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34-527: Unlike the other kwans , the Yun Mu Kwan, as a name for a distinct style, disappeared very early in the history of Korean karate and was never formally consolidated into the new Korean national sport of taekwondo although Jidokwan, its successor style, was. There are groups today, however, that still make use of the older name. The Yun Mu Kwan was originally a judo school in Seoul , started by Kyung Suk Lee during

68-544: A Korean practitioner named Min Kyu Pai began teaching the style after emigrating to the United States in the 1950s. His early efforts led to the introduction of the style to parts of Central America through one of his students, Francisco Miranda, who helped popularize karate in his native country of El Salvador. Pai had come to the United States at the age of twenty and, according to one of his successors, James Stewart, worked as

102-485: A contemporary article in Popular Science Magazine in the late 1960s. The school was close to New York City's Chinatown district and, as a result, Pai became deeply involved with a number of local Chinese martial artists who were then teaching their arts nearby (mostly behind closed doors in those days). Pai's methods of practice and of teaching slowly began to change through contact with these martial artists and

136-565: A hospital orderly for a time to earn enough to survive while attending a local college. He taught himself English as he went along, largely, as he confided to Stewart, by going to English language movies. But he found his true vocation when he began teaching the Korean fighting art he had become accomplished in back home. In the early days of his involvement in the martial arts scene he would seek new skills by apprenticing himself to more senior karate masters, Stewart has stated, like Jhoon Rhee , one of

170-599: A place called the Shudokan (although Toyama declined to characterize his methods as a distinct karate style). Yoon Byung-in moved on to found his own school of Korean karate after only a brief stint with Chun at the Chosun Yun Mu Kwan and Chun, himself, went missing during the Korean War (1950–1953) leaving the martial arts system he had founded as Yun Mu Kwan to be restarted (at war's end) under different instructors and with

204-426: A revival of the older kwan by individuals affiliated with the original group, who were reluctant to give up the connection with the original style (like Kyo Yoon Lee), or if this represented different individuals using the old name to establish something new. However, the idea of a second or "annex" "kwan" called Yun Mu Kwan could help explain the persistence of "Yun Moo Kwan" as a karate style outside Korea long after

238-413: A small cadre of students until his death in 2004. Despite the significant differences in the methods he had developed from those he had brought with him from his native Korea, Pai retained the Yun Mu Kwan name for most of his career, until some time after 1987 when he re-dubbed his style " Nabi Su " (meaning "butterfly hand" or "way"), a name he took from a form (a fixed practice routine, called "kata" by

272-666: The Japanese occupation of Korea . Chun Sang Sup, a returning Korean university student who had picked up karate during his university days in Japan began teaching it at the Yun Mu Kwan. His background had been in Shotokan karate, having studied it under the direct or indirect tutelage of that system's founder, Gichin Funakoshi . On returning to Seoul, Chun began teaching the art to judo students at

306-593: The "accupunch". During his study in Texas, Rhee issued his first U.S.-awarded black belt to Pat Burleson and his first fully US-trained student was Allen Steen , both of whom teamed up to establish the influential Southwest Black Belt Association (later the American Black Belt Association), resulting in many champions. Upon graduation from college, Rhee relocated to the East Coast and opened his first studio in

340-456: The 'Hall or Institute for Wisdom's Way'). The Jidokwan was subsequently rolled up, along with most of the other Korean "kwans," into the newly systematized Korean national combat sport of " Taekwondo " (meaning "Foot Fist Way") circa 1959 to 1961. During his tenure at the Yun Mu Kwan, Chun shared teaching responsibilities with a colleague, Yoon Byung-in , who had also studied karate in Japan under another practitioner, Kanken Toyama who taught at

374-564: The Japanese and "hyung" or "poomse" in Korean) which he had developed in his later years to capture and crystallize the changes in combat methods he had embraced. A number of his former students, however, continue to practice the style he developed and once taught as Yun Mu Kwan under that older name. Kwans Kwan ( hanja : 館 ; hangul : 관 ) in Korean literally means building or hall, but in

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408-526: The Jidokwan banner at the end of the Korean War to fellow returning Chosun Yun Mu Kwan students, but subsequently left to found his own school which he dubbed Han Moo Kwan. In later years he maintained that his school actually traces its roots back to the former Chosun Yun Mu Kwan itself, rather than to Ji Do Kwan, making Han Moo Kwan, like Ji Do Kwan, a derivative school of the older Yun Mu Kwan. Complicating

