Kuk Mu I Form

This is Master Ted Hillson, 8th Dan, a former student of Grandmaster Son's who now runs his own organization. He has good form and strength, typical of GM Son's students. Watch, learn and practice anytime, anywhere you get a chance. ~ Ted

The Forms (kata)

The forms (aka kata in Japanese) we used are based on the ones taught by Gichin Funakoshi’s Shotokan style, which were in turn modified copies of Anko Itosu's reduced versions of the original Chinese forms. Grandmaster Lee removed the grappling techniques from these forms as he believed that holding onto your opponent forced you to give up one of your primary weapons. Instead, he used the movements as hard blocks followed by a destructive strike.  Grandmaster Son continued with Grandmaster Lee’s style and added two new forms that he created while teaching young solders. These forms, Kuk Mu I and Kuk Mu II contain many of the basic blocks and strikes and are easier to teach to transitional students such as military or police who will not be with you for many years. In his later years Gichin Funakoshi did the same thing when he created the Karate-do Nyumon, a simplified set of kata for the non-traditional karateka (student.) Grandmaster Son emphasized the concept of ending the fight with one move, block or strike, by being so strong and fast that you would break your opponants bone or disrupt internal organs to the point where they would no longer wish to fight. He did this because he was teaching military and police officers who would need the fight to end quickly and in their favor. Because of this concept our forms tend to be faster and more aggressive than their Shotokan ancestors.

Here then is a list of the forms used by the WTA, what their name means and which Shotokan kata they equate to:

Form Name	Meaning	Belt Level Taught at	Shotokan Equivalent
Kuk Mu I	National Martial Art 1	White	Taikyoku
Kuk Mu II	National Martial Art 2	White	Taikyoku
Pyong An I	Safe From Harm 1#	Yellow	Heian Shodan
Pyong An II	Safe From Harm 2	Yellow/Green	Heian Nidan
Pyong An III	Safe From Harm 3	Green	Heian Sandan
Pyong An IV	Safe From Harm 4	Purple	Heian Yondan
Pyong An V	Safe From Harm 5	Purple	Heian Godan
Chul Gi I	Iron Horse 1	Brown	Tekki Shodan
Pal Sek	Penetrating a Fortress	Brown	Bassai Dai
Sip Su *	10 Hands	Black 1st Dan	Jitte
Chul Gi II	Iron Horse 2	Black 1st Dan	Tekki Nidan
Yun Be	Flying Swallow	Black 2nd Dan	Empi
Ja On	Jion-ji Shaolin Temple	Black 3rd Dan	Jion
Ja On +	Jion-ji Shaolin Temple	Black 4th Dan	None
Silla I @	Silla Dynasty, Korea	Black 5th Dan	None
Silla II	Silla Dynasty, Korea	Black 6th Dan	None

# Some translate this as "Peaceful Mind" but the more literal translation is Safe From Harm, 
   indicating that if you know these 5 forms you will be safe from any harm.
* Pronounced Ship-soo

+ The 4^th Dan form Ja On starts off by repeating the 3^rd Dan form and then adds a few hand techniques followed by a series of several kicks. They are both called Ja On with no numbering. The karateka is expected to know which version he is to do.

@ Pronounced She-La

NOTE: Chung Do Kwan schools that developed outside of Grandmaster Son's influence use additional forms as well as some of the ones listed above, but we do not teach them here.

Basics

The basics of WTA karate consist of 15 techniques:

1. Middle Target Punch
2. Upper Target Punch
3. Rising Arm Block
4. Double Arm Block
5. Single Arm Block
6. Front Stretch
7. Front Kick
8. Side Stretch
9. Side Kick
10. Knife Hand Block
11. Knife Hand Attack
12. Roundhouse Kick
13. Combination Front Kick, Side Kick
14. Reverse Punch
15. Six Step (Knife Block, Upper Target Punch, Side Kick, Roundhouse, Roundhouse, Upper Target Punch)

These are usually performed right after a series of warm-up exercises including a 5 minute run followed by some limited static stretching. Each of the techniques are done by stepping into the appropriate stance, doing the technique, then repeating these two for a total of nine iterations up to and including the roundhouse kick. The front kick/side kick combination is done with three iterations in each direction. The reverse punch is done 6 times in one direction followed by 5 in the opposite direction. Changing directions requires a loud kyup such as "Utz!" Six step is done once with count and once without count. There is a kyup with the last punch.

This is the manner in which a typical indoor practice session is run. Outdoor sessions often times have many more itterations of each technique (25 or more per direction) and the warm up run can be up to 1 mile, followed by tree kicking for about 1/2 an hour.

