Oh Do Kwan
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Oh Do Kwan | |
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Hangul: |
오도관
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Hanja: |
吾道館[1]
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Revised Romanization: | Oh Do Kwan |
McCune-Reischauer: | Oh Do Kwan |
Oh Do Kwan is one of the original taekwondo schools in Korea.
Contents |
[edit] Meaning
The word Oh (吾) can be translated both as 'mine' but also as 'our'. Which makes the meaning of Oh Do Kwan: the school of my (or our) way.
[edit] Founding
General Choi Hong Hi founded the Oh Do Kwan along with Nam Tae Hee in the mid 1950's as part of the ROK Army's Physical Training Program. The first persons to instruct the ROK Army in "Tang Soo Do" (as Taekwondo was called in the early 1950's) were Nam Tae Hi, Woo Jong Lim, Ko Jae Chun, Kim Suk Kyu, Baek Joon Ki, Kwak Keun Sik, Kim Bong Sik, Han Cha Kyo, Kim Bok Man, almost all originally Chung Do Kwan members.
Originally the Oh Do Kwan was made up of mostly Chung Do Kwan members brought in by senior Chung Do Kwan members Nam Tae Hee and Han Cha Kyo. Gen. Choi was the political power in the kwan, and Master Nam was the head instructor. The Chang Hon Hyungs (or, more properlly, tuls) developed by the Oh Do Kwan were adopted by all persons in the military, no matter what kwan they were originally from. According to Grandmaster Kim, Yong Soo (in "Taekwon-Do and Korean Martial Arts," vol. 10, no. 6), by the late 1960s about 60% of civilian Korean practitioners had adopted the Chang Hon patterns. However, no other Kwan's used the Chang Hon patterns. The other Kwan's adoptd the Palgwe Poomsae in 1967, until that time, they only practiced the Pyong Ahn (Karate) forms. Today, the Chang Hon tul of the Oh Do Kwan are still practiced by members of the ITF, as well as by some other Taekwondoin, both "independents" as well as some who have Kukkiwon certification.
Oh Do Kwan and ITF representative HYUN, Jong Myung was one of the eight people from various kwans who worked on the KTA Poomsae Committee that created the Palgwe and Dan Poomsae (patterns) for the Korea Taekwondo Association in 1965, and was also on that same committee when the Palgwe Poomsae was replaced with the Taegeuk Poomsae, and some Dan Poomsae was revised in 1971-72. Today the Taegeuk and Dan Poomsae (Palgwe has been eliminated) are the Official Poomsae of the Kukkiwon and used to compete in the WTF World Poomsae Championships.
Today the Oh Do Kwan still exist in Korea as a social friendship club and has an annual celebration every year in Seoul. Oh Do Kwan endorses the Kukkiwon system, which it helped create, as the official Oh Do Kwan curriculum, and, support the WTF.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
A Modern History of Taekwondo 1999 (Korean) Kyong Myung Lee and Kang Won Sik ISBN 89-358-0124-0
Global Taekwondo 2003 (English) Kyo Yoon Lee ISBN 89-952721-4-7
A Guide to Taekwondo 1996 (English) Kyo Yoon Lee ISBN 8975000648 Kukkiwon 25th Anniversary Text 1997 (Korean) Un Yong Kim