Why does your do bok look like that???

[Daniel Sullivan]

Not being ITF, I cannot say for sure, but my gut answer is that it looks cool.

Daniel

 

[chrispillertkd]

Being an ITF school, we wear ITF doboks at my instructor's school. The uniform itself is white, as Gen. Choi writes in his book, "to symbolize the traditional colour of the Korean costume." Someone earlier in the thread said they had never seen a white dobok, which is exactly the opposite of my experience. I had only seen white ones until I had been training in TKD for several year. Go figure!

As for the black piping on the uniforms of yudanja, it symbolizes the royal family and the members of aristocratic houses in the Koguryo, Beakje and Silla dynasties. I, II and III dans have black piping on the bottom of their dobok jackets (as opposed to Moo Duk Kwan members whose trim goes all the way up and around the neck). IV dan and higher get black piping down the sides of the arms and legs as an indication of rank.

Previously, circa 1970-1982 or so, the ITF would identify International Instructors with piping down the sides of their legs. According to the edition of the "Encyclopedia of Taekwon-Do" that I have (1993) makes no mention of the piping being reserved to International Instructors (although I know people who argue that it still only applies to such).

On the back of the dobok is a the Taekwon-Do "tree," a symbol composed of the English and Korean words for Taekwon-Do. Across the top and in a semi-circle is the English for "Taekwon-Do" while vertically underneath is the Korean hangul for "Taekwon-Do." The words taken together symbolize an evergreen tree, which always remains youthful.

Pax,

Chris

 

[SahBumNimRush]

Chris this is exactly the kind of symbolism I was hoping to hear about, thank you for the education!

 

[dortiz]

I am now wearing plain white uniforms. TKD and HKD. No Patches, no words, no symbols old kings, Monks etc.
When I see the old pics its tough guys in plain unforms sweating it out. All these things came after the organizations grew. I dont want to piss off too many folks but whatever the story its really part of ego building and taking away from the real role of training.
I train! The rest of that stuff I am done with.

The one funny thing was at the Instructors course how the Kukkiown folks made sure to point out that the stripes, stars, stuff on the belts were all not part of what should be worn.

Dave O.

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

Being an ITF school, we wear ITF doboks at my instructor's school. The uniform itself is white, as Gen. Choi writes in his book, "to symbolize the traditional colour of the Korean costume." Someone earlier in the thread said they had never seen a white dobok, which is exactly the opposite of my experience. I had only seen white ones until I had been training in TKD for several year. Go figure!

That was me, but I did not say dobok. I said hanbok (traditional Korean garments). I have seen mostly white doboks. Pictures of hanboks that I have seen have been much more colorful.

Daniel

 

[dancingalone]

Depends on the school I guess.

http://www.taekwondo-ameris.com/Photo Galleries/2009/Oct Black Belt Testing/index.htm

I no longer expect to see white uniforms at any given school. It's probably still the most popular color by my guess, but you can't beat the utility of a black uniform.

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

I am now wearing plain white uniforms. TKD and HKD. No Patches, no words, no symbols old kings, Monks etc.
When I see the old pics its tough guys in plain unforms sweating it out. All these things came after the organizations grew. I dont want to piss off too many folks but whatever the story its really part of ego building and taking away from the real role of training.
I train! The rest of that stuff I am done with.

The one funny thing was at the Instructors course how the Kukkiown folks made sure to point out that the stripes, stars, stuff on the belts were all not part of what should be worn.

Dave O.

My favorite dobok is a white vee neck with an American flag at the base of the collar in the center of the chest. I don't know the brand; it goes back to the eighties. I only know that the flag at the center had reminded me of the Best of the Best movie, and that had been the deciding factor in its purchase.

My other favorite is an old Adidas with a black vee neck. The Adidas has the flags on the sleeves and the WTF patch on the left front. It is otherwise plain. And comfy!!

After those comes my Hapkido black diamonds, mainly because it is comfortable.

Daniel

 

[Drac]

I have often wondered about the significance of the diamond stitching on hapkido doboks. Does the diamond stitching re-inforce the dobok, creating a higher durability for the throws associated with Hapkido? Or is there some other reason for the diamond stitching?

An excellent question...

 

[dancingalone]

My favorite dobok is a white vee neck with an American flag at the base of the collar in the center of the chest. I don't know the brand; it goes back to the eighties. I only know that the flag at the center had reminded me of the Best of the Best movie, and that had been the deciding factor in its purchase.

Asian World of Martial Arts sells those if you ever need to buy another: http://www.awma.com/index.cfm/action/productdetail/product_id/7010.htm

Back in the eighties, I rather fancied those star-spangled banner cross over gi tops. What was I thinking?!

