Kong Soo Do

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Kong Soo Do (공수도) is a name used to refer to Korean martial arts derived from Karate, that was used by a couple of the original kwans before the unification and creation of Taekwondo as the universal striking art of Korea. As with Tang Soo Do^[1], the name Kong Soo Do is composed of the Korean pronunciation of the Chinese characters for "karate-do", meaning "empty-hand way" in English.

Kong Soo Do is a not a formalized system of martial arts, and the styles used by the various kwans are influenced by the individual backgrounds of the respective founders/head instructors. The name Kong Soo Do was used by Yun Mu Kwan (sometimes Yun Moo Kwan Kong Soo Do Bu, Hanja: 朝鮮硏武館 拳法部) and the YMCA Kwon Bop Bu (later named Chang Moo Kwan) to refer to their martial art.