[KS] Query: whether taekyon was banned by the choson court

Sat Feb 18 04:43:38 EST 2006

I received the following query from a fellow who's working on a dissertation
regarding the practice of martial arts in Korea during the late 19th century
(before and during the colonial period).
(Since I'm unfamiliar with the subject, I don't understand his concern over
"starting a flame war".)

Thank you, 
Matthew Benuska

"My questions are: 
1) Does anyone have any evidence to support the assertion that the Choson
Court banned the civilian practice of martial arts? 
2) Does anyone have any evidence that the Japanese Government General did,
and if so, any evidence of enforcement of this ban? 
3) Were there any legitimate (i.e. legal) privately run martial arts schools
in Korea prior to 1945? 
4) Were the martial arts used by kkangp'ae learned in Japanese run public
schools prior to the introduction MA into the public school curriculum in
1920, were they learned "underground," or was it a combination of the two? "

  _____  

From: Joseph Cheavens [mailto:jcheavens at hotmail.com] 
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2006 7:40 AM
To: nuski at verizon.net
Subject: Taekyong and Korean MA in Late Choson and Colonial Korea

Dear Mr. Benuski:

I posted the following on E-Budo and was recommended by one of the members
there to consult with you on this issue. I hope that you can perhaps shed
some more light on this issue. Eric Madis and Dakin Burdick have both
provide me with some useful information since my original post, so my main
questions at this point are: what evidence, if any, is there that the Choson
Court banned taekyon in the Late 19th Century; what evidence, if any, that
the Japanese Government General banned Korean martial arts; is there any
documentation  other than Hwang Kee's books that Korean gangsters used
taekyon in the 1920s and '30s?  I'm working to complete the revisions on my
dissertation, which explores the relationship between Korean and Japanese
gangsters and between gangsters and the government, and my advisor would
like me to firm up my sources on some of my information. 

I'd greatly appreciate any insight that you may have on this matter. 

Here is my original post, which explains why I have these questions. 

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I know this is a forum for Japanese martial arts, but there seem to be a lot
of very knowledgeable folk here and I was hoping to get some answers to my
two main questions. I posted this over on budoseek, but have not gotten any
feedback yet. 

Quote: 
I've seen this discussed tangentially in a lot of threads, but haven't found
a specific thread dedicated to this contraversial topic, though. As a
student of history specializing in the Korean Colonial Period and a martial
artist who specializes in Tae Kwon Do and who has trained in both Japan and
Korea, this is an area that interests me, but which I find to be poorly
documented and emotionally charged. A friend of mine once showed me a
discussion on a BBS (remember those?) that was hosted by Chalmers Johnson
back in the early to mid '90s that discussed this topic and had good and
relatively o bj ective discussion. 

A few of the salient features that I remember from that discussion were: 
1) The practice of martial arts by civillians in Korea was actually banned
by the Choson Court in the 1870s in response to a spate of gang violence in
the capital. The Japanese Government General simply continued this ban. 
2) It is probable that a very small group of civillian practitioners
continued to pass on the teachings of their art "underground" until the
1920s. However, given the Neo-Confucian disdain for the military that was a
dominant feature of Korean society until Liberation, it would seem logical
that such underground practitioners would be rare and would most likely have
existed in the margianilized groups within society. 
3) In 1920, the Government General allowed Koreans to study martial arts in
the public schools as part of the education reforms following the March
First Uprising in 1919. At this time, any "underground" practitioners would
have been provided some legitimate cover. At the same time, martial arts
instruction in Korea was dominated by Japanese and Okinawan influences. 
4) Until 1932, the Chinese character used for Kara in Karate was the one
that is usually romanized as T'ang for T'ang Dynasty China. This character
is pronounced as kara in Japanese and tang in Korean. The Japanese
government changed the character to the Kara meaning "empty" in order to
erase the Chinese via Okinawa origins of Karate. The overwhelming sense of
those involved in this discussion was that Karate spread from China to
Okinawa and Korean with Ch'an/Son/Zen Budhism during the T'ang Dynasty and
later spread into Japan during the Tokugawa period. 
5) Most of the founders of the seven Kwans studied Karate in Okinawa and a
few in Japan. Whether they had studied any underground traditional Korean
martial arts is speculative but not improbable. 
6) While it may not be accurate to say that all modern Korean martial arts
are derived from Japanese martial arts (after all, even "purely" Japanese
martial arts have been influenced by Chinese and/or Okinawan martial arts to
some degree), it is fair to say they were heavily influenced by the Japanese
during the Colonial Period. 

My main interest in this topic is with points 1) and 2) and a bit with 3). I
have found historical accounts that indicate that the Pobusang (pedlers)
guilds (note: I say guilds here instead of the more commonly used Guild to
differentiate between the Choson Gvt's attempt to organize government
controlled guild system and the more regional and local guild type
structures that developed during the late Koryo period and continue to a
very limited degree even now) often had a para-military/youth brigade type
organization to train in self defense for the members and to enforce order.
It would seem to me that these groups would have continued to train in
martial arts even after the Choson Court's proscription against civillian
practice of martial arts, and may have even continued into the Colonial
Period. This is conjecture on my part with regards to the Colonial Period,
although it does seem logical. 

Also, I have found that kkangp'ae (Korean gangsters) likely practiced
martial arts in the '20s and '30s, based on accounts of the MA skills of
some of the more famous leaders of these gangs. Also, following Liberation
and prior to the Korean War, martial arts were often referred to as
"kkangp'ae training" by residents of Seoul. 

My biggest problems are: 
1) I only have a single BBS reference from an undocumented source with
regards to the Choson Court's proscription against civillian practice of
martial arts; 
2) I have been able to find absolutely no Japanese Government General order
related to this proscription - although there was a general order to
continue the Choson penal code for Koreans in Korea in addition to the
Japanese penal code. This order was rescinded in 1920. 
3) I have been able to find no evidence that the Japanese Governement
General enforced any proscription against the civillian practice of martial
arts in any of the crime statistics maintained by the Government General. 
4) I have been unable to find any evidence of any private martial arts
schools, either Japanese or Korean owned, in the records of registered
businesses contained in the ecomic records maintained by the Government
General. 

My questions are: 
1) Does anyone have any evidence to support the assertion that the Choson
Court banned the civillian practice of martial arts? 
2) Does anyone have any evidence that the Japanese Government General did,
and if so, any evidence of enforcement of this ban? 
3) Were there any legitimate (i.e. legal) privately run martial arts schools
in Korea prior to 1945? 
4) Were the martial arts used by kkangp'ae learned in Japanese run public
schools prior to the introduction MA into the public school curriculum in
1920, were they learned "underground," or was it a combination of the two? 

I'm not trying to start a flame war. I really would like to find some
evidence regarding the prohibition against civillian practice of the martial
arts in either late Choson or early Colonial Korea. I'm working on revisions
to my dissertation and the only evidence I have regarding this are notes
from a discussion on a BBS about 13 years ago. 

__________________________________ 

Again, thanks for any information that you may be able to provide. 

Sincerely, 
Joe Cheavens 

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