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

I want a vee neck that looks like Evel Knievel's jump suit with a star spangled vee neck and a star spangled belt. Cape for tests only.

Daniel

 

[SahBumNimRush]

I am now wearing plain white uniforms. TKD and HKD. No Patches, no words, no symbols old kings, Monks etc.
When I see the old pics its tough guys in plain unforms sweating it out. All these things came after the organizations grew. I dont want to piss off too many folks but whatever the story its really part of ego building and taking away from the real role of training.
I train! The rest of that stuff I am done with.

The one funny thing was at the Instructors course how the Kukkiown folks made sure to point out that the stripes, stars, stuff on the belts were all not part of what should be worn.

Dave O.

I'm not disillusioned and think that it is important to have these specialized doboks, but if you do have them.. . You should atleast know why you have it, IMHO. If there was originally a purpose or symbolism behind it, it shouldn't be lost in the past, to only hear the explaination today, "cuz it looks cool."

IMHO, it is the same with the names and symbols of arts/styles.

It does not affect your training what you wear. But from a historical, philosophical, and practical standpoint, to me, it is an interesting topic of discussion.

 

[chrispillertkd]

That was me, but I did not say dobok. I said hanbok (traditional Korean garments). I have seen mostly white doboks. Pictures of hanboks that I have seen have been much more colorful.

Daniel

Oops! I apparently had a typo in my response. I knew you meant hanbok even though I wrote dobok.

I did not see any pictures of colored hanbok until being in Taekwon-Do for several years. I had seen many pictures of people in white hanbok, however (in fact, in the first pictures I saw of people practicing Taekkyon they were wearing plain white hanbok with those cool straw sandles). From what little I know it used to be that colored hanbok were mostly worn by members of the nobility (or at least upper class) while commoners wore mostly white. The modern phenomenon of everyone wearing multi-colored hanbok seems to be a modern development.

Pax,

Chris

 

[dortiz]

"If there was originally a purpose or symbolism behind it, it shouldn't be lost in the past"

All good as long as everyone knows the past we are talking about is less than 50 years old and that there are huge parts just made up.


On a different note altogether, great pics of you and students. Some great practitioners.

 

[SahBumNimRush]

"If there was originally a purpose or symbolism behind it, it shouldn't be lost in the past"

All good as long as everyone knows the past we are talking about is less than 50 years old and that there are huge parts just made up.


On a different note altogether, great pics of you and students. Some great practitioners.

Absolutely, even the original kwans were only formed in 1945. There can be no tradition before its inception. Granted it is possible that many of these traditions were drawn from previous cultural and martial traditions present prior to the formation of the original kwans. For example, Hwang Kee drew from historical aspects of the Hwa Rang soldiers for his doboks. There is no inherent worth in this, other than it sets the doboks apart from the other kwans. But because he had a reason behind it, I believe it is atleast somewhat important to pass this bit of information on.



As for martial arts beyond korean ma's, i.e. modern Karate-Do, their "traditions" may go further back in history. But I have very little knowledge about Okinawan and Japanese arts (although it's growing thanks to all of you here at MT!).

My intent of the OP was to ask for input on the symbolism of these subtle differences in uniforms. Again, IMHO, these are purely aesthetic differences, but if there is a deeper meaning beyond aesthetics, it may provide some insight to the philosophy of the developers of these styles.

Thanks for the comment on the pics

 

[CDKJudoka]

Like most dojangs, mudanja wear white v-necks with poomse colours on the collar. The yudandja either wear a white v-neck with black collars or white crossovers with black running the length of the collar and lapel, similar to the TSD yundanja doboks. SBN would rather us all wear white v-necks, but some of us older guys, KJN included, prefer the crossover. I just took mine to the next level, when I got a white double-weave judogi and had the sewn onto the lapel and collar.

 

[Manny]

In my former dojang (Ji Do Kwan) we use the V-neck dobok with the collar in the collor of the belt, for example a blue belt has his Vneck collar blue, a red belt has his Vneck collar red,etc,etc. The dobok is white with the jidokwan patch over the heart (left side). Also in my former dojang the belts has stripes for the dans, for example a BB second dan has two stripes and so on.

In my actual dojang (Hwarang Tae Kwon Do) we use the wihite Vneck dobok with the Vneck the collor of the belt and we were our patch over the heart. When some one reaches the 3rd Dan level can use the traditional cross gi with the lapel on black and the cuffs in black, don't recall if the bottoms of the jacket has black too. However every body uses embroided black belts but with cero stripes no matter you are 5th or 7h or 2nd degree black belt.

Manny