Taekkyon
택견A Korean martial art built on the fluid triangular step pumbalki, kicks and takedowns. Since 2011 it has been on the UNESCO intangible heritage list.
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 Taekkyon
About Taekkyon
Taekkyon is a Korean martial art whose basis, according to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, is the fluid, rhythmic step pumbalki, and which uses kicks and takedowns of the opponent. In 2011 UNESCO inscribed it on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
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According to Martial Arts of the World (2001), the origin of taekkyon is highly speculative. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture gives the first written evidence as a song collection from 1728, Martial Arts of the World the work Chaemulpo from around 1790. Under the Joseon dynasty, taekkyon was practiced as a folk pastime according to both encyclopedias, mainly on the Dano holiday and at seasonal festivals in Seoul. Martial Arts of the World writes that after the annexation of Korea in 1910 it was formally banned but not actively suppressed, and it died out rather because people in hard times had neither free time nor inclination. According to the same encyclopedia, living knowledge comes almost entirely from one man, Song Deok-ki (1893–1987). Shin Han-seung (1928–1987) learned from him and organized the art. According to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, taekkyon was registered on 1 June 1983 as Important Intangible Cultural Heritage of Korea No. 76, and both men were recognized as its bearers. The UNESCO decision gives 1976 as the year of this designation. According to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, kicks are meant to strike softly but strongly and not injure the opponent, while the hands serve mainly for grabbing and pushing. Today taekkyon is practiced by a sports federation under the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee and by associations that care for cultural heritage.
History
The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture states that taekkyon first appears in sources in the early 18th century, in a song collection from 1728. A work from 1798 also mentions it, and Stewart Culin recorded it in the book Korean Games (1895). Martial Arts of the World regards as the first known evidence the work Chaemulpo by Yi Song-ji from around 1790, according to which the older art subakhi began to be called taekkyon. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture calls the derivation of taekkyon from subaku of the Korjo period disputed.
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According to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, from the end of the reign of King Cheoljong to the beginning of the reign of King Gojong, taekkyon was widely practiced on the Dano holiday and neighborhoods wrestled each other. Martial Arts of the World describes two forms around 1905: a game, sometimes with teams and rules, practiced alongside the wrestling ssirum at seasonal festivals in Seoul, and real fighting, mainly among gangsters. According to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, taekkyon was banned by law because people used it for revenge. Under colonial rule taekkyon declined. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture gives as possible causes the lack of a transmission system and the introduction of Japanese kendo and judo into schools. Martial Arts of the World writes that after the annexation in 1910 Song Deok-ki still trained in small groups for several years, but pressure from his family and the police forced him to stop. The practice was formally banned but not actively suppressed. Song Deok-ki (1893–1987, Song Tok-ki in Martial Arts of the World) first demonstrated taekkyon after liberation on 26 March 1958 at the birthday of President Yi Sung-man. From the nineteen-sixties, according to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, taekkyon began to be mapped around him, and in the nineteen-seventies Shin Han-seung (1928–1987, Sin Han-sung) gave it the value of cultural heritage. In November 1981 Shin Han-seung handed the collected materials to the Cultural Heritage Administration, and on 1 June 1983 taekkyon was registered as Important Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 76. Both bearers died in 1987, twenty days apart.
How it differs
Taekkyon's relationship to taekwondo is disputed. Martial Arts of the World states that leaders of Korean taekkyon associations reject any direct link with taekwondo, and none of the few people with documented knowledge of taekkyon was tied to taekwondo's founders. In its view the influence was mainly conceptual: the name taekwondo, from the nineteen-fifties, aimed to join the art of Korean schools with the folk memory of taekkyon. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, in its taekwondo article, instead presents taekwondo as a modern development of traditional arts, taekkyon included. Technically, per the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, the difference is in the kicks: soft and arcing in taekkyon, straight in taekwondo. Martial Arts of the World states that taekkyon was entirely a stance art and that in play techniques used pressure instead of a strike, but in a fight full force.
Technique
According to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, the traditional system of taekkyon is divided into the step pumbalki, hand techniques and foot techniques, which include kicks and sweeps. Pumbalki is a step in a three-beat, dance-like rhythm in which the feet, alternately forward and back, form a triangle and the weight repeatedly shifts up and down. Martial Arts of the World describes it as constant stepping in a triangle so that the foot does not stay long in one place. According to it, taekkyon has very few blocks and prefers evasion. The feet are kept close together because wide steps make sweeping easier.
