| I recently had a couple of students in my Wing Chun | | | | sword (called a shinai in Kendo, and a jukdo in kumdo), |
| class ask for training in swordsmanship. Now, Kung Fu | | | | and wear rigid practice armor (called a bogu in kendo |
| has a lot of weapons forms, but they tend to be | | | | and a hogu in kumdo.) The two arts have been |
| stylized, rather than sparring formats. I originally thought | | | | diverging slowly since 1945, though the basic forms are |
| of teaching them Kendo, on the Japanese forms, but | | | | nearly identical from what I've been looking up. The |
| having just taken some Tae Kwon Do classes of my | | | | Korean protective gear is a bit more modern and |
| own, I decided to look a little further afield. I found the | | | | practical in design, being a bit less tied to tradition than |
| Korean cognate of Kendo, called kumdo. | | | | the kendo gear. It is kind of nice to be able to use |
| While there are a lot of practitioners of kumdo who | | | | kendo gear for it, or mix and match. (We have some |
| claim that their techniques are passed down over the | | | | gear left over from when a prior instructor at the |
| centuries in secret rituals, a little bit of digging showed | | | | school tried to teach Kendo. It didn't go over well, but |
| that it's incredibly unlikely that this is the case. When the | | | | the gear is still here at the school.) |
| Imperial Army of Japan occupied Chosun (now Korea) | | | | Kumdo and Kendo are close enough in form that |
| in the early 20th century, they brought kendo with | | | | Kumdo teams participate in the World Kendo |
| them. Prior to that, because of the Confucian | | | | Championships. While there are some differences |
| influences from China, and a Korean superstition about | | | | (Kumdo focuses a bit more on point strikes than |
| sharp objects, the art of the sword in Korea had been | | | | power and speed), the kumdo teams do respectably. |
| withering on the vine for going on three hundred years. | | | | Overall, it looks like a good fit with what my students |
| The Koreans, like any culture that adopts guns, had | | | | are asking for, which is more an overview of |
| relegated the sword to a secondary, and eventually | | | | swordsmanship techniques, and as there's a strong |
| tertiary weapon for military training, and Confucianism | | | | Korean community in Las Vegas, I may be able to set |
| put a stronger emphasis on scholarship than martial | | | | up classes with a wider audience. Kumdo is the |
| arts. | | | | second most popular sport in Korea, so it may have |
| So, kumdo sort of grew from Kendo, and it has a lot | | | | some traction here. |
| of obvious similarities. You use a split bamboo practice | | | | |