As is the case in many cultures, martial arts started during ancient times in Korea. In fact, it is believed that three rival kingdoms of this time period (57 B.C. to 668) called Goguryeo, Silla, and Baekje trained their men in a blend of martial arts styles designed to help them protect their people and survive. Of these unarmed combat types, subak was most popular. Similar to the way that Goju-ryu is a substyle of Japanese karate, the best known of the subak substyles was taekkyeon.
Silla, being the weakest and smallest of the three kingdoms, began to select those that were a cut above as warriors called Hwarang. These warriors were given extensive educations, lived by a code of honor, and were taught subak and the aforementioned style of subak called taekkyeon. Interestingly, subak was very focused on the legs and kicking in the kingdom of Goguryeo, which is something that Tae Kwon Do today is known for. However, the kingdom of Silla appears to have added more hand techniques to what amounts to this blended form of Korean martial arts.
Unfortunately, Korean martial arts began to fade from society’s watchful eye during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910), a time when Confucianism reigned and anything not scholarly was somewhat dropped from consciousness. Along with this, the true practice of taekkyeon survived perhaps only due to military practice and use.
During the first half of the 20th century, the Japanese occupied Korea. As was the case with many of the places they occupied, they outlawed the practice of martial arts by natives of the area. Taekkyeon did survive in underground fashion until the Japanese finally left in the latter half of the century after World War II. Regardless, during the time when Koreans were outlawed from using martial arts, some did somehow manage to be exposed to the Japanese martial art of karate as well as some of the Chinese arts.
When the Japanese left, martial arts schools began to open in Korea. As is almost always the case when an occupier leaves, it is difficult to know whether these schools were solely based on the former taekkyeon, were Japanese based karate schools, or were a melding of all. Eventually, nine schools of karate or kwans emerged, which prompted then South Korean president Syngman Rhee to declare that all must fall under one system and name. That name became Tae Kwon Do on April 11, 1955.
Today there are over 70 million practitioners of Tae Kwon Do worldwide. It is also an Olympic event.
