Grandmaster Won Kuk Lee was born April 13th, 1907. Today, he is one of the oldest grandmasters of Tae Kwon Do and is recognized by the Republic of Korea as the Founding Father of Tae Kwon Do, being declared a "living national treasure."

Tae Kwon Do, and the original five Kwans, owe their origins either directly or indirectly to this man.

Grandmaster's earliest recollections concerning his interest in the Korean martial arts goes back to when he was a young man. He recalled visiting An Gup Dong, a street in Seoul where he met a man named Mr. Kim. Mr. Kim related information to the young Won Kuk about how about 80 years ago, (late 1800\'s) there had been three fighting styles that had been called Tae Kyon taught inside the city at Chang Chung Dong Park.

As a young man he started his training in the martial arts, which was a very difficult thing to do during this time period as there was Japanese occupation, and they had outlawed any training in the martial arts; this was due to the fact that many groups and gangs were misusing the art form. [It would be interesting to note that this was a common practice for the Japanese.] Another probable reason for the banning of martial arts was that the Japanese often used this type of practice to try to remove any feelings of national pride from the occupied country\'s population and to try to prevent any type of organized resistance from becoming proficient in allowing something that could be used against the occupational forces (author's opinion).

Finding that life in Korea under Japans occupational forces was difficult, many young Koreans left the country and went to live and study in Japan, where ironically, they could actually live a better life. Won Kuk Lee was one such person. In 1927, he departed Korea and went to Japan to attend the Central University law school, from which he graduated.

During this time in Japan, Grandmaster studied under a now legendary martial artist, Gichin Funakoshi. It is this study of Shotokan that would latter influence the beginning roots of modern Tae Kwon Do.

Upon graduating college, and having earned a Sandan (we are unclear at this point if the translation is mixed. We have not been able to determine if Grandmaster is referring to the Japanese ranking that would be a 3rd Dan, or the Korean interpretation which would be a 4th Dan), the young Won Kuk Lee left Japan and traveled around the orient. He was interested in learning all he could about the martial arts.

His travels carried him to the birthplace of Karate in Okinawa, Japan to the Kung Fu centers in Henan and Shanghai, China, to include stays at the Shaolin Temples. Grandmaster has said that the main differences he learned amongst the arts was in how pressure points were used and attacked.

Sadly, Grandmaster Won Kuk Lee passed away on February 2, 2003 from pneumonia.