Hwa rang do is claimed by its practitioners to be the direct descendant of the martial art practiced by Koreas sixth-century Hwarang warriors. The Hwarang were similar to Japans samurai, but the corps was composed of boys who also studied fine arts such as calligraphy, music and poetry.
Hwa rang do includes kicks, punches, throws, joint locks, pressure-point strikes and internal-energy development. Lee Joo-bang is the highest-ranked hwa rang do expert in the world. He claims to be the 58th descendant in the arts lineage. The arts similarity to hapkido and kuk sool is often explained as having resulted from the fact that numerous martial arts expertswho would later become masters and found their own stylestrained together in Korea during the 1940s and 1950s.


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