The Five Priciples of WTA Tae Kwon Do

SPEED – POWER – BALANCE – FOCUS – CONTROL

The five principles of WTA karate listed above are presented almost as a mystery school proverb for they are presented in this particular order every time and yet they must be learned in the reverse order. You will note that there are five principles with balance being the center point. This too is significant in that speed and power are balanced by focus and control. So what does each of these principles mean and what do we do to learn them:

Control – This is the first principle. You must learn how to control your body, your mind, your emotions while doing a martial art. You learn to control the body by repetition. Start slowly, learn the proper technique. Feel your body move. Experiment with weight shifting, hip and shoulder carriage movements to achieve the best feel for each technique. Practice striking at an object and stopping yourself from hitting it. Over time close the distance to where you are just barely brushing it. Practice with all hand and foot techniques and on both sides.

Focus – A lot of people have problems with this one. You’re trying to watch what the instructor is doing and keep an eye on the students around you. Practice in bits first and then expand. Watch your instructor do a few movements and then mimic those movements with complete concentration on your imaginary adversary. In your mind see where his various body parts are and how they would move with each of your techniques. In a sense you are dancing with this imaginary partner. Make it flow.

Balance – As you practice your forms and techniques pay attention to your body. Feel when and where you go off balance. Repeat that part separately experimenting with different foot positions of centering your mass in a different aspect with relation to you feet. The martial center of the body is just below and about 4 inches in from the belly button. Your center of gravity and your energy engine resides here. Breathe into it. Drive it down to the ground with each movement that requires anchoring. Pull it up when you need air time. Throw it at your opponent when you strike, and then quickly recover it. Think of a plumb line hanging from this point down and feel where it needs to be to center up your weight in relation to your feet. If you feet are allowed to move then do so, if not, let the body be repositioned to center the balance point. Old school karate teachers would come up behind their student while they were performing kata and push on them to check there balance. A few schools still do this but most don’t. I believe it is a sound practice and should be used.

Power – When you have achieved good, solid technique it is time to start adding more power. It is difficult to describe this process but you must relax and breathe into the beginning of the technique and then increase your speed as you flow you body motion behind the weapon and just before striking tense up the weapon to the opponent from the floor up.

Speed - Of all the principles this last one, speed, is the least to worry about. If you practice all the other principles in correct order and proportion speed will come naturally. Too many times do I see students attempting to do a form at a speed that is way above their level and all the other principles break down when this occurs and the end result is a form that looks like a break dance practice session.

Why do we run at the beginning of every practice?

The purpose of the run at the beginning of a practice session is threefold. First, it increases our heart rate and metabolism which is beneficial for the body. Take a few minutes out of your day to watch some children. They run everywhere and they laugh while doing it. As we grow older and settle into adult lives we become more and more sedentary. We lose flexibility and gain weight and then all the other problems that develop as we get older settle in and compound the issue. By running just a little on a daily basis we can stem off some of those effects.

Second, it warms up the muscles and tendons in preparation for the extensions we will be forcing them to perform during our practice, i.e. kicking.

The third is more of a philosophical reason. Karate should be used for defense only. Therefore it reminds us that should someone attack us we should always seek to find an avenue of escape. This is not meant to be an act of cowardice but of common sense. The mere fact that they are attacking means that they feel comfortable doing so in your present location. By moving to a place that evens out or gives you the advantage you may defeat him without throwing a single blow. Remember this, in his treatise on tactics called The Art of War, Sun Tzu said: “The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy.” By running to higher, more defensible ground or a location where many other people are you put yourself closer to that position where defeat is incomprehensible. Now if your opponent is insistent on continuing the attack then you have met your moral and social obligation to “run away” and can now concentrate on destroying his ability to continue to fight. Utz!

Recommended Reading List: Some of these are out of print but copies can be found online, in libraries and on sale at e-Bay.

Korean Karate: The Art of Tae Kwon Do by Duk Sung Son  
Chung Do Kwan: The Power of Tae Kwon Do by C.A. & A. Simpkins
Karate-Do: My Way of Life by Funakoshi Gichen
The Karate Dojo by Peter Urban
Shin Gi Tai by Michael Clarke
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi

Martial Arts History of Our Style

As mentioned in my profile the Chung Do Kwan, or Blue Wave School was founded in 1944 by Won Kuk Lee. This is the American ordering of his name. In Korea it would be written as Lee Won Kuk and that is how you will find it in many historical records. Both Grandmasters Lee and Son came to America and embraced American culture. Part of this was changing the order of their names which is why you will see the two orderings. The following paragraphs are the result of my digging through articles, books and web pages in search of the origins of the martial art system I study. Of all the resource material that I used I credit the most to "Shotokan's Secret: The Hidden Truth Behind Karate's Fighting Origins" by Dr. Bruce D. Clayton. He digs past the myths and outright fabrications to get to the root of things in a clear and concise manner.