442-523: The Korean Army , he went to the U.S. to attend Southwest Texas State College in 1956, and later returned to attend Texas to attend the University of Texas at Austin for an engineering degree. During the 1960s, Rhee befriended Bruce Lee —a relationship from which they both benefited as martial artists. Lee taught Rhee an extraordinarily fast punch considered almost impossible to block, something Rhee named

476-664: The Korean War, at the urging of the South Korean government, the Korea Taekwondo Association (KTA) was established to consolidate and unify the kwans. By 1974, the KTA had succeeded in consolidating the 40 schools into nine major schools. By 1978 the KTA had coordinated the Unification Proclamation, in which all nine remaining kwans agree to abide by Kukkiwon-style taekwondo and rank promotions. Note however that many of

510-615: The U.S. 1962 in Washington, D.C. , and over time expanded to 11 studios in the DC Metro area . In 1973, Rhee made his only martial arts movie, When Taekwondo Strikes ; he also had a small role in Fist of Fury . . In 1975, he met Muhammad Ali before the latter's Thrilla in Manila fight with Joe Frazier . Rhee demonstrated the accupunch to Ali, who was unable to block it and asked to be taught it. Rhee

544-527: The United States when he immigrated in the 1950s. He was a 10th dan black belt and held the title of Grandmaster . Rhee was born on January 7, 1932, in Asan , Korea, during the period of Japanese occupation . He began training in the martial arts at age 13 in 1945 without his father's knowledge. Rhee received martial art training from Nam Tae Hi and graduated from the Chung Do Kwan . While an officer in

578-414: The Yun Mu Kwan and eventually became the head instructor there. However, Chun taught at the Yun Mu Kwan for only a few years prior to the break out of hostilities between North and South Korea, having disappeared during that conflict, the Korean War . After the war, many of his former students began training again, but at a new location and under different teachers who named their style Jidokwan (meaning

612-528: The absorption of elements from their systems into his. Pai's activities in the 1960s and later were documented by Ramon Korff, a staff photographer, in 1964, for El Nuevo Día . His early students often distinguished themselves on the tournament circuit, including the free-fighting and kata competition champion, Monroe Marrow, although there was often resistance to the Chinese techniques his students frequently brought to their matches since karate tournament judges of

646-489: The context of martial arts can also refer to a school or clan of martial artists who follow the same style or leader. The phrase nine kwans refers to the original five schools plus four major schools that opened after the conclusion of the Korean War. After the war, students from the original five kwans began opening their own schools, known as annex kwans. By 1960, the number of kwans in Korea had increased to 40. Shortly after

680-425: The creators of taekwondo was to unify the diverse methods and practices of the art and put their own Korean stamp on it. There's some evidence, however, that the early Yun Mu Kwan of Chun Sang Sup produced more than one offshoot school. According to the U.S. Taekwondo Han Moo Kwan website, its founder, Kyo Yoon Lee, having originally trained under Chun at the Yun Mu Kwan, initially began teaching Korean karate under

714-534: The early pioneers of taekwondo in the United States. But his desire to grow his skills did not end with taekwondo and he began to reach out to other styles and systems. His original New York school (he ran two including a second in Connecticut), called the Yun Mu Kwan Karate Institute (somewhat redundantly since "kwan" and "institute" are effectively synonymous in this context) was first documented in

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748-471: The methods he taught in his later years. By 1973, Min Kyu Pai's martial art, except for its general karate format, was no longer recognizable as the older form of Yun Mu Kwan with its emphasis on Korean-style high kicking and the hard, direct and aggressive methods of classic Japanese Shotokan . Instead Pai introduced principles of movement based on tai chi (including yielding to give way and redirect an opponent's force, sensitivity to feel and facilitate

782-638: The most widespread in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. By the 20th century, it had become the best-known version of tai chi practiced worldwide. In the late 20th century, due to China's opening, the older Chen style of tai chi caught up with its younger sibling and became equally well-known, if not more so, at least in the martial arts community. However, there are several other recognized styles, including Wu-Hao, Wu, and Sun styles. Min Pai, who trained in Yang style tai chi under Cheng Man-ch'ing, brought about marked changes in

816-479: The new name of Ji Do Kwan (or Jidokwan), meaning the Hall (or Institute) of Wisdom's Way. Eventually Jidokwan would be absorbed, along with most of the other original Korean "kwans," into the new national art which was ultimately named "taekwondo" and which developed a standardized approach to training and methods that differed in many ways from the older transplanted Japanese-sourced karate styles it had come from. The aim of

