Kuhapdo History
Grandmaster Li Hyun-Soo
In 1975, Jung Gum Hae, a Society of the Sword Association was born at the Jung Ki Kwan. The members included Jung, Tae Min, Lim, Hyun Su Be, Chan Han Kim, Jae Hyun Som, Sung Hak Jo, Sung Bum Kim, Young Gu Park, Jong Dea Park, Sang Yyun Lee, Jae Young, etc. The Association practiced every sunday at the Jung Ki Kwan to improve their skills and also to learn Jae Jung Kuhapdo.
The Kuhapdo team has accomplished many splendid achievements such as group competition in the First President Cup and 3rd place on March 1st in Taegu-Kyungbuk Kumdo competition. They also have many other outstanding achievements in other friendly competitions. The Jung Ki Kwan's Kumdo team also demonstrated at the opening ceremony of the Taegun Middle School. A special guest of the Jung Ki Kwan, Mr. Nam Byung Sun, director of the Taegu-Gyungbuk Kumdo Association was invited and attended the ceremony.
By using only a bamboo sword in training, Grandmaster Lim realized that there we limitations to truly understanding swordsmanship. Thus in February 1982, to increase the momentum of the sword art, we promoted an exchange with Komei Sekiguchi, president of the Japanese Kuhapdo Association who is affiliated with Japanese traditional martial arts. In September, 1982, the Korean Kuhapdo Association was born.
Members include the president, Lee Young Pal (a former president of the Taegu Kumdo Association), Lim, Hyun Su (the headquarters director), Yoon, Byung Il (a head coach), and others.
On May 6, 1984, President Komei Sekiguchi and six other masters came to the Jung Ki Kwan and showed a high level of Kuhapdo skills. Mr. Nam, Jung Bo (a bamboo sword 8th dan) and other high ranking masters attended the show and praised it highly -- like an an act of sword skill from heaven. They felt a strong necessity for Kuhapdo and prepared to practice and expand it. However, due to an invisible pressure, not a clear understanding, and prejudice about Kuhapdo, it was not successfully expanded to the public.
In August 1984, President Komei Sekiguchi and three other masters visited the Jung Ki Kwan and agreed to exchange meetings and made a written statement in detail.
In May 1985, Grandmaster Lim became the highest director of Kuhapdo in Korea. In November of the same year, held the first Korean and Japanese friendship game at the Taegu Dongsan Hotel. This tournament brought much public attention to Kuhapdo and Kuhapdo started to become very popular.
Since the exchange began in 1985, there were many obstacles and hard times during the introductory period of Kuhapdo. Without having any knowledge about Kuhapdo and the true meaning of swordsmanship, there was a boycott and unfriendly attitude towards Kuhapdo. Particularly, the cultural antipathy stemming from a historical background between the Koreans and Japanese was the most difficult to overcome.
However, a pure exchange of the Kuhapdoian between the two countries based upon the truthful spirit of Kuhapdo, made it possible to overcome the differences and contribute to a steady expansion of the Korean Kuhapdo.
Since the opening of the Jung Ki Kwan in 1974, we have been devoting ourselves not only to the expand the spirit of Hapkido and Kuhapdo to the public, but also to search for traditional martial arts that our ancestors have developed which cost many their lives.
In 1986, we released a Korean style Kuhapdo called Chung Suk Kuhapdo. We showed it to the Japanese Kuhapdoians at Toyko Marshall Hall on May 3, 1989. This event had a strong positive effect on the senior Japanese Kuhapdoians.
Hanao, a representative of the Japanese Ancient Martial Arts Affiliation asked for an awakening effort of the Japanese Kuhapdoians to realize that there will be a time that we, Japanese should learn from the Korean Kuhapdo in the future.
We, the Jung Ki Kwan have been making every effort to present an original style of Korean swordsmanship and its morality based upon precise principle and theory. We, the Kuhapdoians have seen and studied the spirit of Kuahapdo from ancient "Beakje" people and their historical artifacts.
We shall keep our minds and bodies strong, inheriting the spirit of traditional martial arts. We will follow the way of truthful martial arts for all of mankind.
Borrowed from www.jungkikwan.com