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Oh Do Kwan:

Oh Do Kwan Taekwondo

Founder	Choi Hong Hi and Nam Tae Hi
Ancestor arts	Taekyon, Tang Soo Do

Oh Do Kwan

Hangul	오도관
Hanja	吾道館^[1]
Revised Romanization	Oh Do Kwan
McCune- Reischauer	Oh Do Kwan

Oh Do Kwan was a taekwondo school in Korea.

1 Meaning
2 Founding
3 See also
4 References

[edit] Meaning

The word Oh (吾) can be translated both as 'mine' and 'our', which makes the meaning of Oh Do Kwan 'the school of my (or our) way'.

[edit] Founding

Oh Do Kwan, originally called Dae Han Taekwon-Do Oh Do Kwan Jung Ang Bon Kwan in Seoul, which trained the Korean Military branches, the Korean Police throughout South Korea. General Choi Hong Hi founded the Oh Do Kwan along with Nam Tae Hi in the mid-1950s as part of the ROK Army's Physical Training Program. The first people to instruct the ROK Army in "Tang Soo Do" (as Taekwondo was called in the early 1950s) were Nam Tae Hi, Woo Jong Lim, Ko Jae Chun, Kim Suk Kyu, Baek Joon Ki (current President), Kwak Keun Sik, Kim Bong Sik, Han Cha Kyo, Kim Bok Man (almost all of whom were originally Chung Do Kwan members).

Originally the Oh Do Kwan was made up of mostly Chung Do Kwan members brought in by senior Chung Do Kwan members Nam Tae Hi and Han Cha Kyo. General Choi was the political power in the kwan, and Nam was the head instructor. The Chang Hon Hyungs (or, more properly, tul) developed by the Oh Do Kwan were adopted by all people in the military. According to Kim, Yong Soo (in "Taekwon-Do and Korean Martial Arts," vol. 10, no. 6), by the late 1960s about 60% of civilian Korean practitioners had adopted the Chang Hon patterns. However, BAEK Joon Ki, the current head of Taekwondo Oh Do Kwan disagrees with KIM Yong Soo and states that no other Kwans adopted Chang Hon Hyungs.

Today the Oh Do Kwan still exist in Korea for over three decades as a social friendship club and has an annual celebration every year in Seoul. Oh Do Kwan was dissolved as a martial art system in the mid-1970's. Oh Do Kwan along with the eight other Kwan's moved to form the Kukkiwon in 1972.

As all the other Kwans have issued Dan certificates and instructor certificates, so has Oh Do Kwan. However, these certification only serve as membership in the fraternity. Oh Do Kwan endorses and follows the Kukkiwon curriculum.