This article will be my feeble attempt at giving a generalized version of the history of the Korean martial art known as Tang Soo Do as I understand it. I will not attempt to trace the roots of Tang Soo Do all the way back to its beginning. I don’t honestly believe that is even possible.

Martial arts have been practiced in every country in the world probably since Cain killed Abel. Ample evidence of this exist through artifacts, archaeological digs, etc., depicting men in various combat exercises. Many believe that they have indeed traced the origin of martial arts to its’ root. However when you read their accounts you quickly see that they all differ.

In our day and age the origin of the martial arts are widely attributed to the Asian people. While it is true that the Asians have done an excellent job of spreading the arts, as I said before, the historical findings don’t substantiate this belief.

So then, let’s talk about the modern day version of martial art called Tang Soo Do. The creation of Tang Soo Do is attributed to a Korean man named Hwang Kee. Grandmaster Kee started his studies of martial arts as a young boy after watching a man defend himself against a large group of men. This unnamed man would not teach young Kee so he began to emulate his movements while watching him train at his home. By the age of 21 he had become very proficient at it.

At the age of 22 Grandmaster Kee began working on the Chosun Railway and could freely travel between Manchuria and Korea. During the Japanese occupation of Korea during World War II, Grandmaster Kee studied techniques from karate books he found in the railway library. It is believed that he also studied the martial arts while in China, although this is disputed by the first generation of martial artist in Korea.

Hwang Kee claims he combined what he knew of the Chinese and Korean martial arts he’d studied into an art he called Hwa Soo Do. Translated literally it means “the Way of the Flowering Hand”. On November 9, 1945 Kee founded the Moo Duk Kwan association for his style of martial arts.

The name did not catch on in Korea and so was changed to Tang Soo Do. Some think this was simply a move to alert the public that he was teaching a martial art.

In 1961 the Korean government initiated a movement to unify all of the martial arts schools in Korea under one governing body, to be called the Korean Tae Soo Do Association. This was later renamed the Korean Tae Kwon Do Association. Grandmaster Kee did not agree to join this new association. He was voted off the ruling board of Moo Duk Kwan and the Moo Duk Kwan joined the new association. A couple of years later this act was reversed. But, for a short while all Korean martial arts were known as Tae Kwon Do.

The Tae Kwon Do Moo Duk Kwan left the strict martial aspect of the art and began to pursue a sports version and is now an Olympic event. Tang Soo Do Moo Duk Kwan has remained true to the original martial arts discipline of its founding.

Most of the schools went back to their original style names; however I belong to a school in America that just kept the Tae Kwon Do name it was started under. To make things even more confusing, Grandmaster Kee renamed Tang Soo Do on June 30, 1960 to Soo Bahk Do based on an ancient book he found at the Korea University in Seoul library named Moo Yei Dobo Tong Ji. It is a comprehensive and illustrated manual of the martial disciplines of ancient Korea. The final discipline in the book was combat with the bare hands and feet, known as Subak.

As a result of all this, there are now schools that study the exact same Korean art but may be known by one of three different names: Tae Kwon Do, Tang Soo Do, or Soo Bahk Do. The Moo Duk Kwan adopted Soo Bahk Do, but there have been numerous new associations created over the years and around the world for the practice of this art. Most of them did not change to use the name Soo Bahk Do.

That, my friends, is why you may see three different people doing the same forms and techniques but each one of them call it by a different style name. It is the same art, it’s just obviously been confused about what to call itself.