History of Taekwondo

Taekwondo is one of the most used and practiced martial arts in the world today yet its origins go back centuries all the way to the Korean peninsula. The name itself explains the basics of the art and its teachings. “Tae” means to kick or smash with the feet, “kwon” means to intercept or strike with the hands, and “do” means the way. Taekwondo draws from several older Korean martial arts, most notably tae-kyon, a traditional form of Korean kick fighting.

Taekwondo has roots stretching back nearly 2,000 years to another style of art called Hwarang-do, meaning “the way of the flowering manhood.” The hwarang were young noblemen from the Silla kingdom, one of three kingdoms on the Korean peninsula, who formed a patriotic society influenced by Confucian teachings during the unification of Korea around 600 AD. Since Silla was the smallest of the three kingdoms and constantly under threat from its larger neighbors, it developed a new structured fighting system to help defend the kingdom from foreign attackers. By the end of the 10th century, following the unification of Korea, training in these martial arts had become compulsory for young men.

However, despite the mandate, martial arts practice did not remain constant throughout the centuries. By the 16th century many of these military traditions had fallen out of favor which limited the practice of these fighting arts mainly to Buddhist monks who kept the art alive. The arts faced an even bigger threat when Japan occupied Korea starting in 1909. The occupation caused these remaining martial arts to be suppressed almost entirely. The few practitioners who remained dedicated to the art were forced to flee to China and Japan, ultimately allowing it to survive.

After Korea’s liberation in 1945, many of these Korean exiles returned home and brought back an improved version of the art. As part of a broader effort to rebuild their national identity after years of occupation and oppression, the Korean government officially sponsored and endorsed the practice, leading to more formal teachings and rising interest in the art. In the 1950s, a group of Korean martial arts experts came together to unify their individual fighting styles into a single consistent system. This unification was formalized in South Korea with Major General Choi Hong Hi being officially credited as the founder of taekwondo.

Today, taekwondo is practiced by people around the world and is valued not just for competition and self-defense but for the discipline, confidence, and fitness it helps build and teach to all of its students. Its history is built through the centuries of Korean tradition, surviving through occupation adversity and more to continue prevailing today.