Kuhapdo Hapkido sword fighting

[Daniel Sullivan]

One other comment is that kuhapdo is not a term that I have ever heard associated with hapkido. Most commonly, hapkido sword work is overwhelmingly called 'kumdo' from what I have seen. Unlike kendo, kumdo is used more generically to describe sword work. I have also seen kumsul, kumsool, gumsul, and geomsul.

 

[puunui]

And people also make money, and get attention because they have the same name as a celebrity, or because they look like one. It doesn't make them one, though. And this doesn't make these people samurai either. All it indicates is that there may be some samurai connection in their family history.

I see only argument here, no facts. But I will say that if and when you ever go to Japan, you may find that your perspective on things is greatly different than that of the people of Japan. And again, minor point, no sense dwelling on it and derailing the thread.

Then hopefully he'll join in.

Yes, we can hope.

 

[Chris Parker]

Okay, fact one. There are no samurai. There have not been since the 1870's. Having a famous name in no way makes you a samurai. Fact two. Your comment that there are people with famous (samurai associated) names as some form of argument that there are still samurai has no real facts.

I'll address my use of the term "argument" in my posts on the "GM Choi's first student" thread.

 

[puunui]

Okay, fact one. There are no samurai. There have not been since the 1870's. Having a famous name in no way makes you a samurai. Fact two. Your comment that there are people with famous (samurai associated) names as some form of argument that there are still samurai has no real facts.

You are missing the point, which is the Japanese people do not think about in the same way that you do. As an example, check out the following by Sensei Richard Kim regarding his teacher YOSHIDA Kotaro Sensei: "The founder of Hapkido, Mr. Choi -- Japanese name Yoshida, is not related to Yoshida Kotaro, Samurai extraordinary."

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

Debate about what constitutes a samurai is not related to whether or not the sword techniques taught in daito ryu had a samurai lineage, which I think we've all agreed is the case.

As far as the OP goes, so far as I know, kuhapdo does not come out of hapkido; it is Koreanized iaido. Or a Korean cousin of iaido, depending on how much of the technical content has been altered.

I did look at the link on Iron Ox's signature http://www.jungkifamily.com/kuhapdo.html, and it seems that his school teaches kuhapdo, so I'm sure that he can discuss it with greater accuracy than I. Based on the information on this site, http://www.eastcoasthapkido.com/kuhapdo/history.html, my assessment is at least seems correct.

Also, this group has a fairly developed Korean sword program: http://www.midwesthapkido.com/new_page_1.htm

 

[puunui]

Debate about what constitutes a samurai

It's not even about that, at least not from my perspective.

 

[Chris Parker]

You are missing the point, which is the Japanese people do not think about in the same way that you do. As an example, check out the following by Sensei Richard Kim regarding his teacher YOSHIDA Kotaro Sensei: "The founder of Hapkido, Mr. Choi -- Japanese name Yoshida, is not related to Yoshida Kotaro, Samurai extraordinary."

Please.

Yoshida Kotaro was born in 1883, some 15 years after the samurai class was abolished. And "samurai extraordinary"? Does he mean that Yoshida was a fantastic accountant? A wonderfully skilled bureaucrat? That's really what most samurai were during, and especially near the end of the Edo period.

This is not to diminish Yoshida's skills or abilities, but to point out that such comments don't reflect anything other than a romanticised image of both the samurai and Yoshida, as he was not a samurai at all.

Debate about what constitutes a samurai is not related to whether or not the sword techniques taught in daito ryu had a samurai lineage, which I think we've all agreed is the case.

The methods that came from Ono-ha Itto Ryu, yeah.

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

The methods that came from Ono-ha Itto Ryu, yeah.

Can we all agree that Takeda's sword work had a samurai lineage? This whole debate about samurai goes back to Master Cole's asking if the sword work in Hapkido 'came from the samurai.'

We already covered that this means, 'did it have a samurai lineage?' and already covered that if it comes from DRAJJ, then yes it would.

So the question really is whether or not hapkido sword work really has its roots in Ono-ha Itto Ryu, not whether or not Takeda qualified as a samurai himself.