IS KENDO KOREAN? I INTERVIEWED A KOREAN KENDO PLAYER!

Hello, everyone!

My name is Kota Suzuki from Japan.

I've been doing kendo for twelve years so far and I started to write kendo blog last month.

Now, I'm studying abroad in the US for a year and I participate in the university kumdo club, not kendo club.

I was very interested in the difference between kendo and kumdo, so I interviewed a Korean kendo player.

I posted the interview areticle in Japanese on September 23.

Hopefully, this article help not only Japanese people but also many people in the world understand what kumdo is and what difference between two is.

That's why I translated the whole article into English this time.

So, let's get started!

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A few days ago, TBS TV “Asachan!” featured that Japan won the tournament in the 17th world kendo championship. Japan won all the championship in the tournament. Especially, this championship was held in Korea, so Japan was in the difficult situation this time because Korea is the biggest rival for Japan. However, Japan managed to win the championship and the TV broadcast featured it!

I’m very happy as one of the kendo fans, on the other hand, the president of Korean Kendo Association said that “Kendo is Korean.” in the program and it became a big topic among Japanese kendo players on Twitter.

“Kendo is made from Korean sword culture.”…? Japanese kendo players would not ignore that. I could see some interesting comments on Twitter.

Also, there is information that Korean do kumdo instead of kendo as well. Some Japanese people have heard “kumdo” for the first time.

Actually, I’m studying abroad in the University of Iowa in the US. I wanted to do kendo in the US because I’ve done kendo for twelve years since I was seven years old. So, I contacted the university staff member.

Fortunately, they found a kendo club and they emailed me. But, “KUMDO CLUB” is written in the email. I believed that it is a mistake, but as I searched, I found that Korean do kumdo instead of kendo. I was confused at that time, but I decided to join the club.

In fact, there are some differences such as terminology, but it was much more similar than I had expected. This is my first impression of kumdo.

Korean kendo in the 17wkc also became a topic. Some people said “Korean kendo was not beautiful.” In the men’s final, Korean players appealed to the referees and called a timeout many times. That’s why Korean kendo gathered kendo fans in Japan.

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Now, I got an opportunity to interview a Korean kendo player who is familiar with Korean kendo through my teammate of the club.

We talked about the origin of kendo, kumdo, and Korean kendo in the 17wkc, so please read to the end!

So, I’d like to move on the interview, but I would like you to corporate in the beginning. This topic is very sensitive, I want to hide the interviewee’s name and other personal information.

Plus, please understand this interview is by one Korean kendo player’s opinion, not the whole Korean perspective.

One more thing, I interacted with the interviewee through email not to misunderstand the information. 

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So, let’s get started!

SUZUKI “First of all, let me introduce myself shortly. I’ve been doing kendo in Japan for twelve years and I have three-dan now. I came here last month and I participate in University of Iowa kumdo club just for a month.

And I want you to introduce yourself and tell me about your kendo background. I’ve heard that you have a lot of knowledge about kumdo, so when did you start doing kumdo and how long have you done it?”

S.H.“My name is S.H. I have learned kendo for 18 years and I am 4th dan.
Mostly, I had practiced kendo in Korea.
I visited Tokyo to learn and have Keiko three times around ten years ago.
Right now, I am practicing in the kendo club.”

SUZUKI“Thank you for your introduction. So, I want to ask you a question about the world kendo championship that was held in Korea last weekend. I know Korea is the biggest rival for Japan every time. Eventually, Japan won all the championship this year, but I think Korean kendo is developing dramatically. What do you think about the competition. Tell me your opinion on it.

S.H.“I watched it live on the Internet. Overall, I thought the Japanese team was stronger than the Korean team.
I was very excited about seeing the men's team final, but I thought there were disagreeable Shinpan decisions.

Every time the WKC is held, the question of biased judgment becomes an issue in Korea. However, personally, I think there were misjudgments disadvantageous to Japanese team, too.

If there were good judging decisions, the players would have been able to show more beautiful games. From that point of view, the competition was disappointed.”

SUZUKI“That’s interesting. I agree that there was misjudgment in the men’s final. The correct judgement is vital for good matches. This is one of the problems in the WKC.

I want to talk about the last match, Sho ANDO(JPN) vs Jin Yong JO(KOR) in the team final. The situation was JO needed to win ANDO because the score was 2(JPN)-1(KOR). As you can see, ANDO tried to draw in the last few minutes.

Some people said that the game was not beautiful as kendo, but I think they had no choice because they needed to win each other. What do you think about the last game?”

S.H.“Well, I agree with both opinions.
It was not beautiful but it can be thought as one of the strategies.

But I don’t think that is Ando Senshu’s fault.
Actually, I think Shinpan can prevent that by giving more strict Hansoku.”

SUZUKI“I completely agree with you. Both of them were correct as a strategy. It really depends on the judgement, so again, judgement is important from the perspective.

Anyway, let’s move onto the next topic that I’d like to discuss with you the most. A few days ago, one of the Japanese TV broadcasts featured the WKC. One of the Korean kendo teachers said that kendo is originally from Korea because the sword culture of Korea had an impact on Japan.

According to the All Japan Kendo Federation, kendo is a Japanese culture which is from Japanese samurai (bushi) lives. In fact, the sword technique was established all over the world, but we call kendo from the Japanese historical background.

What do you think about the origin of kendo? Do you agree what he said “kendo is from Korea”?”

S.H.“Not at all. I do not know exactly how much Korea affected the Japanese sword culture in the past. However, even if we assume that the influence was great, Kendo should be regarded as Japanese because it is Japan that made kendo equipment, contents (including spirit you mentioned) and rules.

