Korean archery & Japanese ocupation?

When I asked that same question many years ago, I was told that, except for the WWII years, it continued on.  When the war finished, it came back.  One old timer told me there were rule differences, such as the target could not face be in the east, as that is where the emperor was; also, the target arrow of the time, the yuyeopjeon, did not have a sharp point (it reminds me of the head of a pop rivet), but I believe they were around before Korea's annexation.  Korea's most famous text on traditional archery, Joseoneui Gungsul (The Art of the Korean Bow), was published during the Japanese occupation.  gungsul was an old name for Korean traditional archery; it was replaced during the Japanese occupation with gungdo, which means, "The Way of the Bow"--the same Chinese characters as Japanese kyudo.  Many Korean archers do not like that name, due to its Japanese association; they prefer either gukgung (national archery) or hwalssogi, which is a pure Korean term (no Chinese characters), which means "bow shooting".  Some Korean and Korean-style archers--myself included--have no problem with the term gungdo (My personal e-mail address starts with "goongdo").  Still, gungsul implies archery is an art (which is a part of it, but not the whole thing) and gungdo implies technique, which is also a part of it, but not the whole thing.  Gukgung is, as mentioned, "national archery", but what happens when you are in another country?  That country's trad archery is now the "national archery".  That leaves hwalssogi, which is Korean in every sense of the word.

I have heard a few scattered accounts.  According to them, trad archery is practiced somewhat by some military units.  However, I do not have any first-hand knowledge.  Several years ago, I talked with Stephen Selby about the idea of trying to put on a joint North-South trad archery friendly competition (Kind of a "Shooting for Peace" idea); however, it didn't get very far due to the trad archery situation in the North being relatively unknown.  At the time, Stephen was going to try to talk with the NK consul, or somebody, in HK, but I don't think anything ever became of it.

Although it's possible there might be a traditional bowyer or two left in the North, something tells me they wouldn't have survived well under the stalinist rules there.  If there are any left, you would probably find them in a place like Gaeseong, which is just over the northwest border from South Korea; that city was the center of the northern-style horn bows in Korea (Yecheon, in my province of Gyeongsangbukdo, was--and still is--the center of southern-style horn bows). 

My guess is that they use whatever bows they can get ahold of.  The NK Olympic archers use imported recurves, so I don't think there is a great archery industry up there.

As for Hwarangs--they might have gotten some if they bought out the inventory from the movie Alexander, as the bows used in it were, basically, stripped-down Hwarangs. 

It's a possibility, but I doubt many people outside of NK know for sure.  However, I think it is quite likely.

According to what I've been told, Northern bows typically had narrower limbs than the Southern bows; they were faster, but less stable and broke more often. Supposedly, some SK bowyers adhere to that style of bowmaking (either they or their masters were from that area).