Kumdo
검도The Korean form of bamboo-sword fencing, in practice identical to kendo. It arrived under Japanese administration and became independent under a Korean name after 1945.
Quick Facts
South KoreaCharacter & Origin
Training
Who It Suits
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
Catalogs & Databases for Kumdo
About Kumdo
Kumdo is the Korean form of bamboo-sword fencing, and in practice it is the same discipline as Japanese kendo: the same jukdo sword, the same hogu armour, the same target areas and scoring. Fencing of this type reached Korea under Japanese administration around the turn of the twentieth century, first as police training. After 1945 the discipline was not abolished but made independent — a Korean kumdo association was formed, with its own terminology, commands in Korean and its own competition system. Korean fencers have long been among the world's best and meet the Japanese regularly at championships. The two countries dispute the origin: some Korean accounts derive kumdo from a native sword tradition and from the eighteenth-century manual Muye Dobo Tongji, while the Japanese side and most scholars see direct descent from kendo. Both are only partly documented — Korea does have its own older sword tradition, but today's kumdo does not come directly from it. Not to be confused with Haidong Gumdo, a different and much younger art focused on forms and cutting. Korea regularly hosts world championships, and kumdo is also taught in schools and in police training.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.