History of Chang Moo Kwan Taekwondo
At the end of World War II, several Kwans were set up to teach martial arts to Korean public. In the late 1950s, spearheaded by Choi Hong Hi, these Kwans united to form what was to become known as Korea Taekwondo Association and formed the universal Korean martial art known as Taekwondo.
Lee Nam Suk's teacher Byung In Yoon had founded the "YMCA Kwon Bop Bu" (권법무) in 1946. Byung In Yoon had studied Chinese Kung Fu (ch'uan-fa) under the guidance of a Mongolian instructor in Manchuria.
Yoon trained karate at university karate club in Japan with Kanken Tōyama. When he trained Karate in Japan, Japanese karate students pursued the Korean student and beat them up. Yoon Byung-in angered by the Japanese karate students, sprung into action using Chuan-fa.
He deflected and evaded the karate students’ strikes and kicks to the point that they gave up and ran back to tell their teacher about what happened.
Kanken Tōyama invited Yoon Byung-in to tell him about the non-karate martial art he used against his students. Yoon Byung-in explained to Toyama about his Chuan-fa education in Manchuria. Toyama appreciated the Chuan-fa background since he (Toyama) had studied Chuan-fa in Taiwan for 7 years, previously. They decided to exchange knowledge; Yoon Byung-in would teach Toyama Kanken Chuan-fa and Toyama Kanken would teach Yoon Byung-in his Shudo-Ryu karate. Yoon later created his art and called as Kwon Bop Kong Soo Do.
Unlike other future taekwondo kwans, early Chang Moo Kwan was mainly based on Chinese Kung Fu (ch'uan-fa). In its infancy, the Kwan taught art known as Palgi kwon (which influenced by Bajiquan).
On the outset of the Korean War, Yoon Byung-in had travelled to North Korea's side in August 1950 accompanying his older brother, Yoon Byung-du, a Captain in the North Korean Army. Yoon would remain to live in North Korea to his death in 1983.
Today, the official Taekwondo Chang Moo Kwan still exists in Korea as a fraternal friendship club with its office in a youth athletic club in Seoul. The current president of Chang Moo Kwan is Grandmaster Kim Joong Young. Grandmaster Kim is also on the Kukkiwon High Dan Promotion Committee. The official martial arts curriculum of Chang Moo Kwan is the Kukkiwon system. Chang Moo Kwan, like all of the main Kwans, supports the Kukkiwon and the WTF.
Aside from the official Chang Moo Kwan, Traditional taekwondo Yonmujae Association (태권도연무재) preserves the old style taekwondo practice of Chang Moo Kwan through the founding masters who learned of taekwondo and obtained blackbelts from Chang Moo Kwan in 1960's. TYA, nevertheless, is an independent taekwondo school from the official Chang Moo Kwan, Kukkiwon or World Taekwondo.