Kang Duk Won

The Kang Duk Won was founded in Seoul by Hong Jong-pyo and Park Chul-hee. Kang Won-sik and Lee Kyong-myong, Wikipedia and the kwan give 1956 and the Shin Sul Dong district; other sources give 1953 or 1954 or only the later 1950s.^[1][3][4][5] The name ends in "won" (garden or institute) in place of "kwan". A 2008 Korean conference paper lists the 강덕원 (Kang Duk Won) under Hong Jong-pyo and Park Chul-hee in Seoul in 1956.^[6]

Lineage #

Hong and Park trained at the YMCA Kwon Bup Bu, the club tied to the Chang Moo Kwan. Kang and Lee say they left after conflicts with its leaders, and most histories list the Kang Duk Won as an annex of the Chang Moo Kwan. Park himself said the Kang Duk Won could not be called a branch of the Chang Moo Kwan.^[3][5] Hong was the first kwan jang (head), Park the second and Lee Kum Hong the third, who moved it to Insadong.^[4][5]

Unification and today #

The Kang Duk Won is not among the six kwans Kang and Lee list at the 1959 founding of the Korea Taekwondo Association, and it counts among the nine kwans of the 1970s.^[3] In Korea it continues as a social club. The World Kang Duk Won Federation, formed in 2015, lists affiliates in Brazil, Korea, Pakistan, Portugal, Vietnam and the United States, and the Kang Duk Won Kwon Bup Association, based in Modesto, California, was formed on 1 January 2018.^[4][5]