Working backwards we find that our Korean Art came from Japan, which came from Okinawa, which came from China, which came from India. Beyond that is speculation but there is a growing body of evidence that supports the theory that a martial style was brought to India by the Macedonian army during Alexander the Great's conquest. Here then is the trail from Greece to Korea and eventually the United States of America:

PANKRATION

The Macedonians were recorded as practicing a martial art known as Pankration as far back as 648 B.C.E. and there are some who believe that this is the original martial art. Pankration is a form of Greco-Roman style wrestling that includes brutal striking techniques. A common tactic of Pankration is to grab your opponent’s hair and pull his head down into an uppercut to the throat. It is well documented that Pankration was added as an Olympic sport in the games of 648 B.C.E. and has been dubbed the closest simulation of no-holds-barred competitive fighting that any culture has ever allowed as a public sport. The only techniques not allowed at those games were biting and gouging. Anything else was acceptable, including full force kicks to the groin. It is recorded that the Spartans allowed all techniques in their local athletic festivals. The basic techniques of Pankration include a mixture of boxing and wrestling: hook and uppercut punches, full-powered kicks, elbowing and kneeing, joint locks, as well as numerous submission chokeholds. Sounds a lot like MMA. Apparently we have come full circle! Utz!

PARASURAMA - Axe Wielding God

No one can say with any certainty how, when or where martial art development began in India. There are many legends and myths attributing it to an Axe wielding Indian god known as Parsurama who was the sixth avatar or incarnation of Vishnu. He was an ardent follower of Lord Shiva and received an axe from him as a weapon. He supposedly established 108 Kalaris or schools and taught the art of Kalaripayat to 21 disciples in order to protect his land. Kalaripayat however, has been shown to have its roots in Dhanurveda, an even older Indian science of warfare. This leads to another origin legend. It is said that Dhanurveda was revealed by the Lord to sages Vishvamitra and Bhrigu who became its original teachers. Other famous Dhanurveda teachers in Vedic times were Parashurama (sic) and Drona. They are prominent characters in the classical epic Mahabharata, a story of conflict among various warrior lineages. Dhanurveda is also considered to be the origin of Vajramushti, another empty-handed Indian martial art as well. The most Ancient versions of Vedic martial arts derived from Dhanurveda are believed to be Thang-ta (in Manipur, East India) and Kalaripayat (in Kerala, South West India.) A growing school of thought is that the Indians learned the original martial skills from Alexander’s army when it invaded India in 327 B.C.E. While there is no yet known empirical evidence for this theory, it does make more sense than any of the aforementioned myths and legends.

BODHIDHARMA

Bodhidharma was born on Oct. 5th. (Chinese Lunar Calendar) of 470 CE in Southern India, and was the third son of an Indian king whose royal family belonged to the Bhramin caste. He was raised as a warrior to succeed his father as king. He had been trained in the Kalaripayat technique of martial arts. In Malayalam, the mother language of Kerala, India, Kalaripayat means repetitive training (payat) inside an arena or school (kalari). It is a scientific and comprehensive system of training for the body and the mind with an elaborate repertoire of weapon training, which in the ancient times led to the making of a proficient warrior.

Bodhidharma was not a typical boy and eventually became bored with his courtly training. He began to study with a Buddhist teacher named Prajnatara and became an ardent follower of the teachings. On his deathbed, Prajnatara asked him to go to China to re-awaken the followers of Buddha. According to various sources almost five percent of the population of China was already made up of Buddhist Monks even before the arrival of Bodhidharma. Legends vary in the method of his arrival, some say he traversed the Himalayan Mountains, others say he rode a ship around the coast. Regardless, he arrived around 526 C.E.

Upon arriving in China, the Emperor Wu Ti, a Buddhist himself, who had heard of Bodhidharma’s teaching, requested a meeting with him. Bodhidharma was unable to convince Wu Ti of the value of the new teachings he brought from India and was in fact banished from his court when the emperor discovered that the new teachings would undermine his authority. Rather than returning home, Bodhidharma set out on a northerly direction. He crossed the Tse River, and climbed Bear's Ear Mountain in the Song Mountain range South of Luoyang and Zhengzhou to where the Shaolin Temple of the Henan Province was located at the foot of Song Shan Mountain. The temple had been founded forty years before by Buddhist monks and was famous for its translations of the Buddhist scriptures into Chinese. Bodhidharma sought entrance into the temple but was initially refused as many travelers were. Legend has it that Bodhidharma then went to a nearby cave and stared at a wall for nine years, supposedly burning holes it with his stare. He is purported to have cut off his eyelids to stay awake in meditation, and so is usually depicted with bulging eyes. Others say that he cut off his eyelashes and that they fell to the ground and became tea plants. As the story goes, it was this show of fortitude, whether that be staring or just occupying the cave for 9 years, that caused the monks to allow him to enter their temple.

