Myung Jae Nam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Myung Jae Nam | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Korean name | |
| Hangul: |
명재남
|
| Hanja: |
明在南
|
| Revised Romanization: | Myung Jae Nam |
| McCune-Reischauer: | Myŏng Chae Nam |
Myung Jae Nam (1938-August 3, 1999) was a Korean hapkido practitioner who founded two martial art styles; hankido and hankumdo.
Contents |
[edit] Life
Myung Jae Nam was born in Jeollanam-do province but lived in Incheon for most of his life.
He started his martial arts training in 1948, and his hapkido training with Ji Han Jae at the Joong Bu Si Jang location in 1958 or 1959. Joining Myung at that time was also Bong Soo Han and Choi Sea Oh.
In 1972, Myung was the 8th person to receive an 8th degree black belt from Ji Han Jae, and was one of the original members of the Korea Hapkido Association (Dae Han Hapkido Hyub Hwe), which was formed in 1965 at the request of the South Korean President Park Chung Hee.
In January 1972, he changed the name of his own group to the "Han Kuk Hapki Hwe", and moved his headquarters from Incheon to Bukchang-Dong, Chung-Ku, in Seoul, Korea. In October 1973, while still maintaining his own organization, he assisted in the forming the "Dae Han Min Kuk Hapkido Hyop Hwe" (Republic of Korea Hapkido Association) and was appointed the executive director and he remained with that organization until 1980.
In August 1974, he again changed the name of his own organization to "Kuk Jae Yong Meng Hapki Hwe" and is known in English as the International Hapkido Federation. In the same year he also co-founded the Korean Hapkido Association.
[edit] Accomplishments
Myung Jae Nam exchanged martial art techniques and information with an aikido practitioner named Hirata in 1965, for a period of about four years. In 1969, Myung broke from the Korea Hapkido Association (Dae Han Hapkido Hyub Hwe) and formed his own group called the "Han Kuk Hapki Sool Hwe". He considered himself associated with the Aikikai in Japan and on his certificates from that era, he even has aikido founder Morihei Ueshiba's name at the top.
Myung was the former Korean representative for the Aikikai and has included many aikido-like techniques into his version of hapkido. He has produced many books and videos.
In the 1980s Myung Jae Nam started working on the development of his own unique martial art, which was later called hankido (한기도). He wanted to develop a martial art for the people of Korea, which would be simple and easy to learn.
Hankido's core consists of only twelve basic techniques. Myung Jae Nam once said that it is better learn one technique a thousand times instead of practicing a thousand different techniques.
In the years after the first Hapkido Games, he traveled around the world to promote his unique style and his own organization, the International Hapkido Federation. This organization has its headquarters in Yong-In, Korea, and includes well over one million members worldwide in sixty countries[citation needed].
He started the development of another sword art called Hankumdo (한검도) which gives the foreign practitioner a chance to learn the Korean alphabet, hangul.
[edit] Death
On August 3, 1999, Myung Jae Nam passed away in Yong-In, Korea from stomach cancer. His son Myung Sung Kwang, is now the 2nd doju, of the International H·K·D Federation - Jae Nam Musul Won.
