Hap Ki Do


	What is Hap-Ki-Do ? Hap-Ki-Do is a korean martial-art that took its beginnings already before the Chinese Kung Fu that's to say more than 2,000 years ago. Hap-Ki-Do is a realistic art of self-defence, its techniques are constantly subject to constant improvement and are therefore adjusted to actual necessities. Hap Hap means "harmony between body and soul", Ki is the "energy of life" and Do is an equivalent for "way of training or life". Another translation for Do is the way to harmonize the energy with the body. Hap-Ki-Do uses round, circular and sinuous movements. The beginners of this sport direct the energy of the attacker into the void, the advancers are leading the energy into techniques of blocking or throwing. The attacking energy gets guided against the attacker himself.
	The history of Hap-Ki-Do
	Under the Japanese rule over Korea Choi Yong Sul (1904-1987) at the age of seven was taken from Korea to Japan by a Japanese candy producer. Choi however was soon repudiated and had to spend his life on the streets. There he was forced to stand up to other children. Choi however possessed already at this time such a strong charisma that he attracted the attention of an educated Japanese who finally adopted him. He was sent to school by his stepfather to get a vocational training and to learn the foreign Japanese language. But Choi was a very vivid child and showed only little interest in education while he had numerous quarrels with others. This behaviour lead his stepfather to his decision to put Choi before the alternative either to continue going to school or to dedicate himself exclusively to martial-arts.
	According to his temperament Choi made a decision in favour of fighting and attended henceforth a Yawara (Daito Ryu) Ryu school. When studying martial arts he was such an assiduous and eager pupil that he took lessons from master Takeda Shogaku over a period from 30 years. Master Shogaku taught amongst others also the later founder of Aikido Morihei Ueshiba. As the surrender of Japan in the Second World War could be seizable Master Shogaku sent Choi back to Corea in the beginning of the year 1945. When war was over and the Coreans got rid of the Japanese yoke of oppression the Japanese Yawara wasn't of good standing in Corea. A pupil of Choi finally changed the Japanese name into the Corean expression Yu Kwon Sul, which means hard and soft kind of fighting. In the course of time Master Choi linked the circular Yawara-techniques with the hard Taekyon-techniques, a precursor of Tae Kwon Do.
	In the age of 13 Ji Han Jae began in 1949 to learn martial arts from Master Choi Yong Sul in the city of Tae Ku. From Choi he learnt only five years and already then was considered as a master. In the age of 18 in 1954 Ji study techniques with the short- and long-stick as well as leg-techniques with the Taoist Lee. Ji also dedicated himself over a period of five years to mental and spiritual techniques with meditation- and Ki-exercises, which he learnt from a Buddhist nun. In the age of 23 in 1958 he opened his first martial-arts-school (Dojang). Out of all martial-arts known to him he filtered the best and called this style from July 25th, 1958 Hap-Ki-Do. From this day on the symbol of the flying eagle exists. After 10 months Master Ji settled with his school over to the capital of South Corea, to Seoul. In the year 1961 General Park Chung Hee came to power with a putsch. From 1966, Ji was grand master of Hap-Ki-Do, Ji was working as the body guard of the putschist General who in the meantime became president of South Corea.
	Ji advanced to an instructor of the president's secret service which encompassed at that time 300 body guards. He also instructed the Corean police, the military academy and the Corean Special Forces. On July 7th, 1967 the Corean government acknowledged the flying eagle as official symbol of Hap-Ki-Do and registerd it. In the year 1969 Grand Master Ji came to the United States as participant of an information exchange programme between the Corean government and the US American Pentagon. Ji instructed bodyguards of the then-president Nixon, agents of the O.S.I. (Office of Special Investigation Personnel) and the F.B.I. During his stay in the US he got to know Bruce Lee who was so impressed by Ji's style that he took lessons from him. Because of Bruce Lee Ji stayed two years in Hong Kong and played a role in the film "Game of death". In 1979 the totalitarian Corean president Park Chung Hee was assassinated and his followers, so as Ji, were captured. Back in freedom again in 1984 Ji left Corea for the US with a short stay in Germany to visit his former pupils Kim Sou Bong and Song Il Hak. In the same year he opened a Hap-Ki-Do-school in San Francisco where he taught beside the mere martial-arts also mental techniques. Due to the fact that there was never a strong organisation behind Hap-Ki-Do over the years numerous styles were developing. "A tree first gets beautiful with the growing of many branches."
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