Tang Soo Do Chang Moo Kwan: The Creation, History and Evolution

Tang Soo Do Chang Moo Kwan is for the young student as well as the Master Instructor that wants an in-depth understanding of Tang Soo Do's journey from the teaching of Tang Soo Do at the Chang Moo Kwan along with the many other styles of Korea, Japan and China taught there. The author provides the story behind Chang Moo Kwan's creation, evolution and history of the first Korean Kwan created after the Colonial Japanese occupation of Korea ended, World War II ended and the U.S. military removed the colonial Japanese from Korea but Korea was on the brink of yet another war that brought trained and untrained American soldiers and civilians to the Chnag Moo Kwan. The Chang Moo Kwan wasn't the first Kwan allowed to open after the war or the first to use the name Tang Soo Do as one of its styles, what the Chang Moo Kwan provided was a melting pot of martial arts styles and Instructors that allowed its students exposure to the best and brightest of practitioners across a wide spectrum of styles providing an education unobtainable from any other Kwan. The author includes the Chang Moo Kwan's travels through the new, independent post war Korean government since the 1870's, to become Chang Moo Kwan Tang Soo Do and then to become the Chang Moo Kwan Tae Kwon Do. While Grandmaster Won Kuk Lee, the founder of both the the Chung Do Kwan and Tang Soo Do was being harassed by the new Korean government for his college education in Japan and Karate and his relationship with the removed Japanese occupying force that allowed him to open the Chung Do Kwan, the Channg Moo Kwan Tang Soo Do had the opportunity to teach styles from many countries even those that angered the Korean government while the government was oppressing Grandmaster Lee. The author includes the complete story from the training at the Chang Moo Kwan in Karate from Japan, Chuan Fa from China and Kong Soo Do from Japan and Kwon Bup from Korea. The Chang Moo Kwan would become a stabilizing Kwan among all the Kwans and exert its influence over the Korean government that was secretly planning to transform Tang Soo Do into Taekwondo, separating the Chang Moo Kwan from the other Tang Soo Do Kwans whose members were often labeled criminals, members of anti-government organizations and members of organized crime for political reasons, the Chang Moo Kwan remained associated with winning recognition and the support of the Korean government and diffuse the other Kwan's often confrontational interactions and resistance to their desire and winning government support for leading the transformation of Tang Soo Do to get it into the 1988 Olympics as Taekwondo. The author includes the many classical Tang Soo Do Hyungs including the now famous Hyung to Kata conversion matrix and the descriptions of each of Tang Soo Do Chang Moo Kwan's Hyungs, Katas and Kuens. This is a good read for the serious or experienced reader of Korean martial arts to recognize the significance of each minor event in Chang Moo Kwan's long list of minor events and travels from the Kwans with dirt floors from post war Korea to the beautiful floors of the Korean Kukkiwon, Tae Kwon Do (Tang Soo Do) reward for enduring all the events leading up to 1988, when Taekwondo was Korea's national Olympic sport. Read more