryeo, also spelled ''Koryŏ'', and is used by both North Korea and South Korea in ...

). * Kum (검 / 劍): Sword * Do (도 / 道): The way Hankumdo can be interpreted as: The way for the Korean people to learn how to handle the sword.

Style

A number of modern Korean martial arts have been influenced by Japanese styles in the 20th century, while the older arts were influenced by the Chinese, which becomes obvious in the

Muyedobotongji Commissioned in 1790 by King Jeongjo (r. 1740–1810), the ''Muyedobotongji'' (or ''Muye Dobo Tong Ji''; translating to "Comprehensive Illustrated Manual of Martial Arts") expanded on the eighteen weapons systems identified in the '' Muyeshinbo' ...

. Myung Jae Nam however wanted to create a true Korean sword art without any foreign influences. Japanese sword arts developed into the art of man-to-man duelling during the peaceful

Edo period The or is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japan was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country's 300 regional '' daimyo''. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengoku period, the Edo period was characteriz ...

and are characterized by a lot of attention to detail under the influence of

Zen Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

Buddhism. Traditional Korean arts never underwent this change and were purely taught to soldiers as a way to fight on the battlefield, although this does not mean that in Japanese arts battlefield techniques are not taught. Battlefield fighting is usually characterized by more flowing and ongoing movements. In duel-style fighting a lot of attention is given to the one-strike-one-kill principle, whereas in battlefield-style fighting the emphasis is on keeping the sword in motion and always being ready for the next strike. To give hankumdo a true Korean flavor, Myung Jae Nam used the Korean alphabet, known as

, to teach the basic strikes of the art.

Techniques

The basis for all Hankumdo techniques comes from the letters of the Korean alphabet,

. This alphabet consists of 24 characters, 14 consonants (자음) and 10 vowels (모음). Since 1997 there have been several revisions of the techniques. In the earliest version the sword techniques reflected the manner in which one would write the characters on paper, thus requiring mastery of only four techniques. In the latest revision more techniques were added and the techniques become more elaborate. As a result, the manner of using the sword and of writing the letters may vary. The strikes are being taught from several positions and with several steps, called Gi Bo Haeng (기보행).Myung Jae Nam: Hankumdo bub : Issued at the hankumdo introduction seminars in 1996 The techniques have the same name as the characters followed by the word ''Begi'' (베기) which means strike. So the name for the first technique is: ''Giyeokbegi'' (기역베기), because the name for the first character (ㄱ) in the Korean alphabet is Giyeok (기역). Myung intended to develop a sword-art that would be truly Korean and easy to learn by everyone. For Koreans who already know the Korean writing system, the techniques are easy to remember, as the sword methods follow the standard manner in which the Korean characters are written. Foreigners are advised to learn how to write Hangul before starting with the sword techniques. Because the Korean writing system is fairly easy to learn, foreigners can become facile in the sword basics within a short period of time.

Development

After Myung Jae Nam's death in 1999, the development of hankumdo is overseen by the

Jaenam Musul Won Foundation The International H.K.D. Federation (I.H.F.) was founded in 1974 by hapkido grandmaster Myung Jae Nam. Its original name was the ''International Hapkido Federation'' — it was changed when hankido and hankumdo were added to the I.H.F.'s curricul ...

Quite a few changes and additions to the hankumdo curriculum have been made by Ko Ju Sik (고주식), the new technical director of the federation, since then.

References

External links

International H.K.D. Federation Headquarters (Korean)

Ji Yong Kwan
{{Martial arts Korean martial arts