1-Heritage of Hapkido

The history of Hapkido has been told many times from different perspectives. It is our goal to look for direction from the arts and people that Hapkido’s founder and early pioneers honored. This is the heritage of Hapkido. One source has been our teacher Grand Master Kwang Sik Myung. Grand Master Myung chose the name Yon Mu Kwan as the name of his School. He told us he liked two meanings of Yon. One meaning was research or study. The other meaning was practice or meditation. We feel lucky to have been able to both study and practice Hapkido. We continue to discover more about this art and ourselves. We have had the opportunity to verify and elaborate on the heritage of Hapkido that we studied with Grand Master Myung. Some of the people we have been able to study and practice with include Grand Master Ji Han Jae, Grand Master Bong Soo Han, Grand Master In Hyuk Su, Grand Master Joo Bang Lee, Lama Padma Yontan Gyatso, and Yin Hong Yang (Holly Yang). 

We studied with martial arts historian James R. Garrison. His knowledge of Hapkido and other arts including Judo, Sosuishi Ryu Jujitsu, and Aikido helped us to see the connections and inspired us to understand the environment that formed Hapkido. The primary Arts that have come together in Hapkido are Daito Ryu Aikijujitsu and Chung Moo Sool. Both of these arts provided a foundation that allowed Hapkido to become a diverse and relevant art. 

Daito Ryu Aikjujutsu was poularized by Sokaku Takeda. From Daito Ryu we see the focus on subtle application of principles. We also find the idea that techniques can have many levels. We can see the term Aiki (Hapki in Korean) in the early text found in Japan with the title “Aiki In Yo Ho”, translated as the harmonious interaction of Yin and Yang. These are the same ideas that are the foundation of Eastern medicine. In this kind of art we find a large number of techniques pointing toward central themes such as Aiki Age (harmonize up) and Aiki Sage (harmonize down). We have been fortunate to explore concepts of Aiki with Fumio Toyoda Shihan, Nick Lowry Sensei, Howard Popkin Sensei, Eric Pearson Sensei, and Roy Goldberg Sensei.

Chung Moo Sool are the Court Martial Arts found in Korea before the Japanese occupation. They are a combination of village martial arts (largely games and dance), monastery and hermit martial arts (largely meditation and medicine), and military arts. According to Grand Master Myung, his teacher, Yong Sool Choi (the founder of Hapkido), had a colleague, named Myung Mu Dosa, who influenced his art. Other early practitioners of Hapkido studied with and talked about several monks of note. Ji Han Jae called his monk teacher Brother. In Hyuk Suh mentions Hae Dong Seu Nim. Joo Bang Lee speaks of an extended period of study with Su-Ahm Dosa. The repeated theme of studying with martial monks of the area points to a strong living tradition that should not be ignored. All appear to have studied medicine and meditation strongly influenced by concepts of Yin and Yang (Um and Yang in Korean), martial games and dance as well as martial arts skills. 

The most significant written repository of these arts is found in the text Mu Yea Do Bo Tong Ji (Illustrated Manual of Martial Arts). This Korean Martial Arts classic was compiled by Lee Do’k Mu in 1796 at the request of the king of Korea (ChongJo, 1776-1800).  It lists over one hundred classic Korean, Japanese and Chinese works. With Grand Master Myung, we explored the shared philosophy and training methods of these Korean, Japanese and Chinese martial arts with an emphasis on what they have in common. We chose the name Kiwon Hapkido (Energy Circle Hapkido) to describe this aspect of our art. The works of General Chi Ji Kung are directly quoted in much of the Mu Yea Do Bo Tong Ji. His works were based on a distillation of 16 different arts he studied including Hsing I. These works and naming of techniques were a major influence on the development of Tai Chi Chuan. Here we find a focus on principles like the harmonious interaction of yin and yang that is implied in Tai Chi’s name. We use the term Shinshimdo (Mind Body Way) to explore this aspect of Hapkido. It is taught as a Korean form of Tai Chi.

The early pioneers all trained in these different methods and chose to use them in different ways. In our system we look to the joy and fun of village martial arts to motivate our practice. We look to the military arts to understand effectiveness and strategy. We look to meditative and medical arts for understanding the structure of the art and how to make it a lifelong practice that promotes mental and physical health. 

When choosing a new teacher, it is always exciting and scary. After training with Grand Master Myung for the first time, we sat down with him at our house to discuss how to move forward. In the past, teachers had been insistent on following their curriculum and methods. When we asked Grand Master Myung about this, he said that he was always learning. He had never been to a seminar or event without learning something new. He raised one hand and said, “I am going this way.” He raised his other hand and said, “You are going this way. The longer we are together, the more we will be on the same path.” He brought his hands together as he moved them forward. This approach embodies the spirit of Hapkido (Harmony Energy Way) and changed our practice forever.