Haidong Gumdo - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Haedong Kumdo, also spelled Haidong Gumdo, is a name coined around 1982 and used for several Korean martial arts

Korean martial arts

Korean martial arts are the martial arts that originated from Korea. Some well known Korean martial arts are hapkido, kuk sool won, and taekwondo. There has also been a revival of Korean sword arts as well as knife fighting and archery...

organizations that use sword

Korean sword

For much of Korea's history, swords were created for an individual user; thus, most Korean swords were different and did not follow a set standard model....

s. Spelling varies between certain organizations. Most notable are Haidong Gumdo by the original organization (Daehan Haidong Gumdo Federation) under Kim Jeong-Ho, and Haedong Kumdo by the largest offshoot (Hanguk Haedong Gumdo Federation) under Na Han-Il.

Haidong Gumdo is significantly different style from kumdo

Kumdo

Kumdo is a modern martial art descended from kendo, which is practiced in Korea. It is also romanized as kǒmdo, gumdo, or geomdo. The name means "the way of the sword," and is a cognate with the Japanese term. Kumdo is a martial art that has become engrained within Korean culture and society since...

, emphasizing a native Korean "battlefield" style of combat over the one-on-one duel

Duel

A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.Duels in this form were chiefly practised in Early Modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period especially among...

ing style found in standard or Daehan Kumdo. As such, it is unrelated to modern, standard kumdo. By contrast, the KKA promotes Daehan Kumdo , with noted changes to reflect Korean cultural influences and methodology.

Haedong Gumdo derives its name from Haedong Seongguk Balhae (海東盛國渤海), a name for Balhae

Balhae

Balhae was a Manchurian kingdom established after the fall of Goguryeo. After Goguryeo's capital and southern territories fell to Unified Silla, Dae Jo-yeong, a Mohe general, whose father was Dae Jung-sang, established Jin , later called Balhae.Balhae occupied southern parts of Manchuria and...

, a medieval kingdom in the region of northeastern Korea, and southern Manchuria

Manchuria

Manchuria is a historical name given to a large geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria usually falls entirely within the People's Republic of China, or is sometimes divided between China and Russia. The region is commonly referred to as Northeast...

Techniques

Practitioners of Haidong Gumdo engage in the practice of basic techniques (kibon), forms (geompeob or pumsae), step sparring (yaksuk daeryun), sparring (hada), energy building exercises (qi gong) and cutting practice (begi).

Basic practice is done with the mokgum (wooden sword).

Sparring practice begins with the bamboo sword (chukdo) but now due to new laws passed down from the Haidong Gumdo federation a plastic/rubber sword must be used in competitions, advances to mokgum, and depending on the school, may advance to weighted training weapons with protective padding or armor. Forms within Haidong Gumdo were derived from the mechanics of Kichun
Kichun
KiChun is a Korean martial art, introduced in the 1960s, origins of the martial art being widely unknown as it was passed from one wandering master to another. Many martial artists claim that forms and postures look similar to the Wing Chun or Southern Praying Mantis styles of China...

(a Korean form of martial arts

Martial arts

Martial arts are extensive systems of codified practices and traditions of combat, practiced for a variety of reasons, including self-defense, competition, physical health and fitness, as well as mental and spiritual development....

similar to T'ai chi ch'uan), and various sword patterns found within the Muyedobotongji

Muyedobotongji

In 1790, King Jeongjo of Korea commissioned a book called the Muyedobotongji which was an illustrated manual of Korean martial arts. This book, written by Yi Deokmu and Pak Jega , described in detail Korea's martial arts of which an unarmed combat style of kicking and punching is extensively...

( Comprehensive Illustrated Manual of Martial Arts). Baldo and chakgeom forms (drawing and sheathing the sword) were also developed.

While traditional Korean sword forms are contained in the Bonguk Geombeop

Bonguk geom

The Korean word Bonguk geom refers to both a sword and a sword skill which are said to have originated from the sword skills of the Hwarang from the Silla Dynasty. This is why the sword is also called Silla sword or singeom...