Upon gaining entrance, Ta Mo or Damo (as he was now called by the Chinese) saw that the monks were weak and unable to perform the rigorous meditations he expected Buddhist Monks should be practicing. While meditating, they often fell asleep or worse yet, became restless and were not achieving inner peace which was required to reach enlightenment. He spent some time in seclusion pondering the problem. He supposedly wrote down the results of his meditations in two books. The Yi Gin Ching (Yijin Jing,) which taught ways to increase the strength and health of the physical body and incorporated an exercise regimen known as the "18 Fists of Lo Han"; and the Shi Sui Ching, which was primarily a religious treatise explaining methods for developing the Buddhist spirit by using Chi energy.

These books laid out an exercise program for the monks that involved physical techniques that were efficient and strengthened the body. Eventually, they became the foundation for a system of self-defense as they were based on his knowledge of Indian fighting systems. His system involved dynamic tension exercises. Many of the basic moves of both tai chi chuan and kung fu can be seen in these exercises. These skills helped the monks to defend themselves against invading warlords and bandits. Bodhidharma died in 539 C.E. at the Henan Shaolin Temple at age 57. They laid him to rest in a tomb there.

Although many people believe this legend, the fact is there are no records about the existence of the books before or during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) so experts think Damo has little to do with Shao Lin Kung fu. Zongheng, a Taoist priest of Tiantai Mountain, is believed to be the true author of the book and wrote it in 1624. They suspect that to add mystery to it, he made up a story saying the Yi Gin Ching was originally written by Damo, and that his version was just a copy of the original. While there is no proof either way, the Chinese fighting system that became known as Kung Fu was already in development at the Shaolin Temple by 610 C.E.

THE SHAOLIN MONKS

Shao Lin means Young Forest. The Chinese Buddhists fancied themselves as a young forest of people that would grow in time and spread throughout the world, bringing the Buddhist philosophy with it. They were composed manly of monks serving as adepts who were learning to become priests. The priests would then branch out, establish new monastaries and take on new adepts. The roads that they travelled were often times plagued with bandits who were not above stealing from priests or monks and would often kill them. As such, the members of the monastary often stayed within the confines of their walled fortress and only ventured out in large groups when supplies were needed. For the most part this arrangement suited them but there were many recorded instances of them attempting to travel and getting sacked. For them, a self defense system was a very real necessity, but was also contrary to their Buddhist philosophy of cause no harm. Until the arrival of Bodhidharma the monks would refuse to resist attacks and just hope for the best. They were easy prey.

The oldest evidence of Shaolin participation in combat is a stele from 728 C.E. that attests to two occasions: a defense of the Shaolin Monastery from bandits around 610 CE, and their subsequent role in the defeat of Wang Shichong at the Battle of Hulao in 621 C.E. This would give them a reasonable 84 years from the arriavl of Bodhidharma to develop a unique fighting system that would enable them to accomplish the feats described on the 728 stele.

The stele states that the Tang Emperor called upon the Shaolin monks to assists in defeating pirates in the southern region of China. They sent 500 monks headed by Dao Guang, Seng Man and Seng Feng. Working with the Tang soldiers they managed to defeat the pirates but suffered many losses. Dao Guang returned to the northern temple and received instructions to select a similar location in the south and build a temple there in remembrance of the monks lost in battle. He returned and selected a place in the Fukian province and with the Tang emperor’s permission built the Southern Shaolin Temple there in 626 – 649 CE. For the next 250 years the southern temple prospered and many monks learned the Northern Style of Kung Fu.

It is documented that in 900 C.E. a rich young noble and experienced martial artist, entered the Henan Shaolin Monastery and assumed the name of Chueh Yuan. He soon devoted all his studies to the further development of Shaolin Kung Fu and fitness training. Chueh combined hard and soft techniques in his forms. Within a few years, he revised the 18 Fists of Lo Han and created what he called the 72 Styles or movements. His methods and teaching were so successful that all Shaolin monks adopted his 72 fists very quickly. But Chueh Yuan was still not fully satisfied with this and he went out to teach and learn, looking for masters of other styles.

On his travels, Chueh Yuan witnessed a bandit attacking a 60-year-old traveler. He saw the attacker land an apparently very strong kick to the body of the old man with no effect. The old traveler, using only two fingers against the bandit's leg sent him to the ground, rendered unconscious by the time Chueh reached them. This maneuver impressed Chueh and so he introduced himself to the senior. Much to his surprise the old man told him that he did not know very much martial arts and what little he did know, he had learned from the local master Pai Yu Feng.

Chueh met with and convinced Pai Yu Feng to accompany him back to his temple. Over the next few years, using the 18 fists, the 72 movements and Pai’s 'pressure point techniques' Chueh and Pai Yu Feng redeveloped the Shaolin exercises into the 170 exercises that became the foundations of Shaolin Kung Fu as it is known today.

