Muye Dobo Tongji

[Otagiri Tatsuzou]

This book is an ancient Korean martial arts manual, written by Yi Duk-moo, Park Je-ga and Pak Dong-soo in 1790, under the order of King Jungjo. This premiere English translation of the manual is the result of nearly a decade of planning and work.

There are some excerpts from that translation here:
www.turtlepress.com/info_muye_dobo_tongji.asp

And the book can be ordered here:
www.turtlepress.com/Muye_Dobo_Tongji_p/mdtj.htm

I'll let you know more about it when I get it.

[Please Delete]

It is very interesting. The Chinese influences can be seen quite heavily, and the Japanese sword techniques are... interesting. One of the comments I recall is how they claim that the smiths were locked away until they produced a good sword, and also that someone came back to show they had mastered the Japanese swordsmanship schools and did that by balancing the sword in one hand. That's an odd way of showing mastery of fighting.

Still, you could probably reconstruct the forms in it without too much trouble; it is pretty detailed.

Kumdo, the Korean version of Kendo, has been using this manual to reconstruct some old Korean sword techniques.


-Ii