What is the History of ALL Martial Arts in Korea?

Goes further than Hwa Rang. There are murals and giant carvings that date to 33 BC showing men in a Subak stance. The Subak warriors were the Korean version of Samurai.

You have to be careful with some websites. They falsely claim that the current version of Hwa Rang is the original system that was taught centuries ago. That system died with the Japanese occupation. elements have been preserved, but not the entire system.

EDIT:

I will concede the modern lineage of the Korean arts as being derrivative of Japanese styles. However, the history of the arts in Korea does not start in the 40's as everyone seems to consistantly think.

The history of KMA is sketchy at best and made up at worst.In an attempt to deny any JAPANESE CHINESE or OKINAWAN influences they have only suceeded in obscuring their true history .Korea at the times of martial arts developement was actually 3 kingdoms SILLA PAKECHE and KOGYU being the largest.Each had different ideas about martial arts and were exposed to different influences.

Like any country or place there are no martial arts that were created without the influence of outside input.Any organized or on going practice of martial arts died out long before the japanese invasion and the japanese didn't force the koreans to study their arts.Why would an invader teach martial arts to the conquered ?It would be like the marines training islamic terrorists.

After the war many koreans went to japan to learn okinawan/'japanese striking and grappling arts SHOTOKAN became TKD and AIKIDO became HAPKIDO JUDO became YUDO.

This training gave them the basis to develope organize and develope their own version of martial arts but that is not an ancient korean martial art and no twisting of history will change that.

The okinawans changed chinese martial arts to suit them the japanese changed okinawan martial arts to suit them .I dont know or understand the reason koreans have a problem with this concept and insist that their arts are purely korean without any outside influence ancient or modern.

As a general rule, martial arts and history are integrated with one another. For example the history of the Roman empire, you can't separate from the history of its military, and how the Roman war machine started from a rag tag group of volunteers, to a professional fighting force. Also, anything having to do with combat is a martial art, from the correct way of throwing a punch, to flying an F-22. The only difference between an F-22 pilot, and someone throwing a punch, is that the pilot has a different weapon.

Now, what this has to do with Korea; originally, the people of Korea were barbarian nomads notorious for their savagery. Here is a list of east Asian peoples, who began life on the central steppes of Asia;

1) The Japanese (yes, the Japanese; originally they were much like the mongols). Speceficially, what would become the Jomon and Ainu peoples.

2) The Koreans, who maintained their nomadic way of life even after they made their way to the Korean peninsula.

3) The Huns, made famous by Attila the Hun, not truly the destroyer of the Roman empire, but the dude who crippled it so badly it was never the same again.

4) The Turks; the people of Turkey are not really "Turks," what they are, is a mixture of virtually every race known to man. The reason most Turks tend to be nice folks, and possibly the least racist people of the middle east, or of a middle eastern culture anyway, is because in Turkey everyone is thoroughly mixed. The reason the Turks have such a strange appearance, is because genetically they have a little bit of everyone. The lands of Turkey are possibly the most beautiful and fertile in all the world, blessed with volcanic soil, and strange weather patterns that allow a near continual growing season. Because of this empires of days past have fought bitterly over it, in spite of the fact that attacking the country is a fool's errand. The people who gave Turkey its name, the Turks, were, like the Mongols, a nomadic central Asian tribe, and like many east Asians full blooded Turks from Turkmekistan, their homeland, are indistinguishable from other east asians appearance wise. In fact, virtually all Chinese sculptures of the Turks depict them as Asian, not European, that is because the original turks were an Asian people.

5) The Mongols, the most famous of the nomadic tribes because they conquered the largest land empire history, also, they are the main reason why Russia is so freakin' huge today.

6) The Manchu, famous throughout China for their cruelty, malice, tyranny, and opression, and for their wimp of a last emperor who went by Pu Yi.

Korean martial arts, therefore, because of their origins as nomadic horse warriors of the same culture as the Mongols, the Huns, etc, began with horse archery. Later on as they went from a nomadic existence to barbarism, and actually had communities, they developed other methods of fighting. It was around the era of the Han dynasty, that a Chinese scholar, fleeing from political persecution for criticising the by then becoming corrupt Han dynasty, that Korea became civilized. Now I'm not sure when he made his way there but I do know that a Chinese scholar singlehandedly civilized the Korean people. He taught them everything, from how to organize and run a government, to the basic tenets regarding law and order.

When Korea became civilized they opened up a cultural exchange with China, and because geographically northern China is closest, Korean Martial arts have thus been most heavily influenced by the northern styles of Kung Fu. Northern Kung Fu is known for its kicking techniques, so naturally the reason many indigenous Korean styles have a wide kicking arsenal, has to do with the influence of northern Chinese.

There is even a temple outside Seoul, that claims it draws its lineage from a Shaolin temple burned down during the Manchu Dynasty. I am not exactly sure, but it was either the Manchu or the Ming, it was one of those. I know the temple was burned down twice; the first time around, the monks even went beyond the borders of China, some into Korea, where they started that temple outside Seoul. The temple is known for its brutal training, and how the monks there spend a large chunk of their day meditating. Also they have a reputation among Korean TKD martial artists for being "unbeatable." I know this is congecture but, I personally will choose to believe their claims; I know how tough Korean TKD martial artists are, and I also know they are not easily impressed by other styles.

Perhaps, remnants of the old Shaolin temple as it originally was, can be found in Korea of all places. Of course the only person who can confirm that is probably someone from China who studies at the modenr temple, maybe if they compared notes and training methods they'd find out for sure if its the genuine article. Ultimately though, its beyond most of our budgets....

good luck with your history hunt; don't believe

Taekwondo - Japan

Hapkido - Japan

Yudo - Japan

Kuk Sool Won - Japan

They all come from Japan with minor tweaks in Korea - all were "founded" in the 1940s-1960s with Japanese roots and Korean names. I learned Shotokan Karate and then the original Taekwondo forms that were the same.

Kuk Sool

Look up a Kuk Sool website.

Kuk Sool's pedigree to Korea is like Jiu-Jitsu's pedigree to Japan.