Beginning in 1945, shortly after the end of World War II and Japanese Occupation, martial arts schools called kwans opened in Seoul. These schools were established by Korean martial artists with backgrounds in Japanese[12] and Chinese martial arts. At the time, disciplines (such as Taekkyeon) were being forgotten, due to years of decline and repression by the Japanese colonial government. The umbrella term traditional Taekwondo typically refers to the martial arts practiced by the kwans during the 1940s and 1950s, though in reality the term “Taekwondo” had not yet been coined at that time, and indeed each kwan (school) was practicing its own unique style of the Korean art.