As far as I know, most of the experienced Korean kendo players think like me. The people who claim that Kendo is Korean are a few Sensei-s closely related to the Korean Kumdo association.”

SUZUKI“I see. I’m surprised that most of the Korean kendo players think kendo is from Japan, because I think many Japanese people believe that every Korean misunderstand that. So I hope that is corrected.

As you mentioned, Korea has kumdo instead of kendo. Also, this is a popular topic among Japanese kendo players, but why do Korean do kumdo instead of kendo? And do you think there is a difference between two? If so, please tell me the details.”

S.H.“For starter, Kumdo is just how we pronounce the Chinese character “kendo”. In case of Judo, we call “Yudo”.

In term of content, there are some differences.
1. We use Korean terminology.
2. We use blue/white flags instead of red/white.
3. We don’t do Sonkyo.
4. We are wearing hakama without Koshi-ita.
5. We do some Korean traditional sword actions in the Dan promotion test.
6. We bow/rei to the national flag instead of Dojo.

So, there are differences in form (which is important, of course.).
However, this difference did not exist from the beginning, but it has gradually changed.
15 years ago we used usual hakama and when I was a kid, we used a red flag.

The reason why Koreans do kendo in this way is just because the association has asked us to do so.
For instance, we cannot participate in formal tournaments wearing usual hakama.

And the reason why the association does this is because they want to make kendo look like less Japanese to Korean public.
It is in the same context that the association claims that Kendo is Korean.

The fundamental reason to distort history like this is due to the Korean Kendo system and its economy.
Unlike in Japan, in Korea, kendo is not that popular and not protected by the police or civil service system.
As part of the strategy to increase the market for kendo in Korea, the association has change kendo.

For example, in Korea, only a small number of professional athletes concentrate on kendo, retire later, and run private Kendo Academy.
And the main customer of the private dojo is children.
If children learn kendo using Japanese from a dojo, most Korean parents will send them Taekwondo Academy instead.

This can be a quite over-simplified explanation but I think this is the reason.”

SUZUKI“I see. I didn’t tell the difference between two except terminology when I participated in the kumdo club practice for the first time, so that’s more interesting.

As you mentioned; Unlike in Japan, in Korea, kendo is not that popular and not protected by the police or civil service system. You mean Korea has a few kendo organizations (such as Dojo or police) because it’s not popular. Is that what you want to say?

S.H.“Yes, Korea has a few kendo organizations compared to Japan.
There are only dozens of professional teams for men and couples for women.
Only few of them can be hired as police officer.
Most of them run private Dojo later to target amateur.
The total Korean Kendo population is around 500,000.
But if we count only active people, it will be much lower. “

SUZUKI“If children learn kendo using Japanese from a dojo, most Korean parents will send them Taekwondo Academy instead. I’m not sure about the Korean kendo situation, but you mean if children learn kendo, most parents send them the specific organization because there’s a few kendo opportunity, right?”

S.H.“because of the historical issue (Japanese occupation), many Koreans (not everyone) still have some kind of bad feeling to Japan.
Therefore, there is a risk of losing a large number of customers if the associations or sensei-s who run a Dojo admit openly that Kendo is Japanese.
(Taekwondo is a representative Korean traditional martial art.)”

SUZUKI“It seems like the problem is related to the Korean kendo business aspect and the historical aspect that Japan controlled Korea in the last.

I’ve heard that some universities in Korea have a kendo faculty as same as economics faculty or science faculty, for example. The students seem to focus on kendo specifically. Is that true?”

S.H.“Yes, there is a kendo major in some universities.
The student aim to join the professional team after graduation.

Korean universities kendo tournament and players are divided into two parts.
The first part consists of professional kendo players, and the second part consists of amateur players like myself.
There are also schools having these two kendo club at the same time.
Most of the students who belong to 1st part major in physical education, and some of them are Kendo majors.”

SUZUKI“I think this is very interesting and new to Japan. I don’t know whether kendo major is in universities in Japan, but generally, most university kendo players major in sports, and they do kendo as a club activity. Of course, these clubs are very advanced level. I guess Korean kendo is developing fast in the future because of the kendo major students.

So, I want to wrap up this interview. Thank you very much for having it. I’m really happy to discuss the topic. I was able to learn kendo more deeply.

Lastly, kendo is still not popular in the world. In my opinion, Japan and Korea are the leaders of kendo now, so I hope we work together to promote kendo more and more. Do you have any opinions on the future kendo world?”

S.H.“Thanks. It was very interesting for me, too.
I hope that kendo becomes more widely known and enjoyed by many people in the future.
And I hope that Korea will play a positive role in the process.

In addition, I would like to apologize that some Koreans have claimed that Kendo is Korean.
No matter what the circumstances, I think it is an act that does not respect the other's culture.
Many Korean kendo players, including me, have a critical view of this.
I hope that this interview was an opportunity to share the hidden details.

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Thanks for reading!

I hide the interviewee’s name but, Thank you S.H. for explaining the details of Korean kendo.

I was able to learn the facts that I have not known so far.

I decided to write the article when the TV program “asachan!” featured 17wkc.

I think some Japanese people think that all Korean people misunderstand, but many of them think that kendo is Japanese as he said.

Kumdo seems to be influenced by the association. I think there is a few differences between kendo and kumdo, in contrast, they try to establish kumdo as one sport.

However, it’s not because of Korea, Japan also has responsibility of the historical issue.

Anyway, kendo is developing in the world. I hope Japan and Korea work together to develop kendo more and more.

Japan won all the championships in the 17wkc.

I’m looking for the 18th world kendo championship three years later!

Thank you for reading! 

#剣道 #kendo #コムド #kumdo #世界剣道 #韓国 #頑張れ剣道