Kendo was originated from Korea !?

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Kendo was originated from Korea !?

This site will explicate how Kendo, the Japanese fencing, has gone through centuries of development to become what it is today, and demonstrate how groundless and preposterous some Koeans' insistence about the origin of kendo is. They are intentionally fabricating and distorting the history of kendo. Just with paraphrasing kendo into kumdo and replacing kendo terminology with Korean pronauceation, they are propagandizing kumdo is a Korean original culture and deceiving many people in USA and other countries. Moreover, reciting their elfish ideals, they do not follow the ideals of kendo quite as the rest of the world does.

Most of kumdo leaders' argument are nationalistic, and a considerable amount of revisionist history can be found regarding kumdo. It seems to be due to Korean national sentiments against past Japanese rule. We worry about the extension of the false rumor in contradiction to the historical fact,and protest against the intrigue filled with malice.

Kendo is the way of the sword.

You might think that kendo was originated from Korea. That is definitely wrong. Although Korea conveyed swords from China to Japan, Japan has the root of kendo. Japan invented the unique Japanese sword "Nihonto", and developed the unique sword techniques which were called "Kenjutu" and "Iaido". Furthermore, for the practice of kenjutu, Japan invented the unique equipments, "shinai", "do", "tare", "kote" and "men". Japan developved "Kendo" as sport or budo from kenjutu. Kendo is the Japanese original culture which Japanese people has created taking about 1000 years. It is loved by people all over the world.

Kendo was introduced to Korea by Japanese during the Japanese annexation, the first half of the 20th century. Kumdo is just a Korean pronauceation of kendo. Its name is written with the same two Chinese characters, and its techniques and rules are identical. There are no differences between kendo and kumdo. Kumdo is all the same thing as kendo.

Some Koreans often call kumdo "Dae Han Kumdo". It means Great Korea Kendo. Dae Han Kumdo is not different from kendo. Most of Dae Han Kumdo dojo are under the control of Korea Kumdo Association which belongs to Internatinal Kendo Federation. But It is doubtful whether the certified Dan (Black belt) taken at some kumdo dojo in US has official worldwide validity. Because they, just belonging to KKA, are not official members of ALL United States Kendo Federation which is an official organization of IKF. If you practice in kumdo dojo, I adivice you to inquire to AUSKF whether the Dan taken at your kumdo dojo is valid.

You might have heard "Hae Dong Kmudo" or the word which looks like it. It means Sea East Kendo. Hae Dong is the name of the ancient Korea region seen from China. Hae Dong Kmudo dose not belong to KKA. It is not a Korean original fencing also. It is the dead copy or parody of kendo and mixed Chinese fending a little.

An original, excellent fencing did not exist in Korea compared with Japan and China. The Korean traditional fencing from the acient age had been the techniques using a sword held with one hand like this (1,2). Those were almost the imitation of Chinese fencing. At the end of the 16th century Japanese army invaded Korea, and Japanese samurai warriors who surrendered to Korean army taught the Japanese fencing to Korean soldiers. The swordmanship was the techniques using a sword held with both hands. But Korean people immediately stopped to practicing the fencing with the coming of peace, and the fencing techniques were forgotten and declined. Those articles were described in some official Korean history books of Yi dynasty. This is the historical fact. Please take a look at the page bellow, if you want to know more.

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