Hwang Kee was born in 1914, in Jang Dan, Kyong Ki province of Korea. When Hwang Kee was
about seven years old, he witnessed a man being attacked by several other men. The solitary man used
Taekyon techniques to defeat his attackers and Hwang Kee followed the man asked if he could learn
the techniques. Of course, at this particular time, Korea was occupied by Japan and the practice and
teaching of Korean martial arts was forbidden. Even though the man wouldn’t teach Hwang Kee, he
often went to the man’s house to watch him practice and then imitate what he had seen. For the next
14 years, although there were no formal or structured classes he could attend, he took advantage of
every opportunity to learn and practice Taekyon and Subak.

At age 21, Hwang Kee went to Manchuria to work for the railroad and while he was there, he met a
Chinese martial arts master named Yang, Kuk Jin. Master Yang instructed Hwang Kee in a variety of
Chinese martial arts styles. When Hwang Kee returned to Korea in 1939, he continued to practice his
martial arts skills in private and, in addition to his Korean and Chinese styles, he studied Okinawan
Karate.

When Korea regained its independence in 1945, Hwang Kee immediately siezed the opportunity to
pursue his martial arts full time and started a Tang Soo Do school in Seoul named Moo Duk Kwan.
Hwang Kee was, of course, recognized as a martial arts master and was referred to as Master Hwang
Kee. Master Hwang Kee’s school, Moo Duk Kwan, which means ‘Martial Virtue School’ was one of
five kwans established immediately after liberation. The others were Chong Do Kwan (Blue WaveSchool),
Song Mu Kwan (Pine Tree School), Chang Mu Kwan (Martial Development School), and
Yon Mu Kwan (Yon Martial School).

In 1955, all of the kwans except for Moo Duk Kwan ceased to exist as they adopted the new term Tae
Kwon Do to describe the new Korean martial art. Master Hwang Kee made it clear that his objective
was to strengthen Tang Soo Do’s links to Taekyon and Subak by means of the Muyadebo-tongji (the
classical martial arts text written in the late 18th century). He felt that the way to make martial arts a
source of national pride again was to study and incorporate as much of the traditional martial arts
skills as possible rather than just change the name and arbitrarily change the techniques and
curriculum to make it distinct from Karate.

Reviews

Be the first to review this school.