850-413: The old Chosun Yun Mu Kwan had closed its doors and its karate practitioners had re-established themselves under different names. Some practitioners of the original kwans, including some using the "tang soo do" name (another Korean version of the original meaning of the Japanese term "karate-do"), remained outside the new system of "taekwondo" while both Jidokwan and Han Mu Kwan exist today largely within

884-512: The older form of Yun Mu Kwan with which he had begun. The most important influence on him at this time was Yang-style tai chi , a soft or internal Chinese martial art which was quite different from other forms of kung fu (among which it is categorized in China). By the early 1970s, Pai had become a formal student of fourth generation Yang style tai chi master Cheng Man-ch'ing . Cheng, himself, had come to New York City from Taiwan some years earlier and

918-620: The original Korean), there was a period between the 1950s and 1960s when efforts in Korea at unifying the different kwans (begun around 1953–1955) into a single national system were in disarray. During this period, the writers report, "more Annex Kwans (sub-kwans) came into existence, such as the Oh Do Kwan, Kang Duk Won, Jung Do Kwan, Han Moo Kwan [referenced in the preceding paragraph] , Kuk Mu Kwan, Yun Moo Kwan, Soo Moo Kwan, Chang Hun Kwan, Moon Moo Kwan and others". The authors don't make clear whether this later reference to "Yun Moo Kwan" alludes to

952-669: The picture, somewhat, is the possibility that there may have been more than one early Korean karate system bearing the Yun Mu Kwan name as there appears to have been a second Korean karate "kwan", with the "Yun Moo Kwan" appellation established after the closing of the original Chosun Yun Mu Kwan, the advent of the Korean War and the older style's subsequent revival as Jidokwan. According to KANG Won Sik and LEE Kyong Myong, in "A Modern History of Taekwondo" (Published in March 1999 by Bokyung Moonhwasa at 389-22 Seokyo-dong [Mapo-ku, Seoul, Korea 121-210] and haltingly translated for Stanford University from

986-410: The schools split during this period, with some factions still practicing (even today) their original martial arts styles. Jhoon Rhee Rhee Jhoon-goo ( Korean : 이준구 ; Hanja: 李俊九, January 7, 1932 – April 30, 2018), commonly known as Jhoon Rhee , was a Korean-American taekwondo practitioner. He is widely recognized as the "father of American taekwondo" for introducing the Korean martial art to

1020-555: The taekwondo family rather than as active, stand-alone styles. But the Yun Mu Kwan name lingers in different places. There are still practitioners, for instance, using "Yun Moo Kwan" or "Yun Mu Kwan," particularly in parts of Latin America. For the most part, these practitioners have continued to emphasize the Korean reliance on high kicking, large movements and flashy leaps and acrobatics. One variant evolved, however, in New York City where

1054-430: The time were unfamiliar with (and so unwilling to credit) these moves. Pai eventually distanced himself from the tournament world and turned inward, to the development of a synthesis of Chinese methods, as he found them in New York City, with the older Yun Mu Kwan he had brought with him from Korea. By the early 1970s, Min Kyu Pai's teaching methods had changed so significantly that they ceased, in many ways, to resemble

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1088-676: The yielding techniques before incoming force, and "circular bodily movement," around an imaginary central axis, to manage and redirect incoming attacks). In 1992, Pai essentially retired from teaching and relocated to a Zen monastery which he had arranged to have built with the advice and support of then head Abbot of the Zen Studies Society Eido Shimano Roshi. He turned his New York City school over to two of his senior black belts, James Stewart and Carolyn Campora. Campora continues teaching today. In 1995, Pai began devoting himself exclusively to monastery affairs, teaching only

1122-438: Was Ali's head coach for the boxer's fights with Richard Dunn (boxer) and Antonio Inoki . In the mid-1980s, Rhee operated a network of 11 martial arts studios across the Washington, D.C. , region. Rhee was well known in the D.C. area for a television commercial with a jingle by Nils Lofgren and Rhee's daughter uttering the catchphrase "Nobody bothers me," followed by his son saying "Nobody bothers me, either." In 2000, Rhee

1156-499: Was a renowned senior student of Yang Chengfu , whose version of the tai chi form, dating from the earlier twentieth century, is only to be found in old photographs today. Yang Chengfu was a grandson of the founder of the Yang style of tai chi, Yang Luchan , who had developed and practiced his style of tai chi in the 19th century based on the older, secretive Chen martial art system, now known as Chen style tai chi. Yang Luchan's style of tai chi, thanks to his reputation and skills, became

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