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They were the best fighters: ‘Ji Do Kwan’

They were the best fighters: ‘Ji Do Kwan’

Tae Kwon Do is a powerful martial art in many regions of the world, partly because it was developed in the South Korean military and the Vietnam War, but also because (for better or worse) it was practised during street fights and in full-contact tournaments in the 1950s and 1960s, as I describe in my book, A Killing Art. The Ji Do Kwan, or Jidokwan (‘Wisdom Way School,’ based in South Korea), developed Korean Karate in the 1950s, and developed and led Olympic Taekwondo sparring in the 1970s, producing many champions along the way.

Weirdly, it also produced many badasses and criminals. As I began writing my book in 2001, for example, I kept bumping into nasty men whose original gym was the Ji Do Kwan. As usual, I learned that the power of Tae Kwon Do’s original techniques arose from violence and corruption as much as from meditation and moral guides.

In some places, you still see the Ji Do Kwan’s black, plaid uniform (also used in Hapkido). The design is likely from Japanese fencing.
In some places, you still see the Ji Do Kwan’s black, plaid uniform (also used in Hapkido). The design is likely from Japanese fencing.

The Ji Do Kwan began in 1953 in South Korea. Before that, it was known as the Yun Moo Kwan, where Judo and Korean Karate (also known as Tang Soo Do or Kong Soo Do) were taught. Its martial artists were known as great fighters. No one in the Ji Do Kwan ever used the name ‘Tae kwon Do’, until, in the late 1960s, South Korea’s dictator tasked a bunch of martial artists to steal the name ‘Tae Kwon Do’ and transform Korean Karate into Korea’s national sport of Taekwondo.

In the early 1960s, the Ji Do Kwan fighters were the ones to beat in open tournaments, and they beat Tae Kwon Do fighters regularly. For instance, Tae Kwon Do grandmaster C. K. Choi won two national championships in South Korea in 1963, but he later told martial arts historian, Graham Noble, that the Ji Do Kwan fighters were the best fighters, mainly because they mastered two kinds of Karate punches and one Karate kick, a front kick. “They didn’t know how to use turning kick, sidekick, reverse kick or heel kicks properly,” Choi said. But they won more medals, he said. “In Tae Kwon Do, I was the only one who won. The rest were all beat. So, it is obvious they [the Ji Do Kwon martial artists] were better fighters.”

In 2006, Lee Seng-wan (on left) presented an award to Lee Chong-woo, a leader of Olympic Taekwondo who had once lamented that he was a sinner for allowing so many gangsters into the Kukkiwon and WTF.
In 2006, Lee Seng-wan (on left) presented an award to Lee Chong-woo, who had once lamented that he was a “sinner” for allowing gangsters into the Kukkiwon and WTF.

This wicked fighting spirit became warped in the 1970s, when Lee Chong-woo, head of the Ji Do Kwan, helped to start and lead the newly formed World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) and the Kukkiwon. He also led the development of Olympic sparring, during which the great Ji Do Kwan sparring of old got diluted, especially because punches to the head were banned in the Olympics. Soon, he also led a campaign to pressure judges and manipulate sparring matches in Olympic Games from 1988 to 2000, ensuring that Olympic host countries or South Koreans won more gold medals. He revealed to a journalist in 2002 how it worked: “When we assigned referees prior to the competition, I was the one who decided most of all who was to be assigned or not assigned [for each match]. I could not openly ask judges to take care of Korea, could I? So when I hit the judges’ backs, some were sensitive enough to understand what it meant.” This sort of cheating, which Lee called ‘branch trimming’ in Korean, was institutionalized in championships around the world.

In 2003, Lee Seng-wan was charged with four years in prison for his involvement in using 300 gangsters and Taekwondo experts to stop rivals from taking over the Korean Tae Kwon Do Association.
In 2003, Lee Seng-wan was arrested.

Another Ji Do Kwan leader, Lee Seng-wan, had been a national sparring champion in 1964 and was charged for a number of illegal activities, including his role in a 1987 attack on a political party, and, in 2003, his imprisonment after using thugs to try to take over the Korean Tae Kwon Do Association (KTA).

And during my own research, I stumbled onto Rhee Min-hi, a Tae Kwon Do instructor who had trained at the Ji Do Kwan in South Korea, and, in 1973, attacked a famous South Korean politician, Kim Tae-jung, as Kim spoke at a meeting in San Francisco. Rhee was likely an operative of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA), working for a South Korean dictatorship that wanted that Kim dead. Rhee, who owned a martial arts gym, told me that he didn’t know there were ten other martial artists in the speakers hall that day in 1973 and that he had no idea KCIA agents were filming and harassing people in the room, even though one of the agents rushed to his defence when San Francisco police arrived to break up the fights.

Rhee Min-hi and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung met in 1998, 25 years after Rhee attacked him in public in San Francisco. Rhee told me that he apologized to Kim.
In 1998, Rhee (on right) met Kim and apologized for attacking him 25 years before.

I elaborate on these stories and others in my book, A Killing Art. The stories showed me that my martial art’s early history was often more ‘martial’ than ‘art’ – and more violent than peaceful. Maybe that paradox created the devastating techniques of Tae Kwon Do in the early days. I mean, you have to wonder how and why so many Ji Do Kwan martial artists were good at sparring and fighting.

Today, many men and women are trying to ensure that our art overcomes thuggery, that good sports win over cheaters – and that justice beats horror. Their jobs are as hard today as they were decades ago.

Thank you to Sergio Moller Jr., Sam Johnston, Eric Madis, Yook Sung-chul, Udo Moenig and Ørjan Nilsen for resources and advice for this article. Full references, including interview dates and names, for contents of this article are found in “A Killing Art: The Untold History of Tae Kwon Do” (2016).