Records exist from between the 16th and 17th centuries that provide evidence that the Shaolin monks practiced martial arts as an integral element of their monastic life. It is possible that to justify it they created the Bodhidharma lore, as the earliest appearance of the legend dates to this period. The origin of this legend has been traced to the Ming period's Yijin Jing or "Muscle Change Classic", a text written in 1624 and attributed to Bodhidharma.

In 1644, the Manchurians invaded China and replaced the Ming Dynasty with the Ch'ing dynasty. The Shaolin Temples became hives of revolutionaries. In 1646 they formed a secret society called the Hung Fa Wui in Weng Chun Tong and developed their fighting system into an extremely effective one that is believed to be the precursor to modern Wing Chun style.

Fang Qi Niang

One of the students of this new style was Fang Zhang Guang of Zhejian province. He had a deep passion for martial arts and studied under several masters and would practice seriously day and night. He intended to teach his art to his son in law but the young man wanted nothing to do with it, so Fang taught it to his daughter Fang Qi Niang in around 1700 CE. One day while practicing her bo kata a large white crane landed near her. She poked at it with her staff but the bird easily dodged or blocked off her attacks with its wings or poked at it with its beak. She was impressed by its abilities and began studying the fighting techniques of these birds and incorporated them into her own fighting skills and created the White Crane style of Chuan Fa. Her husband soon left her and she went to the local temple and became a nun. From there she taught her White Crane style to many disciples. One of them was Chen Si. Chen Si taught many students including Zheng Li who was known to re-combine many forms into a unified chaun fa style that either he or one of his students taught to Kong Su Kung. In 1768 the Mancurians destroyed the temple at Fukian. The Shaolin masters fled to many parts of the country, thus spreading this style to a wider audience.



KONG SU KUNG (KUSANKU)



Kusanku, also known by his Chinese name Kong Su Kung, was born around 1720 and resided in the Fukien province. He was a Chinese Sifu who was an expert in the art of Chuan Fa White Crane Kung Fu, which he learned from an unknown Shaolin Monk, possibly Zheng Li. Around 1756 he was sent to Okinawa to as a Chinese military attaché and ambassador of the Ch'ing Dynasty. In Okinawa he resided in the village of Kanemura near Naha city. It is recorded that in 1761 Kusanku displayed Chinese boxing and grappling techniques to a delighted audience in Okinawa. He taught the Chinese boxing style he called Kenpo to Satunushi Sakugawa. He passed away around 1796.

Satunushi “Tode” Sakugawa

Satunushi Sakugawa was born March 5, 1733 in Shuri, the ancient capital of Okinawa and studied Okinawa-te under the Buddhist monk, and very likely a Shuri castle bodyguard, Peichin Takahara for 6 years. In 1786 Sakugawa tried to push the visiting Chinese ambassador Kushanku into a river as a practical joke. Kushanku stopped Sakugawa's assaults with such ease that Sakugawa was humiliated and immediately apologized. Kushanku was apparently impressed with Sakugawa and invited him to train with him in White Crane Chaun Fa. For another six years Sakugawa studied under Kushanku who taught him the techniques of his art. At the same time, Sakugawa's former master fell sick. Sakugawa returned to his Sensei who, before dying, asked him to change his name to Tode and teach his new art. Tode literally means Chinese hand and in the On form of Japanese Kanji is written using 2 symbols and is pronounced kara te.

Sakugawa created his new style of Tode by combining the techniques of his first master and the techniques of Kushanku. Shortly thereafter he created the kata Kushanku, using the methods of fighting he had learned. At age 78 he was asked to take on the young Matsumura as a student! He passed away on August 17, 1815 at the age of 82.

Sokon Matsumura

Sokon Matsumura was born in 1796 in the city of Shuri on the island of Okinawa. At age 14 or 15 (some sources say 11) he went to train at the school of Master Sakugawa. He may also have been taught by a Chinese Master called Iwah. He received a master certificate from Yashuhiro Ijuin in Japan, a master of the Jigen sword school of the Satsuma clan, and this suggests that he was educated in samurai wrestling. Somewhere in all this training he learned or discovered the secret to generating exponential power in his techniques by throwing his body weight into them. This was new as Chaun Fa and Tode both required the practitioner to remain rooted to the ground. By age 25 he was renowned as the greatest fighter in the land.

Records show that he lived in China around the year 1830. When he returned to Okinawa he formed his own style and started teaching a modified Chinese form he called Patsai or Bassai.

While serving as the chief bodyguard to the king it was his duty to protect the elderly Shuri ministers. During this period of history Okinawa was a hotbed; owned by China, ruled by Japan and ministered by a puppet king. Western whalers frequently made port there. Barbarians were at their gates and the Okinawans were unarmed. It was literally a martial arts crucible with Matsumura and his powerful new linear style at the head of a group he had trained. Whenever any violence erupted at court, they were left facing one to many odds and skin against steel. Owing to this unique situation he refined the Chinese boxing he had learned into a deadly art which he simply called Shuri-Te.

