Taekwondo Kwan history part 1; Chun Sang Sup and Yun Mu Kwan

While waiting for an oppertunity to retake photos and take new photos for new material for my upcoming ABCs of Practical Poomsae applications I kinda started with a smaller book project which is also coming along nicely. I will keep the cards tight to my chest for the time being, but I am working a different way on this one, writing it from scratch and trying to format it and polish it as I go rather than the way I did with the ABCs of Practical Poomsae applications which has grown to about 125 pages manuscript but has yet to be formatted. Anyhow, as part of this smaller book project which is veeeeeeeery niche and I doubt it will see much, I decided that for the introduction part I needed to mention and give a brief overview on each of the major Kwan or schools that opened up from 1944-1950s. It was grueling work because I needed to re-evaluate what I know, new sources has been made available and in some cases I really had to change what I believed. This post which focuses on Chun Sang Sup is a very good example of this since I was told and read that he trained in Shotokan Karate under Gichin Funakoshi, that he taught Shotokan Kata, and that Yun Kwae Byung when he reopened it as Ji Do Kwan continued teaching the Shotokan forms despite him not being of Shotokan lineage. Modern Ji Do Kwan schools do in some cases teach Shotokan Kata as their heirloom forms, but the few people I that I reached out to who actually answered admitted that they read the same as I did, and went out and learned Shotokan Kata and taught them as Ji Do Kwan Hyeong. This is what happens when we make assumptions about history, and I am betting that all this info about Chun practising Shotokan comes from one work which has influenced writers all over the place.

The other thing that made this difficult was that I decided to keep each Kwan history brief, and if you know anything about me, making me write or talk about Taekwondo history is to open up the flood gates. I never shut up or stop writing:-P So if this has intrigued you click the read more button to read a short summary of Chun Sang Sup´s history and the founding of the Yun Mu Kwan Kong Su Do Bu. 

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Chon-Ji Tul/Hyung's Karate roots

In modern ITF Taekwon-Do the karate roots of Taekwondo is often overlooked, or downplayed. I think this is also true for most schools of Taekwondo, and I think that is a mistake, because we need to have a good grasp of where we came from to see where we should continue to go. Without a proper setting off point, how can we determine the route or destination? Some "Taekwon-Do rebels" such as Paul O'Leary has written for many years on the Karate roots of different Chang Hon Ryu forms, noting how Won-Hyo Hyung is a composite of two different Pinan/Heian Karate Kata. There are several forms in Chang Hon Ryu who lifts whole sequences of Karate Kata move for move or with very small tweaks. There is nothing wrong with that, and I truly enjoy practising them, because Choi and his team really has in my opinion taken their Karate roots and infused them with a Korean identity by repackeging them, lifting sequences from Karate kata, but also expanding upon them and so on. I find great value in them in other words. One form that few people if any have noticed is also largely a repackaged Karate Kata is Chon-Ji Hyung or Tul. In this post I want to shed some light on the roots of Chon-Ji Hyung, and how it is repackaged. I have previously written about how the technical makeup of Chon-Ji Hyung is brilliant, and closely linked to philosophy, I will try to do it justice here as well. If however you want to check out a deep dive into Chon-Ji Hyung as a philosophical-Physical link you can click here for that. For the Karate roots of Chon-Ji Hyung please click to read on on this post :-)

Keeping up with the Taegeuks (Oh Do Kwan versions and not Taegeuk poomsae)

Not sure if the headline makes sense. I have worked on Taegeuk 1-3 as documented in "Better Karate for Boys" by Sihak Henry Cho in 1970 and published them little by little over May 2025. I thought it was important to get them out there because I was sitting on what might be the only verifiable Ji Do Kwan Hyung as practised in Ji Do Kwan in the Kwan era. I was actually afraid something would happen to me so I could not finish and then the forms would have died out. Now I know at least two people will keep training and teaching them :-) But working with the Taegeuk Hyung of Ji Do Kwan made me very curious about the Oh Do Kwan variations. 

