Original Masters

The term The Original Masters refers to a group of twelve South Korean taekwondo masters who were assembled in the early 1960s by the Korean Taekwon-do Association (KTA) to promote taekwondo worldwide.

By the end of World War II, the practice of martial arts had all but died-out in Korea. With the end of the Japanese occupation of Korea in 1945, there was a quick resurgence of martial arts in Korea. The newly established martial arts schools (called “kwans”) came to be known as The Nine Kwans, each practicing its own martial arts style. At the urging of the government, the Nine Kwans came together in the form of the Korean Taekwondo Association to establish a single martial art that came to be known as taekwondo. The Korean government was keen to not only reestablish Korean culture after the occupation, but also to showcase Korean culture to the world. The goal of the Original Masters was to showcase taekwondo to the world.

Despite the name of their group, the Original Masters were not the masters of the original Nine Kwans. In fact, in many cases the Nine Kwans were still in the process of transitioning to the new martial art, taekwondo. These 12 practitioners then were considered original to the new martial art.

In alphabetical order, the Original Masters are: Choi Chang Keun, Choi Kwang Jo, Han Cha Kyo, Kim Jong Chan, Kim Kwang Il, Kong Young Il, Park Jong Soo, Park Jung Tae, Park Sun Jae, Rhee Chong Chul, Rhee Chong Hyup, and Rhee Ki Ha. See Wikipedia for more detail.

Name	Rank	Life	Residence	Organisation	Affiliation
Choi Chang Keun (최창근)	9th dan	c. 1940–	Vancouver, Canada	Tae Kwon Do Pioneers	ITF
Choi Kwang Jo	9th dan	1942–	Atlanta, USA	Choi Kwang-Do	Independent
Han Cha Kyo	9th dan	1934–1996	Chicago, USA	Universal Tae Kwon Do Federation	Independent
Kim Jong Chan (김종찬)	7th dan or higher	1935–	Vancouver, Canada	Jong Kim Martial Arts	ITF
Kim Kwang Il	9th dan	1939–2001	Germany	Kwang Mu Sul Taekwon-Do	Independent
Kong Young Il	9th dan	1943–	Las Vegas, USA	Young Brothers Tae Kwon-Do Institute	ITF
Park Jong Soo	9th dan	1941–	Toronto, Canada	Jong Soo Park Institute of Taekwon-Do	ITF
Park Jung Tae (박정태)	9th dan	c. 1943–2002	Mississauga, Canada	Global Taekwon-Do Federation	Independent
Park Sun Jae	7th dan or higher	?–	Italy	FITA	WTF
Rhee Chong Chul (이종철)	8th dan	c. 1935–	Sydney, Australia	Rhee Taekwon-Do	Independent
Rhee Chong Hyup	7th dan	c. 1940–	Melbourne, Australia	Rhee Taekwon-Do	Independent
Rhee Ki Ha (리기하)	9th dan	1938–	Glasgow, UK	United Kingdom Taekwon-Do Association	ITF

See Also

• Taekwondo History
• Nine Kwans
• Korean Taekwondo Association

References

• Original Masters on Wikipedia