Expert: Shari - 10/19/2007

Question
Do Aikido and Hapkido have their own distinctive techniques? Or is Hapkido just Aikido in Korean?

Answer
Hello Eddie,
Thank you for your email. I'll tell you what I know about Hapkido, but it is not much.

As I understand it, the founders of Hapkido (Choi Yong Sul) and Aikido (Ueshiba Morihei) both trained in Japan with same man - Tekeda Sokaku, head of the Daito ryu, or school, of Aikijiujitsu. The founder of Hapkido went back to Korea with the Daito ryu training, and founded Hapkido. It is a competative art, as far as I know, with a winner and a loser.

Hapkido has the same kanji as Aikido, but translates the kanji as "The Way of Coordinated Power".  Aikido people loosly translate the kanji as "The Way of Harmony".

The founder of Aikido merged the techniques learned from training with Takeda and other masters, with a spiritual philosophy. Ueshiba was deeply influenced by the head of the Oomoto sect of Shinto, Deguchi Onisaburi. The merging of the spiritual attitude of love and compassion with the physical techniques of Daito ryu and other martial arts resulted in Aikido.

Aikido's aim is to control and yet protect the attacker, The Hapkido aim is not. I am sure that a Hapkido practitioner would recognize many of the techniques used in Aikido, and vice versa. But the application of the techniques is going to be very different. I doubt if the receiver of an Aikido throw and a Hapkido throw would have any trouble identifying which art was being used in applying the throw.

I hope that helps. It's the best I can do, given my lack of experience with Hapkido. There is more information on the Wikipedia website, and if you google the founder's names and arts.

Best wishes,
Shari