In the Kun style Kanji Matsumura's name is pronounced Matsu Mura, but in the On style it would be Shoson. It literally means Pine Tree Village.

He died in 1893 at the ripe old age of 97, almost 3 times the average lifespan for an Okinawan in those days!

Anko "Yasutsune" Itosu

Anko Itosu was born in 1830. It is recorded that his father beat him regularly to instill an aggressive martial instinct in him. During his youth he was sent to study martial arts, including Shuri-Te from Sokon Matsumura. As an adult he served as the advisor to the last Okinawan King on military subjects. He was known as one of the greatest experts of martial arts on the island and was said to have been able to crush a green bamboo stalk in his hand. During the Satsuma Rebellion, realizing that the men he was teaching would be facing heavily armed soldiers; he re-tooled the Shuri Te into a new hard style dubbed Shorin-Ryu (Shorin is how the Japanese mispronounced Shaolin, a word which actually means young forest, and the Kanji Itosu used to name his style actually meant bright forest, same…but different from the original Shaolin Monks) and created the Heian series of katas to teach the deadly techniques. These same katas became the Pinan series in Japanese and Pyang Ahn in Korean. This new hard style was based on samurai wrestling (ju-jitsu) techniques that would enable you to render your opponent immobilized long enough to affect a deadly strike. This effectively removed most of the White Crane poking and dodging techniques; however, if you look hard you will see a few still there.

In 1879 the Japonese ended the Okinawan Sho dynasty. Itosu remained in Shuri after his king Sho Tai was exiled to Tokyo and he started a small family printing business. At night, in secret, he taught Kara Te for the next 20 years. It was during this time that his most famous student, Gichen Funakoshi, trained with him. In 1902 the former king Sho Tai died, releasing all former staff of any oath of secrecy. Itosu began teaching publicly and in 1905 started teaching at the Prefectural Dai Ichi College and the Prefectural Teachers Training College.Anko Itosu passed away in 1915 at age 85.

Yatsutsune is how Anko is pronounced  in the On style and so you will see him listed as such in several books. It is the same person.

Yasutsune Azato

Yasutsune Azato was born in 1828, the son of a Tonichi, one of the highest classes of Okinawan society, in the town of Azato, which his family presided over. Like his friend and companion Itosu, Azato trained under Matsumara and served as military attaché and foreign affairs advisor to the Sho kings. He was also trained in Jukendo bayonet fighting, horsemanship and archery. Unlike Itosu, he believed in stepping out of the way of an incoming attack rather than absorbing the blow and so speed was his primary advantage. In the early 1880’s he became the first teacher of Gichen Funakoshi. After this he drops out of karate history until his death in 1906 at age 78. It is possible that he was sent into exile with his former king as Funakoshi indicates that he “served as ambassador to Tokyo for many years”. Although he left no other legacy behind, Funakoshi regarded him as the greatest martial artist he ever met.

Gichen Funakoshi

Gichen Funakoshi was born in Shuri, the capital of Okinawa, in 1868. According to his autobiography, "Karate-Do: My Way of Life," he described himself as a prematurely born and rather a sickly baby and a frail child. At age 11 his family sent him to learn Shorin-Ryu Te under master Yasutsune Azato in the hopes that it would improve his health. He secretly snuck out to Azato's home at midnight and practiced kata naihanchi over and over again for 3 years by lamp in the courtyard as Azato grunted “Again!.” Besides master Azato he was also fortunate enough to learn from master Anko Itosu and on a few occasions even master Matsumura! They all classified him as a competent practitioner and continuously urge him on. He continued to study even after taking up teaching as a profession. He moved to Japan and took a teaching position at the university in Tokyo. He became familiar with Japanese life and integrated himself well. It was because of this and his position at the university that he was asked to begin teaching Te in Japan. Using his knowledge of Japanese culture he reformulated the teaching style and created what he called Kara Te Do, or “Empty Hand Way.” This Zen influence added philosophy to the Jutsu or “Technique” of the style and created a new Martial Art with strong Japanese undertones that eventually became known simply as karate.

In 1915 Sensei Funakoshi was invited to demonstrate karate at the Butokuden in Kyoto, Japan to introduce the Japanese aristocracy to the new art form. In 1922, the rest of Japan was introduced to karate, when Funakoshi participated in the First National Athletic Exhibition in Tokyo. Later that year his first book, Ryukyu Kempo: Karate was published. In 1926 karate was officially instituted in Tokyo University. In 1935 he published his second book, Karate-do Kyohan.

