Hwang Kee
황기
A South Korean grandmaster who founded the Moo Duk Kwan school in 1945, taught tang soo do in it, later renamed Soo Bahk Do, and refused unification with taekwondo.
Quick Facts
South KoreaBiography
Hwang Kee (also Hwang Gi, in Korean 황기) was a South Korean grandmaster and the founder of the Moo Duk Kwan school, one of two schools that taught after the war under the name tang soo do. The other was Lee Won-guk’s Chung Do Kwan. He was born on November 9 in Jang Dan in Gyeonggi Province during the Japanese occupation of Korea, and the sources give the year as 1914, or 1915. He died on July 14, 2002.
His father was a scholar and teacher, and Hwang finished secondary school in 1935. A year later he came to the attention of the Japanese secret police and went to northeast China, where he worked on the railway. He claimed that he studied there under the Chinese master Yang Kuk-jin, which some contemporaries dispute. Lee Won-guk claimed that Hwang trained in his Chung Do Kwan, which Hwang denied. He studied Okinawan karate from books, probably mainly from Funakoshi’s book Rentan Goshin Toudi-Jutsu (1925).
He founded the school on November 9, 1945 as Hwa Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan and in the early fifties renamed it Tang Soo Moo Duk Kwan, because the name tang soo was better known to Koreans. Around 1957 he began to use the name Soo Bahk Do and formally renamed the art on June 30, 1960. He created the forms Yuk Ro (1947) and Chil Sung (1952).
In 1958 he withdrew the Moo Duk Kwan from the unification of the kwans from which taekwondo emerged, because he wanted to focus the art on personal development, not on sport or military use. After his death his son Hwang Hyun-chul was named his successor. Chuck Norris, who founded American Tang Soo Do in 1966, parted ways with the Moo Duk Kwan in the seventies.
Early life
Hwang Kee was born on November 9 in Jang Dan in Gyeonggi Province during the Japanese occupation of Korea. The sources give the year of birth as 1914, or 1915. His father was a scholar and teacher. Hwang finished secondary school in 1935, which few young men in his province managed.
During his school years he first learned taekkyon. In 1936 he came to the attention of the Japanese secret police and went to northeast China, where he worked as a railway labourer. When he returned to Korea the sources do not state consistently, either in 1937, or only after the Second World War.
Training and teachers
In the thirties and forties Hwang Kee worked for the railway administration Cho Sun Rail Way Bureau and studied Okinawan karate from books in a local library. He apparently learned the forms from Japanese books on Okinawan karate, and the main source was probably Funakoshi Gichin’s book Rentan Goshin Toudi-Jutsu from 1925.
Hwang Kee claimed that he studied in northeast China under the Chinese master Yang Kuk-jin. Some contemporaries dispute this claim.
Lee Won-guk of Chung Do Kwan claimed that Hwang trained in his school and earned a belt corresponding to green. Hwang denied it and recognised only Yang as his teacher.
Career
Hwang Kee opened a dojo on November 9, 1945, and the Moo Duk Kwan gives this day as the date of its founding. The school bore the name Hwa Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan, and the first two attempts to run it did not succeed. In the early fifties he renamed it Tang Soo Moo Duk Kwan, because the name tang soo was better known to Koreans.
When the kwans were being unified into taekwondo, Hwang Kee at first agreed to take part, but in 1958 he withdrew the Moo Duk Kwan from the process. The Korea Taekwondo Association under Choi Hong Hi tried to absorb the Moo Duk Kwan, and Hwang refused when he found that he would not lead the new organisation.
In 1960 the Korean Soo Bahk Do Association was registered with the government. Hwang Kee won two lawsuits against the government. In 1965 a group of former students led by Hong Chong-soo joined the unification of the kwans, and other former students taught tang soo do independently, which split the Moo Duk Kwan.
Contribution and innovations
Hwang Kee created the forms Yuk Ro (1947), which are mostly taught at the dan level, and the forms Chil Sung, Seven Stars (1952), with combinations of soft and hard and with elbow and knee techniques.
In 1957 a librarian at a university in Seoul introduced him to the Muye Dobo Tongji, a 400-page woodblock print that King Jeongjo had made in 1790. By his own account Hwang made great discoveries from it, worked them into his teaching and renamed the art Soo Bahk Do. According to the World Moo Duk Kwan, in 1982 in Atlantic City he demonstrated the form Hwa Sun Hyung from the Muye Dobo Tongji.
According to the Kidokwan school, he wrote the first Hwa Soo Do textbook in 1949, the self-defence textbook Tang Soo Do Bo Sin Bop in 1958 and the Korean edition of Soo Bahk Do Dae Kham in 1970. Soo Bahk Do contains principles of Daoism, and Hwang’s motto says that where there is preparation, there is no fear.
Legends and documented facts
The story that, before 1945, Hwang Kee was inspired by a man defending himself with taekkyon is disputed by the Korea Taekkyon Association. His claim of studying under Yang Kuk-jin is disputed among his contemporaries.
We have not found a source that would explicitly confirm or refute the Muye Dobo Tongji as the source of Soo Bahk Do. What is documented is Hwang’s own claim from 1957.
Legacy
After Hwang Kee’s death on July 14, 2002, his son Hwang Hyun-chul (Jin Mun) was named his successor. In 2005 the United States Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan Federation confirmed the successor whom Hwang Kee had designated in a sealed document. Since 1995 the organisation has borne the official name Soo Bahk Do Moo Duk Kwan.
His students included Hwang Hyun-chul, Shin Jae-chul and Kyongwon Ahn. Chuck Norris founded American Tang Soo Do in 1966, broke with the Moo Duk Kwan in the seventies and in 1973 founded the National Tang Soo Do Congress with Pat Johnson as vice president. Pat Johnson founded the International Tang Soo Do Congress.
In place of a black belt, Hwang Kee introduced a midnight blue one for the master ranks, as a symbol that the path to mastery does not end. From 4th dan the belt carries a red stripe down the centre.
Associated Martial Arts
Hwang Kee's Korean art, taught through the Moo Duk Kwan. In 1960 it parted from the name Tang Soo Do and turned away from the path of competitive sport.
Tang Soo DoFounder→Korean striking and kicking art from the kwans Chung Do Kwan (1944) and Moo Duk Kwan (1945), derived from Shotokan, with forms, gups and a midnight blue belt.