You see in the 1965 book on Taekwondo which Choi Hong Hi published they are not mentioned nor included in the text, despite many of the Karate Kata still being included at that point. When looking at the older forms of the Oh Do Kwan most people gravitate toward the 1965 book simply because it is easy to get, and because it is written in english. The 1959 book which Choi Hong Hi also wrote but in Korean is also a great resource, but since it is in Korean most people who get to it look at the pictures but dont really take a deep dive into it. It might come as a surprise to those reading the 65 book that the 59 book does contain instructions (and illustrations) on the three taegeuk forms, but this time it is obviously the Oh Do Kwan versions of the forms. Were they copied directly from Shotokan? Did Choi Hong Hi and his team at Oh Do Kwan change them in any way? Read on if you want to learn the Oh Do Kwan versions or simply get an idea of how Taegeuk Hyung 1-3 were practised in different Kwan. 

Part 3: The lost Ji Do Kwan Taegeuk Hyung (not the modern taegeuk poomsae)

This is a series on the original taegeuk forms or Taikyouku Kata that were practised in the Kwan era. More specifically the version practised in Ji Do Kwan. I strongly suggest you click here for part 1 and start the series there as I will asume you already have the knowledge shared within part 1 and 2 :-)

Part 2: The lost Ji Do Kwan Taegeuk Hyung (not the modern taegeuk poomsae)

 This is Part 2 of a series. I strongly suggest you click here for part 1 and start there, as I will assume you know the information contained within that part. 

In part 2 I will continue documenting the original tae keuk hyung of Ji Do Kwan, not to be confused with the modern taegeuk poomsae series. Tae Keuk Hyung is a series of three forms, all following the same floor pattern (an inverted "H-shape") and all consisting of fairly basic stances and attacks. The first form in the series which we covered in part 1 is identical to Shotokan's Taikyoku Shodan (1) Kata, move for move, and even the Kihap points. Its when we come to the 2nd and 3rd form we see differences. When I first stumbled across these I looked at the first form which was illustrated (the 2nd and 3rd were text only) and I recognised the form as Shotokan's Taikyoku Kata 1. I therefore assumed given Chun Sang Sup's background in Shotokan that the Tae Keuk forms were simply shotokan copies. Years later when revisiting them since I thought it was a tragedy that the Ji Do Kwan forms were lost (or at least it does seem like they were) I was hoping that there might be something different about them and it was. So without further adu let us look at how the 2nd form of the Tae Keuk Hyung were performed. 

Part 1: The lost Ji Do Kwan Taegeuk Hyung (not the modern taegeuk poomsae)

 In my last post I walked you through a short history of the Ji Do Kwan and the issues we have when it comes to lineage, which is why I believe that we have lost all the original Ji Do Kwan Hyung as they were practised in the Kwan-era (in Ji Do Kwan's case 1946-1966 since they adopted Palgwae and then Taegeuk forms). The students focused very much on the practical applications of the basic techniques as used in sparring and the school became legendary for its fierce fighters. Later they joined the Korean Taekwondo movement fullheartedly in 1966, and got to have their own representatives in the poomse comitte who made the Taegeuk poomse series of 8 forms and the new Koryo poomse which replaced the older Koryo Hyung made by the orignal comitte. Why they left the rest of the Judanja poomse largely in peace I do not know. This focus on the sparring applications, and then the fullhearted joining of what was to become modern Kukki-Taekwondo unfortunatly came at a steep (in my opinion) price; The loss of the original Ji Do Kwan Hyung as practised in the Kwan-era. The school originally had instructors comming with dan ranks from Shotokan (most possibly), Shudokan Karate and Shito-Ryu Karate, or in other words their knowledgepool flowed from Gichin Funakoshi, Kenwa Mabuni and Toyama Kanken. All Karate legends, and this wide array of "knowledge rivers" is rather unique in Kwan terms. Therefore the loss of their forms is truly a tragedy. When going over some of the more obscure books in my collection I revisited Sihak Henry Cho's book called Better Karate for Boys". It is a short and simple book covering some stances and basic techniques and basic facts like what to expect from a class, how to fold your training uniform, how to tie your belt etc. One of the things that he also covered were three "Tae Keuk Hyung" or taegeuk hyung which is how we would have spelled it today.