In 1936 he opened a dojo at a lodging house for some of his students from Okinawa. He described in his book that his students placed a sign board over the entrance to the dojo that had “Shoto Kan” (Shoto’s House) inscribed on it. Shoto was a pen name that Funakoshi used in his youth to sign the Chinese poems he had written while in school. Although it would have been more proper to call him Funakoshi-san, most of his students and friends referred to him simply as "Shoto" and so eventually his style of teaching became known as Shotokan Karate. Shoto literally means “Waving Pines” and is a reference to the blue pine trees of Okinawa waving with the wind during his many medatative walks after karate practice, a notion which Funakoshi thought to be poetic in itself, and thus why he adopted it as his pen name.

In 1955 the Japan Karate Association was established and Grandmaster Funakoshi was appointed as its chief instructor. In 1958, the Association held the first All-Japan karate championship tournament. Grandmaster Funakoshi passed away in 1958, at the age of 90.

Won Kuk Lee

Won Kuk Lee (Lee Won Kuk in Korean) was born April 13, 1907. He started his martial arts training as a young man, studying the Korean art of Tae Kyon in secret because it was outlawed by the Korean government 80 years prior. Later, all martial arts training had been forbidden within the country by the Japanese since their occupation of 1926. In 1927 he decided to seek a better life and attended college at the Central University law school in Japan. According to most sources he studied Shotokan Karate, under Great Grandmaster Gichin Funakoshi. In an interview conducted in 1997 for Tae Kwon Do Times magazine Lee states that while at university he studied what he called Tang Soo Do (Way of the T’ang – Chinese were refered to as T’ang because they were ruled by the T’ang dynasty) and then later studied karate under Sensei Hunagoshi. While watching a rare film on Funakoshi I heard that his birth name was in fact Hunagoshi and that he had chamged it to Funakoshi, but it gave no reason for this, nor a time frame, but it must have been after Lee studied with him. It is odd that Funakoshi's own biography does not make mention of this name change.

A while after achieving his 3rd or 4th degree black belt (it is listed as Sandan which is translated as 3rd in Japanese and 4th in Korean), Lee began to travel the orient to learn more of the martial arts. He visited Okinawa and the Shaolin temples in Henan and Shanghai in China. In 1944 he decided to return to his home of Korea so that he could show his people the beauty of the martial arts. He began teaching in secret and also applied to the Japanese occupation government to be allowed to teach martial arts in Korea. He was turned down twice, but upon the third time, he was approved with the help of the Japanese Governor General Abe. Finally given permission, he opened the first dojang in Korea, calling it the Chung Do Kwan, and taught the art of Tang Soo Do legally for the first time in Korea at the Yung Shin School Gymnasium in Sa De Mun, Ok Chun Dong district in Seoul.

The name Chung Do Kwan means 'Blue Wave School'. According to some, Grandmaster Lee arrived at this name while sitting at a beach one day, and watching the waves come in. He supposedly set in his mind that the waves were strong and unstoppable and that is how he wanted his martial art to be known. Others feel that as a student of Funakoshi, he named the school as a tribute to his former teacher’s nick name “Shoto” which meant “waving pines”. This is a standard practice in Asian culture, taking the name of your teacher or mentor and adding to it. Using this theory the blue wave would refer to the "waving blue pines", a suitable representation of the martial artist because they bend with the wind but do not break because they have strong roots. This also falls in line with Matsumura’s “Pine Tree Village” and and the Kanji that Itosu used to represent Shorin, the “Bright Forest”. I believe these are all humble references to the Shaolin “Young Forest” origin of the style.

It wasn't too long before the popularity of Chung Do Kwan gained national attention. Korea's first President, Syngman Rhee, requested that all Chung do Kwan members apply for membership in the Korean Republican Party. In exchange, Grandmaster Lee was offered the post of Minister of Internal Affairs. Due to his suspicion of the government's motive in recruiting all the members, Grandmaster Lee declined. As soon as the offer was rejected, he was arrested and accused by the government of being the leader of a group of assassins. The fact that he had been the first to get permission from the Japanese government to start a school made him even more suspect. His wife, family, and students Duk Sung Son, Yung Taek Chong and several others were beaten and tortured by the government. A few sources say that some of the students were lynched. Then on June 25, 1950 war broke out and they were released. Grandmaster Lee was forced to flee to Pusan City. The Chung Do Kwan continued under the instruction of senior students Ung Jun Yoo and Duk Sung Son. Yoo and several of the other students later asked Son to take over. Son disregarded the requests until Yoo went to Lee, who by now had moved to Japan, and returned with a letter of appointment for Son to the position of head master (Kwan Jang), signed by Lee. Grandmaster Lee eventually immigrated to the United States at the request of General Westmoreland. He passed away in 2003.

