Taekkyeon (Traditional Korean Martial Art)

Taekkyeon is a bare-handed fighting tradition and folk culture handed down within Korean cultural heritage, and it was widely practised among the common people. It is a martial art whose leg techniques are so outstanding that it has been described by terms meaning "leg play" and "flying-leg technique." The training process of taekkyeon consists broadly of solo practice and paired practice, followed, once these have been mastered, by sparring and by set forms known as bonttaeboegi. Each stage is further subdivided, and leg and hand movements recur throughout in varying combinations. Solo practice is made up of standing practice and advancing practice; paired practice consists of blocking, mutual feinting, mutual kicking, and mutual hooking. Sparring consists of leg-hooking and direct confrontation, while the set forms comprise eight madang of front sequences, four madang of rear sequences, eight madang of special sequences, and four madang of linked sequences. Taekkyeon is further composed of pumbapgi, an undulating three-beat footwork; hwalgaejit, arm and hand movements; and baljil, the kicking techniques that form the basis of attack. A distinctive feature is that all of its terminology is expressed in pure Korean. Compared with other martial arts, taekkyeon is plain yet delicate in style, allowing both attack and defence to be carried out through soft, curving body movements. All of its techniques rely on feinting, kicking, hooking, and tripping to bring an opponent down, giving it a distinctive method in which offence and defence are unified within a single flowing motion.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Chungju, Chungbuk

Designation

National Intangible Heritage · 국가무형유산