In the Ho

Korean spelling
Hangeul	임호
Hanja	林 虎
Revised Romanization	In the Ho
McCune- Reischauer	In the Ho
See also : Korean name

Im Ho (* around 1875 , † around 1945 ) was the name of a Korean teacher of the Taekgyeon martial arts . In the Ho means “forest tiger”.

Im Ho lived in Pirun-dong ( 필운동 ), a district in Jongno-gu , west of the Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul . He had many Taekgyeon students and also taught Song Dok-ki , which later became of paramount importance in the history of Taekgyeon. At the age of "twelve years" he began his training at Im Ho. Since this age specification corresponds to the Korean counting method, it must have been around 1904. According to western counting, Song Dok-ki turned eleven this year, according to Korean counting, twelve years old.

Song Dok-ki made the following statements about Im Ho:

He was a scholar ( Seonbi ) and thus belonged to the small academic class of Joseon . He was academically highly educated and known for learning a lot.

He was counted among the eight strongest people in Seoul . The boys who learned from him called him Seonsaeng (German teacher or master ). He was very strong and had especially strong arms, so that his opponents could hardly come loose once he had grabbed them. His Taekgyeon technique was very quick. He liked to train in the forest and could run very fast, "almost as fast as a tiger". On the one hand, he trained his kicking technique by kicking "against a wheat field". Second, he trained his jumping technique by always jumping over a house wall. In a Taekgyeon competition he fought alone against several people. You could think he was "a bolt of lightning", so quickly did he use his hands and legs. However, he did not have a proper Taekgyeon teacher of his own, but learned different techniques and tricks from different people.

His posture was always straight and upright, he always dressed very formally and usually wore a Durumagi coat. Song Dok-ki described his character as very straightforward and polite. His family was very poor, so he had to live with his wife's family. Still, he was a very proud person.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Preface to Song Dok-ki's book Taekgyeon ( Cheont'ong musul t'aekkyeon ). Seorim Munhwasa, 1983. Translated into German by Bernd Perk.
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Lee Yong-bok: Taekkyon, a Korean Martial Art (한국 무예 택견). Hakminsa Publishing, Seoul 1990, p. 93

literature

• Hendrik Rubbeling: Taekkyon - Like water and wind . Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2017, ISBN 978-3744896818 .