Because all three kingdoms were vying for supremacy on the peninsula, each had to develop a superior fighting system to give its warriors and soldiers the advantage in battle. Each had its own king, army, subjects and combat methods. Over 2,000 years ago, the Three Kingdoms period began. That's supposedly when the Korean martial arts underwent a lot of growth. Even when the Japanese tried for over three decades to destroy our culture during their occupation, they didn't succeed.īlack Belt: Let's skip forward to the Three Kingdoms era. Korea has been invaded more than any other place in Asia, but we've never been conquered. Because of Korea's peninsular position between the Chinese mainland and the sea, as well as its rugged topography, these early Koreans developed strong combative skills.

Joo Bang Lee: The origins of the Korean fighting arts some 5,000 years to the formation of a country called Ko-Choson, which means “Old Choson.' During those ancient times, people were focused on sheer survival-maintaining the integrity of their country and defending themselves against other countries and animals. Joo Bang Lee also offers insights into his training experiences with a Buddhist monk and hapkido founder Choi Yong-sul, and he provides a glimpse into the direction his comprehensive fighting art is taking in the new millennium.īlack Belt: What are the earliest origins of the Korean martial arts? In this exclusive interview, we spoke with with Joo Bang Lee to clarify some of the aforementioned inaccuracies and misunderstandings about the evolution of the Korean martial arts. Joo Bang Lee are among those living legends who trained and taught during the pivotal period that immediately followed World War II and liberation from Japan. Hapkido's Ji Han-jae, kuk sool's Suh In-hyuk and hwa rang do's Dr. Unfortunately, as we advance into the 21st century, fewer and fewer of those legendary martial artists are still around to testify. The best way to conduct research while operating with a handicap like that is to interview people who actually participated in the evolutionary process. Meanwhile, practitioners and scholars have argued, struggled and fought about the evolution of the various Korean styles. Many of its twists and turns resulted from the painful Japanese occupation that lasted from 1910 to 1945, but others stemmed from matters as mundane as the Korean-English language barrier. Korean martial arts history has never been a simple matter.

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