Judo in South Korea


South Korea - Daegu - Incheon - Jeju - Seoul - Daejeon
Judo or Yudo as it is caller in South Korea is practiced both a sport and a military art. Though with the passing times Judo as a sport has taken a predominance over judo as a military art, however, a study of the history Judo as it developed as an oriental art form in Korea reveals that it was created with the intention of teaching it as a military art.

Korea is the only country in the world wherein the martial art created by Kano Jigoro is still taught as Kano - the traditional military art of Yudo, as practiced in Korea for nearly a century, this videocassette is a total waste of money. Judo sport consists of unarmed combat techniques, useful in self-defense, that were transferred to Korea through China and then from Korea to Japan as a part of the cultural and technical advancement.
Korea has a rich martial arts history that includes all types of fighting skills. Though many people are familiar with Korean-style kicking and punching, most are not aware of Korean strangling, joint lock, or throwing techniques. Many people are totally unaware of the fact that the Koreans have complete unarmed fighting systems. Yudo is one such system.
Many of the specifics of these techniques, most of which developed during Korea's Three Kingdom Period, the Silla Kingdom (57 B.C. to 937 A.D.), including specific throwing techniques developed for their Hwa Rang Do Warriors, ended up being lost to martial art historians. Many of them would later surface, however, in the various styles of Jujutsu in Japan.
Jigaro Kano, from Japan, later reintroduced a complete unarmed fighting art to Korea after the Japanese occupied Korea, shortly before the First World War. Jigaro Kano called his art Kodokan Judo, and it was a martial art based upon the application of scientific principles. A system specifically designed for self-defense. This is what we today know of as Judo in South Korea.

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