I'm trying to find information on little known possibly extinct Korean MA's. I make this, so that we can try to find information, and discussing what me know about the styles. Here's the styles I'm trying to find stuff on. Gongsul - Korean archery Bulmudo - Korean martial art passed down from buddhist temples, mostly preserved. Charyuk - Korean Qigong like art, rare, possibly extinct. Subyukchigi - Korean Kung Fu like art, but with a prayer stance, rare, possibly extinct. Gwongyukdo - Korean Kickboxing I'm very interested in Korean MA's, (I do HKD), and I just want to learn the history behind these arts.
Korean kickboxing and Korean archery are still very much alive. You can find some excellent videos on both on the Turtle Press website I mentioned in another thread. Sorry I've never heard of any of the other arts you mentioned. Regarding finding the history of any Korean martial art......good luck!! Almost every history I've read is saturated with half-truths, exagerations, and complete fantasy. Most are driven by strong nationalism, birthed from 300 years of being dominated by China and nearly 60 years of a brutally repressive occupation under the Japanese. Ancient records and temple arts in what is now North Korea have been all but obliterated by 50-some years of a communist dictatorship. Almost all the ancient records and real histories of korean martial arts are written in Chinese (considered the 'court language' of royalty and the educated in ancient Korea). Mention of Korean martial arts in Japanese sources are almost all saturated with Japanese nationalism, that denies any true Korean arts and claims they were all 'stolen' from the Japanese. Korean archery is probably the best documented, as far as real history, though. The Muye Dobo Tongji has an extensive history in the front of different kings who ordered training in martial arts, and archery plays most prominently in that history (with references dating back to the 1400's or so).
As Capt Ann said Gung Sool certainly isn't dead. That's something that is practiced very much at the blackbelt level of Kuk Sool Won. I believe students really get into about 3rd degree. As I understand it, in traditional gung sool the target is an 8' in diameter circle about 485 feet away. The bow is a short bow (here's an example http://www.kuksoolwon.com/Merchant2...Product_Code=AC_ARCH&Category_Code=ARCHERY_01) The archer then draws using the eastern draw (with the thumb instead of fingers like in a western draw) and aims an arcing shot at the circle. It was considered a right of passage when the young archer actually hit the target for the first time. I don't know how much truth there is to all of that. It's just what i've been told, but it makes sense. As for korean buddhist arts. A real korean buddhist art that predates this century would NEVER have been called bulmudo. "DO" is a new addition to the korean language, brought over by the japanese. Before that any martial arts in Korea used the word "Sool" in them. That should be pretty easy to find on the internet and research if you don't believe me. Traditional buddhist arts in korea, i believe, went under the term BoolKyo MuSool. I hope that helps a bit. I don't really have answers on the rest for you.
All of this helps. Here's how I found out about those arts. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_martial_arts
Kyuk too ki What about kyuk too ki- korean kickboxing which is influecned by Muay Thai. Is this style same as Gwongyukdo .
Not to mention being bombed back to the stone age by the USA. But really, I know DPRK is actually working with SK on many things that revolve around bringing back original Korean culture, especially things that date before Japanese imperialist rule, and MAs are one of them.
