The history of Taekwondo usually begins with a founding act: April 11, 1955, when a commission led by General Choi Hong Hi adopted the name we know today. But that moment is the end of a much longer story. Behind the term lie at least fifteen centuries of Korean martial practices that the schoolbook version tends to compress into two lines and a mural. This text reconstructs that prehistory carefully, separating the documented from the legendary, and shows why Taekkyeon (택견) was inscribed as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2011.
Understanding the history of Taekwondo before 1955 is not nostalgia. It is the difference between practicing an Olympic sport without context and recognizing that every Ap Chagi (앞 차기) carries traces of Subak, of Taekkyeon, and of a military lineage that crossed three kingdoms, a unified dynasty, and a colonial occupation.
01The Goguryeo Murals and the Oldest Clue
The most cited material evidence when discussing ancient Korean martial arts are the funerary paintings of Muyong-chong and Gakjeo-chong, tombs of the Goguryeo (고구려) kingdom dated between the 4th and 6th centuries. They depict figures in unarmed combat postures, with guards that some martial historians have interpreted as prototypes of later techniques.
Caution is in order. A mural is not a manual. The painted postures could represent ritual dance, ceremonial wrestling, or codified combat, and serious Korean historiography avoids the literal readings that abound in promotional literature. What is clear is that Goguryeo elites trained in hand-to-hand combat and that unarmed fighting held a recognizable place in the aristocratic and military life of the period.
During this same era, the neighboring kingdom of Silla (신라) developed the Hwarang (화랑) corps, young nobles who combined military training, literary study, and an ethical code. The association between Hwarang and Taekwondo has often been exaggerated, but their symbolic influence on the generation that founded modern Taekwondo is undeniable: the Hwa-Rang Tul of the ITF style bears that name for a reason.
02Subak: Combat of Court and Barracks
Subak (수박, 手搏), roughly translated as "striking with the hand," appears in official chronicles starting with the Goryeo dynasty (918 to 1392). It was simultaneously a method of military training, a courtly spectacle, and a popular practice at festivals. King Uijong (12th century) promoted it as exercise for his guards, and records exist of tournaments in which performance in Subak opened doors in the military career.
With the arrival of the Joseon dynasty (1392 to 1897), Confucianism displaced the martial arts from the center of state life. Subak did not disappear, but it lost courtly prestige and migrated to the margins: fairs, festivals, communal games. The great document that rescues this tradition is the Muyedobotongji (무예도보통지), an illustrated military manual published in 1790 by order of King Jeongjo. It compiles armed and unarmed combat techniques and stands as the most detailed historical source on premodern Korean martial arts.
The Muyedobotongji is not the origin of Taekwondo, but it is written proof that Korea had its own systematized technical corpus more than a century before the Japanese occupation.
03Taekkyeon: The Game That Became Heritage
If Subak is the military ancestor, Taekkyeon is the popular one. Documented from late Joseon, it was practiced mainly in the Seoul region as a form of ritualized combat during festivities such as Dano. Its distinctive features remain recognizable: undulating footwork called Pumbalbgi (품밟기), circular kicks, sweeps, throws, and a rhythm that resembles a dance more than an exchange of blows.
The Japanese occupation of Korea between 1910 and 1945 nearly extinguished it. Colonial authorities banned many Korean cultural practices, and Taekkyeon was reduced to a handful of masters who transmitted it almost clandestinely. Song Deok-ki (송덕기), born in 1893, was the bridge figure who preserved the technique into the second half of the 20th century and taught it to the generation that would achieve its institutional recognition.
In 1983 the South Korean government declared Taekkyeon Important Intangible Cultural Property number 76. The definitive step came in November 2011, when UNESCO inscribed it on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, making it the first martial art in the world to receive that distinction.
04What the Japanese Occupation Changed Forever
No honest account of the history of Taekwondo can skip the colonial period. Between 1910 and 1945, Korean martial practices were suppressed or displaced by Japanese disciplines: Karate, Judo, and Kendo were taught in schools and military academies. Many of the future founders of Taekwondo learned Shotokan Karate during those years, either in Japan or in Korea.
This fact has generated a technical and identity debate that persists. How much of the Taekwondo of the 1950s was a continuation of Taekkyeon, and how much was Karate reorganized under a Korean name? The honest answer is that both currents coexist. The initial forms of several Kwan (관) had a clearly karate-based structure, while the emphasis on high, spinning, and wide-amplitude kicks responds better to the technical genius of Taekkyeon than to that of Karate.
Liberation in 1945 opened the window to rebuild a national martial identity. Between 1945 and 1955 the nine original Kwan emerged (Chung Do Kwan, Moo Duk Kwan, Song Moo Kwan, among others), each with its particular blend of influences. Unification under the name Taekwondo was a political project as much as a technical one.
05The Bridge to 1955
The term Taekwondo (태권도) was chosen for a mix of phonetic, symbolic, and political reasons. It sounded close to Taekkyeon, which reinforced the narrative of continuity with an authentic Korean tradition. It literally meant "the way of the foot and the fist," a direct technical description. And, not least, it allowed the founders to overcome the rivalries among Kwan that identified themselves under different names.
The founding of the ITF in 1966 by Choi Hong Hi and the later creation of the WT in 1973 would open separate chapters. But the crucial point is that in 1955 no martial art was invented. A field of practices was renamed and reorganized, one that already carried Goguryeo murals, Joseon manuals, Dano festivities, and masters such as Song Deok-ki.
Curious fact: the Sino-Korean character for "Tae" (跆) used in Taekwondo is the same one that appears in Taekkyeon in some older transliterations. The lexical choice was anything but accidental.
06Why This History Matters Today
Acknowledging the 1500 years before 1955 does not diminish the legitimacy of modern Taekwondo. On the contrary, it places it in a richer conversation. When a practitioner trains Poomsae or executes a circular kick, they are repeating gestures that passed through the Goryeo court, the Joseon fairs, and cultural resistance under occupation.
UNESCO's recognition of Taekkyeon in 2011 was not a diplomatic whim. It was the confirmation that Korea possesses a distinct, living, and documentable martial lineage. The natural next step for any interested reader is to study the nine original Kwan and understand how each one contributed something different to the Taekwondo practiced today in more than two hundred countries.