Jan. 9, 2009, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

A couple of months ago, an extremely cranky master from the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) shot an email to me stating that former South Korean General Choi Hong Hi was “not the founder of Taekwondo, even though he fancied himself as such. The founding/creation/whatever of Taekwondo was achieve by the efforts of many men. Leaders from the 9 Kwans, all [sic] whom were senior to Gen. Choi.” Although it’s true that Choi didn’t found WTF Taekwondo in 1973, we should acknowledge that he’s the main founder of Tae Kwon Do, Taekwon-Do, Taekwondo and all the other English spellings of it. True, many men created and founded Tae Kwon Do, as I show in my book, A Killing Art, but Choi should be acknowledged as the main founder, and for five reasons.

1) He created the name with the help of Grandmaster Nam Tae-Hi in 1955. Others claim to have created the name. However, Choi and Nam were the only ones in 1955 loudly using the term “Tae Kwon Do” in the Oh Do Kwan, which was their military martial arts gym, one of the nine main gyms (or “Kwans,” as they’re known in Korean). So far, I haven’t read about the other eight Kwans (Ji Do Kwan, Moo Duk Kwan, etc.) using the name in those days. If other pioneers created the name, why didn’t they proclaim it in the early days and, in later decades, why didn’t they trumpet to the world that they had? After all, he who names, owns.

2) Beginning in 1959, Choi, Nam and their men (all of them pioneers who went on to join the International Taekwon-Do Federation, or ITF) relentlessly promoted Tae Kwon Do during international tours that were sponsored by the South Korean government and by Choi’s powerful military and government friends, such as Choi Duk-Shin, an ambassador in Vietnam and West Germany. He who promotes also owns.

3) Choi founded the ITF in 1966, seven years before Kim Un-Young, Lee Chong-Woo, Uhm Woon-Kyu and others founded the WTF.

4) Choi published five Tae Kwon Do text books between 1959 and 1972. That was before anyone else published books about the art.

5) If you’re going to argue that Choi didn’t create the techniques themselves, didn’t create the martial art that was later called Tae Kwon Do – namely, that he didn’t create the techniques in Tang Soo Do, Kong Soo Do and other forms of Korean Karate in the 1940s and 1950s -- then you’re in for some fancy footwork. A quick look at the various ways these arts are spelled in English gives you some idea about the hell you’re about to enter when it comes to identifying who named and created what techniques: Tangsoodo, Tangsudo, Tang Su Do, Dang Soo Do, Dangsoodo, Dangsudo, Dang Su Do, Kongsoodo, Kongsudo, Kong Su Do, Gong Soo Do, Gongsoodo, Gongsudo, Gong Su Do… Then there’s the old Korean dance-art called Taekkyon, which gave some techniques to Tae Kwon Do. That’s spelled Taek-Kyon, Taekyon, Taekkyun, Taek-Kyun, Taekyun, Taekkyeon, Taek-Kyeon, Taekyeon – and that’s without the accents and tornado kicks.

And who invented Karate-Do, the art from which Tae Kwon Do emerged? Let’s not go there.

Alex