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June 24, 2007

Kumdo, The Martial Art Of Swordsmanship

Kumdo, The Martial Art Of Swordsmanship
by Yoshi Kundagawa

I recently had a couple of students in my Wing Chun class ask
for training in swordsmanship. Now, Kung Fu has a lot of
weapons forms, but they tend to be stylized, rather than
sparring formats. I originally thought of teaching them Kendo,
on the Japanese forms, but having just taken some Tae Kwon Do
classes of my own, I decided to look a little further afield.
I found the Korean cognate of Kendo, called kumdo.

While there are a lot of practitioners of kumdo who claim that
their techniques are passed down over the centuries in secret
rituals, a little bit of digging showed that it's incredibly
unlikely that this is the case. When the Imperial Army of
Japan occupied Chosun (now Korea) in the early 20th century,
they brought kendo with them. Prior to that, because of the
Confucian influences from China, and a Korean superstition
about sharp objects, the art of the sword in Korea had been
withering on the vine for going on three hundred years. The
Koreans, like any culture that adopts guns, had relegated the
sword to a secondary, and eventually tertiary weapon for
military training, and Confucianism put a stronger emphasis on
scholarship than martial arts.

So, kumdo sort of grew from Kendo, and it has a lot of obvious
similarities. You use a split bamboo practice sword (called a
shinai in Kendo, and a jukdo in kumdo), and wear rigid practice
armor (called a bogu in kendo and a hogu in kumdo.) The two
arts have been diverging slowly since 1945, though the basic
forms are nearly identical from what I've been looking up. The
Korean protective gear is a bit more modern and practical in
design, being a bit less tied to tradition than the kendo gear.
It is kind of nice to be able to use kendo gear for it, or mix
and match. (We have some gear left over from when a prior
instructor at the school tried to teach Kendo. It didn't go
over well, but the gear is still here at the school.)

Kumdo and Kendo are close enough in form that Kumdo teams
participate in the World Kendo Championships. While there are
some differences (Kumdo focuses a bit more on point strikes
than power and speed), the kumdo teams do respectably.

Overall, it looks like a good fit with what my students are
asking for, which is more an overview of swordsmanship
techniques, and as there's a strong Korean community in Las
Vegas, I may be able to set up classes with a wider audience.
Kumdo is the second most popular sport in Korea, so it may have
some traction here.

About The Author: Yoshi I Kundagawa is a freelance journalist.
He covers the mixed martial arts industry. For a free report
on kumdo, visit his blog: http://blog.martialarts3000.com

Posted by Willie Crawford at June 24, 2007 06:35 PM

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