A sociological and anthropological question

[Antonio Cejunior]

Originally Posted by Andrew

A very thought-provoking thread, Antonio.

I've always liked swords and other weapons. 20 years of martial arts training combined with having a policeman for a father (guns, knives and other weapons were common in my home growing up) further stimulated my interest.
As an adult, my undergraduate studies in sociology and anthropology meshed well with my martial arts related interests. The end result was an interest in collecting edged weapons.

Hello Andrew ,
Most kind of you. What an excellent blend of interests. I'm glad you are well versed in anthropology and sociology, for evident reasons .
We could never had guns here, in the past. Even now it is very difficult to obtain.

I'm a Korean stylist, so I ended up looking elsewhere for edged weapon inspriration, as information on Korean weapons was, at the time (pre internet for me) nearly non-existant. Japanese sword information was, comparitavely, abundant, and I began collecting gunto. I prefer older, "real" pieces, and I could afford these on a student's budget.

Are you talking Gumdo or Taekwondo? I am very curious
I may reserve a surprise for you in about a month's time

A few years ago, I picked up my first dha from ebay. Upon reciept, I was immediately attracted to the feel and look of the weapon, found this site through Google, and have liquidated nearly everything else in my collection to make room for more dha. In my studies of dha, I've grown to love learning about the peoples and cultures that use(d) them, and their history.


I'll defer to others more learned on this.

I find the dha and the kris some of the most interesting swords, which carry a very genuine quality and flavour. Of course the creative side of me had to intervene in the dha I designed in a contemporary way that I hope one day to demonstrate how it was devised to be used.

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by Antonio Cejunior

Hello Andrew ,
Most kind of you. What an excellent blend of interests. I'm glad you are well versed in anthropology and sociology, for evident reasons .
We could never had guns here, in the past. Even now it is very difficult to obtain.


Are you talking Gumdo or Taekwondo? I am very curious
I may reserve a surprise for you in about a month's time


I find the dha and the kris some of the most interesting swords, which carry a very genuine quality and flavour. Of course the creative side of me had to intervene in the dha I designed in a contemporary way that I hope one day to demonstrate how it was devised to be used.

Hi Antonio:

My sociology and anthropology are a bit atrophied from lack of use: the law tends to do that.

I study ITF Taekwon-do (under the late Gen. Choi, Hong Hi). However, I no longer compete or instruct, as other things have taken priority. Good Gum-do instructors are rare and hard to find, so I never had the opportunity to train.

I like the first dha you designed, and I'm eagerly anticipating what I suspect you have coming.

Best,
Andrew

[Antonio Cejunior]

Greetings again Andrew

Well, don't be modest. And I will never forget that your best weapon is your word. Remember? So I have high expectations

Ah, Taekwon-do. Very good indeed.
I have been introduced to Haedong Gum-do and it is impressive.
This video shows the ease of the Korean sword in cutting bamboo as if it were pool noodles.

I have uploaded the video for the earlier link was not working

Here is my smaller version of it. Impressive nonetheless, specially when you look at the diameter of the fallen bamboos.

http://www.arscives.com/bladesign/hdgdvideo.htm

Note: It will take some time to download, but it is worth the wait, I can assure you.

In a month's time will be a review. That's all I can say for now.
I want to see for myself first. There's a Chinese saying that there is always a mountain higher than the highest mountain we know of.
Until my January visit to Korea, I wasn't aware of Haedong Gum-do.
Now I can say after seeing some practice, that it is a devastating sword set of forms.
Best

[John]

Originally Posted by Andrew

I study ITF Taekwon-do (under the late Gen. Choi, Hong Hi)....

Small world Andrew. I guess you'll have no problem recognising the younger Choi in this 1968 picture (which just happen to be stored in disk) taken when he was visiting Sabah and Chan-Yong Kim's school in Kota Kinabalu. Kim was at Choi's left and was my childhood MA teacher.

As to the meaning of the word Keris, I believe this was covered in renouned "What constitutes a good keris" thread in a post by Wong Desa which you may like to dig up.

"Huan Ying" to the forum Antonio.

[Antonio Cejunior]

Originally Posted by John

"Huan Ying" to the forum Antonio.

Xié xié ni John

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by John

Small world Andrew. I guess you'll have no problem recognising the younger Choi in this 1968 picture (which just happen to be stored in disk) taken when he was visiting Sabah and Chan-Yong Kim's school in Kota Kinabalu. Kim was at Choi's left and was my childhood MA teacher.

Hi John! Great picture, thanks.

I had the privilege of training with Gen. Choi several times here in the US. Unfortunately, those seminars were a bit bigger.

The political in-fighting in the ITF leading up to and following the General's death has been unfortunate. It's one reason my training has waned in recent years.

[wolviex]

Antonio: I must say that in my work and interests around weapon hardly ever I met with fear, weariness or frown upon - with lack of interest, yes, but it's obvious for me that not everyone should be interest with that sort of things - I would die if someone forced me to fascinate with i.e. cosmetics . It's the other story with me than with our forum friends. I don't collect weapons, so I don't have knives, sabres or anything that look sinisterly on the walls, in cabinets, etc. - so fear of other peaple is avoiding me .

But there is another point of view which I would like to present - weapons in the eyes of Polish museum workers. Generally there is a feeling that all of this is just a piece of metal junk. For many people first art are paintings. Of course this conviction is passing quickly away when they are confront with beaty and art of this "junk". Beside this, other museum workers treating weapons as a kind of gadgets, not seriously enough. All of this is of course a consequence of lack of knowledge, I understand it, and I don't make a thing out of this.

Some of the museum ladies are sometimes trying to pretend "disgust" with weapons - "you can be hurt with this" - but we (we - because I'm not working alone) make a laugh at it. Sometimes we are joking, that we can make an uprising against some unpopular decisions of director, and we can equip all personel, roll out cannons, and fight for whats better for us .

Another detached remark: I also make a lessons for kids, teenagers, students. If the teacher is making appointement with me, there is sometimes an offer to separate girls and boys. Boys are going to see weapons, girls another exhibitions. It's of course superstition - I found, that during lessons often the girls getting more interested in topic than the boys .

I'm fascinating with this forum too, Antonio. The portion of knowledge I get here is bigger than our Polish book market can give you. I wanted put a smiley face here, but to be serious it isn't funny. In reality, I'm without chance to get a single book from aboard, I'm in need of. So the work is hard. The researches from time to time are in deadlock . Hope it's getting better.

Best regards!