Chang Moo Kwan

History

At the end of World War II, several Kwans were set up. In the late 1950s, these Kwans united under the name Tae Soo Do. A few years later, the name Taekwondo was adopted for its similarity in name, to Taekkyon (practiced by the Goguryeo, Silla, Baekjae, and Goryeo Dynasties).

Lee Nam Suk's teacher Byung In Yoon had founded the "YMCA Kwon Bop Bu" (권법무) in 1946. Byung In Yoon had studied Chinese Kung Fu (ch'uan-fa) under the guidance of a Mongolian instructor in Manchuria.

Yoon trained karate at university karate club in Japan with Kanken Tōyama. When he trained Karate in Japan, Japanese karate students pursued the Korean student and beat them up. Yoon Byung-in angered by the Japanese karate students, Yoon Byung-in sprung into action using Chuan-fa. He deflected and evaded the karate students’ strikes and kicks to the point that they gave up and ran back to tell their teacher about what happened. Kanken Tōyama invited Yoon Byung-in to tell him about the non-karate martial art he used against his students. Yoon Byung-in explained to Toyama about his Chuan-fa education in Manchuria. Toyama appreciated the Chuan-fa background since he (Toyama) had studied Chuan-fa in Taiwan for 7 years, previously. They decided to exchange knowledge; Yoon Byung-in would teach Toyama Kanken Chuan-fa and Toyama Kanken would teach Yoon Byung-in his Shudo-Ryu karate. Yoon later created his art and called as Kwon Bop Kong Soo Do. Unlike other taekwondo kwans, early Chang Moo Kwan was mainly based on Chinese Kung Fu (ch'uan-fa). The early Chang Moo Kwan taught Palgi kwon (which influenced by Bajiquan). Yoon went missing during the Korean War. His teachings were carried on by his top student Lee Nam Suk, who changed the name of the school to Chang Moo Kwan.

Organization

Today, the official Taekwondo Chang Moo Kwan still exists in Korea as a fraternal friendship club with its office in a youth athletic club in Seoul. The current president of Chang Moo Kwan is Grandmaster Kim Joong Young. Grandmaster Kim is also on the Kukkiwon High Dan Promotion Committee. The official martial arts curriculum of Chang Moo Kwan is the Kukkiwon system. Chang Moo Kwan, like all of the main Kwans, supports the Kukkiwon and the WTF.

In the early YMCA Kwon Bup Bu and Chang Moo Kwan, the curriculum consisted of karate and chuan-fa. (McLain, 2009) This was one of two Kwans to have been influenced by Chuan-fa(Kwon Bup), which gave the techniques a smooth yet hard appearance when practiced or demonstrated. Chuan-fa forms from the Chang Moo Kwan included "Dan Kwon", "Doju San", "Jang Kwon", "Taijo Kwon", and Palgi Kwon", among others. Early students practiced a bong hyung (staff form) created by Byung In Yoon himself and another created by Yoon Gwe-Byung (Yoon Kwe-Byung), who was a Shudokan practitioner and became a grandmaster of the Jidokwan.

Name

When translating into English, Chang Moo Kwan can have different meanings. A literal translation is as follows: Chang means to create or develop, Moo translates to martial arts, and Kwan to house.