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According to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, kicks are meant to strike softly but strongly and not injure the opponent, and the encyclopedia presents them as soft and curved against the straight kicks of taekwondo. Hand techniques serve mainly for grabbing and pushing, by which the opponent is unbalanced and pulled down. According to the same encyclopedia, dangerous hand techniques are classed among so-called old techniques (Martial Arts of the World writes yaet pop) and are not allowed in a bout. Martial Arts of the World states that old strikes to the head are, with one exception, with an open hand and strikes to the body with a fist. According to Martial Arts of the World, the typical answer to a kick is to catch the opponent's leg and sweep his standing leg. Arm movements together with the step confuse the opponent and keep balance. In the survey by the Cultural Heritage Administration in 1973 only 11 techniques were recorded from Song Deok-ki, whereas the report from 1982 gives over 30 basic and around 100 applied techniques, because Shin Han-seung subdivided them further.
Training
The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture describes three ways of practice: solo practice without a partner (step, arm movements, kicks and hand techniques), practice of two against each other by agreement, and free sparring. Martial Arts of the World states that Shin Han-seung opened his own school in Chungchu in 1973 and created a standardized training system of four parts: solo practice standing and walking, practice in pairs, competition, and a form summarizing the basic competition techniques. According to the same encyclopedia he was criticized, especially for the form, for changing the original style too much, and several critics who had also studied under Song Deok-ki founded their own associations. A study in a Korean academic journal on martial arts from 2014 states that taekkyon associations use different step shapes, from a line through a triangle and a rhombus to a pentagon, and that the triangle is the most stable and most common.
Ranks and progression
According to Martial Arts of the World, traditional taekkyon had no conventional training system, formal grades or predetermined sets. According to Song Deok-ki, however, serious students learned in organized groups under particular teachers. Today's taekkyon organizations have their own training systems. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture states that the difference between the 11 techniques recorded in 1973 and more than 30 basic techniques in the 1982 report led to each organization developing its own technical system.
Competition
According to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, traditional taekkyon was probably fought in groups, as winning streaks of individuals, in a courtyard on brushwood bedding covered with a mat. Neighbourhoods fought each other. Martial Arts of the World describes a competition around 2001: held on judo-style mats, in white traditional clothing, without rounds and without protective gear, and a bout lasts until a defeat or the time limit, then the judges decide. A point is scored when the opponent touches the ground with a knee or any part of the body above it, or a clean kick to the head or face that visibly moves the head. Hands may only push, grab and catch, grabbing clothing is not allowed, and only pushing kicks may hit the body. According to the Newsis agency, taekkyon was the only demonstration sport at the 2017 national sports games.
Today
UNESCO inscribed taekkyeon on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2011 by decision 6.COM 13.44. The decision states that there are approximately fifty recognised practitioners and that the Korean Taekkyeon Association plays a significant role in transmission. Safeguarding measures include financial support for the master and assistants, awareness-raising and research. UNESCO stresses that taekkyon teaches restraint and a master can make an opponent back down without injury. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture lists as today's organisations, among others, two associations under the Korea Heritage Service, a sports federation under the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee, and an association of gyeollyeon taekkyon, which is a legal entity. According to the Newsis agency, the sports federation and an association based in Chungju approved a merger in 2017. According to the daily Seoul Shinmun, gyeollyeon taekkyon was inscribed on 1 December 2022 as Seoul intangible cultural heritage No. 55. Martial Arts of the World reported four associations in Korea in 2001 with small differences, clubs at most major universities and televised competitions. According to the news server Nocutnews, the sports federation is seeking to have taekkyon in the Olympic programme.
Did you know
According to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, taekkyon was also written under other names, and in 1933 the Korean Language Society changed its spelling in the unified orthography. According to the same encyclopedia, Song Deok-ki excelled at the horizontal bar, football and archery, played for a football team and shot with a bow for some fifty years. Martial Arts of the World states that an 1846 painting by Yu Suk probably shows a taekkyon bout.
Styles & Branches
Frequently asked questions
Is taekkyon the predecessor of taekwondo?
The sources differ. Martial Arts of the World states that taekkyon associations reject a direct connection and that the influence was mainly conceptual, while the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, in its article on taekwondo, presents taekwondo as a development of traditional arts including taekkyon.
What is pumbalki?
The basic step of taekkyon. According to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, one steps onto three points in a three-beat, dance-like rhythm, so the feet form a triangle and the weight shifts up and down.
When was taekkyon inscribed by UNESCO?
In 2011, by decision 6.COM 13.44, on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. In Korea it has been national intangible heritage since 1983, according to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.