(Korean sword method), other geombeop are taught within Haidong Gumdo curricula, including:

쌍수검법 Ssangsu Geombeop (method of using the double handed sword)
심상검법 Simsang Geombeop (method of the heart of swordsmanship)
예도검법 Yedo Geombeop (method of using the short sword)
제독검법 Jedok Geombeop (Admiral's sword method)
장백검법 Jangbaek Geombeop (the Jangbaek method)
왜검법 Wae Geombeop (Japanese
Wa (Japan)
Japanese is the oldest recorded name of Japan. Chinese, Korean, and Japanese scribes regularly wrote Wa or Yamato "Japan" with the Chinese character 倭 until the 8th century, when the Japanese found fault with it, replacing it with 和 "harmony, peace, balance".- Historical references :The earliest...

method)
외수검법 Wuisu Geombeop (method of using the sword with one hand)
쌍검검법 Ssanggeom Geombeop (The method of using two swords)

Haidong Gumdo may be generally characterized as exchanging multiple strikes of the sword for one strike of the sword. The one strike concept characterizes the Japanese method. The merits and limitations of each of the philosophies may be debated endlessly. Probably the best way to characterize the main difference between Japanese Kendo and the Korean Haidong Gumdo styles is through training philosophy:

The Japanese technique primarily focuses on one-versus-one, or individual combat.
The Korean technique primarily focuses on one-versus-many, or battlefield combat.

The essence of Haidong Gumdo is in shimgum, a concept similar to the that of the Spanish duende, as coined by the Spanish poet, García Lorca

Federico García Lorca

Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...

. Shimgum is the unification of the mind, body and spirit expressing itself through the use of the sword. It implies a technical mastery of the sword, but transcends technical limitations. One can be "technically perfect" but still not achieve shimgum. One may also be technically imperfect and still achieve shimgum. Shimgum is what makes Haidong Gumdo not only a martial science but also a martial art.

Legal controversy

The swift rise to popularity of Haidong Gumdo during the 1990s led to disputes and legal battles between the two major federations, Daehan Haidong Gumdo Federation and Hanguk Haedong Gumdo Federation,

As a result of the lawsuits, the history of the discipline came to be scrutinized by a legal court.
The founders of Haidong Gumdo had made various dubious claims regarding the lineage of their discipline, suggesting it was rooted in the martial traditions of the Samurang (士武郞) , a supposed group of elite warriors originally trained by a master named Seolbong in the Goguryeo

Goguryeo

Goguryeo or Koguryŏ was an ancient Korean kingdom located in present day northern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula, southern Manchuria, and southern Russian Maritime province....

kingdom who allegedly also played a role in the creation of the Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese samurai

Samurai

is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...

caste. In some countries "Samurang" has been registered as a trademark by the World Haidong Gumdo Federation.

Kim Jeong-Ho, president of the Daehan Haidong Gumdo Federation, also claimed that he had learned Haidong Gumdo from a master called Jangbaeksan (meaning Mount Baekdu) at Kwanak Mountain. The court found that these claims were false, or "metaphoric".
The trials concluded that Haidong Gumdo was created by Kim Jeong-Ho and Na Hanil, both of whom had studied the Korean sword arts of Gicheonmun (under Bak Daeyang) and Shim Gum Do

Shim Gum Do

Shim Gum Do, translated as the "mind sword path", is a martial arts system of recent invention, originating in Korea. Shim Gum Do emerged from the enlightenment of the monk Won Gwang, born as Chang Sik Kim, during a 100 day meditation and prayer retreat in 1965. The central component of the system...

(under Kim Changsik

Chang Sik Kim

Chang Sik Kim was born in South Korea in 1944. When he was thirteen he met his teacher, Seung Sahn Lee, and entered the Hwa Gye temple in Seoul. When Kim was 21, his teacher sent him on a 100 day meditation retreat...

).
The pair worked together under the name of the more widely known of their two arts, Shim Gum Do. Around 1984 they began teaching their martial art under the name Haidong Gumdo.
Haidong Gumdo remained a relatively minor art until 1989 when Na Hanil played the leading character in a Korean TV drama. This helped to promote Haidong Gumdo considerably.

External links

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