Duk Sung Son

Duk Sung Son (Son Duk Sung in Korean) was born in Korea on June 6, 1922. He started his martial career at age 19 as a boxer. He said that his parents were not pleased with him coming home bruised every day and he was not fond of it either but he enjoyed the fighting. For this reason he began studying Tang Soo Do in 1944 at the Chung Do Kwan under Won Kuk Lee, as this was a non contact form of fighting. He quickly attained his black belt and continued onward to 4th Dan and Sa Bum Nim (master.) When war broke out in 1950 Gandmaster Lee fled to Japan and appointed Yoo Ung Jun as the headmaster but Yoo Ung Jun was sympathetic to the North and left the school to fight for them. The remaining senior students went to Japan and asked Grandmaster Lee to appoint Duk Sung Son, who was the next senior student, as the new head master (Kwan Jang) of the Chung Do Kwan. With Kwan Jang certificate in hand Duk Sung Son proceeded to run the Chung Do Kwan but soon. because of the war, the school was forced to close to the public. Grandmaster Son continued teaching Tang Soo Do but suffered financially during these times as he was not charging the military and police, who were his only students then, the usual fees. He persevered though, and conducted demonstrations in the hopes of revitalizing interest in Tang Soo Do. In 1953 he was appointed as the first chief instructor to the Republic of Korea Army, which officially re-opened the school.

In 1955 an effort was made by the various Kwans to have some sort of National Unity in the Korean Martial Arts. At this time he was teaching Tang Soo Do to novice policemen. Grandmaster Son and General Hyung Hi Choi (latter to become president of the ITF) were both on the panel that came up with the name "Tae Kwon Do" for the Korean martial art. According to Grandmaster Son, he wrote the words down on a piece of paper and handed them to Choi who subsequently took credit for it. After this meeting most of the kwans, including the Chung Do Kwan, changed the name of their style to Tae Kwon Do, even though many of them were practicing a style that was uniquely different from each other. In Korean, tae means to strike with the foot; kwon means to strike or smash with the hand; and do means art, or way of life. Hence, tae kwon do is loosely translated as "the way of the foot and fist". The name was simply a means to eliminate any reference to Japan or China.
 

            After this meeting Grandmaster Son stayed in close contact with General Choi, using his influence to help spread tae kwon do. Choi was presented with an honorary 4th Dan certificate by Grandmaster Son for his dedication to the art. Choi formed a new school called the Oh Do Kwan. Only 2 years after getting his honorary 4th Dan, Choi brought a filled out 6th Dan and Grandmaster certificate to Grandmaster Son for him to sign. Son was infuriated at this display of arrogance and tore up the certificate and told Choi he was revoking his Honorary 4th Dan as well. Madden by this action, Choi used his influence with the government to assign Woon Kyu Uhm as the new grand master to the Chung Do Kwan. Grandmaster Son and Master Suk Kyu Kim then formed a new school called the Kuk Mu Kwan.

In 1961 the Korean government put pressure on the Kwans to unify, forming the Korean Tae Kwon Do Association (KTA) with General Choi as president. This caused a rift that would continue to expand in the future. Some of the Kwan's, especially the Chung Do Kwan, wanted to keep their own identity and training methods and remained aloof. But in 1962 the Korean government only recognized the rank of those in the KTA. Many of the Tae Kwon Do masters were frustrated with the restrictions this placed on their training, so in the early 1960's many of them left Korea and formed Tae Kwon Do organizations around the world.

In April 1963 Grandmaster Son immigrated to the U.S. He opened the Te Han Karate School in New York City. Several of his students from Korea organized with him and the masters of that group were eager to start a central organization that they could open schools under. They elected Son as their Grandmaster and he founded the World Tae Kwon Do Association in New York City. He achieved his rank of ninth Dan by defeating masters of other organizations and assuming their rank. He stopped at ninth because, according to him, his master (Lee) was a 10th Dan and how could he be better than his master? He performed Tae Kwon Do demonstrations in 1964-1965 at the N.Y. World’s Fair to introduce the Korean martial art to the United States in a venue not undertaken by any of the few masters who preceded him such as his former student Jhoon Rhee. Within a few years, Son was teaching his art at Princeton, N.Y.U., Brown and Fordham Universities, and later at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. His organization quickly grew in the Northeast and throughout the rest of the country to a level of over 450 schools from coast to coast.

Grandmaster Son authored two textbooks on Tae Kwon Do; the first book is titled “Korean Karate, The Art of Tae Kwon Do” and the second book is titled “Black Belt Korean Karate”. In July of 2007, at the age of 85, Grandmaster Son conducted his 17th annual black belt summer camp at Storm King School in New York. He continued to teach his classes in New York City until 2008 when he moved in with his daughter Yehjong Son Cundy in Newport, RI, USA where he remained until his death in 2011. In 2009 he appointed his daughter Yehjong  as the president of the WTA and she remains as the organizations leader to this day.