Gungdo
A Korean Bow (활, Hwal) that has not been strung
Korean name
Hangul	궁술
Hanja	弓術
Revised Romanization	Gungsul
McCune–Reischauer	Kungsul
Korean bow
Hangul	국궁
Hanja	國弓
Revised Romanization	Gukgung
McCune–Reischauer	Kukkung

The Korean Bow (Korean: Hwal) is a water buffalo horn-based composite reflex bow, standardized about 1900 AD from the variety of such weapons in earlier use. It is normally used with a thumb draw.

Gungsul, also written goongsul, literally means "the Craft of the bow." It is also called Korean traditional archery.

Historical use and decline[link]

Korean Horse Back Archery in 5th-century

The bow had been the most important weapon in Korean wars with Chinese dynasties and nomadic peoples, recorded from the 1st century BCE.^[1] Legend says the first king and founder of the Goguryeo, Go Jumong, was a master of archery, able to catch 5 flies with one arrow. Park Hyeokgeose, the first king of the Silla, was also said to be a skilled archer. Rumors of archers in Goguryeo and Silla presumably reached China; the ancient Chinese gave the people of the north east, Siberia, Manchuria and the Korean Peninsula, the name of Dongyi (東夷), the latter character (夷) being a combination of the two characters for "large" (大) and "bow" (弓).^[2]

Until the Imjin wars, archery was the main long-range weapon system. In that war, the tactical superiority of the matchlock musket became apparent, despite its slow rate of fire and susceptibility to wet weather.^[3] Under King Hyojong's military reforms, an attempt was made to revive horse archery as a significant element of the military. This came to nothing after his sudden death in 1659, and there are no definite accounts of later military use of archery. Nevertheless, until the military reforms of 1894, archery was an essential part of the military examination. It was also practiced for pleasure and for health, and many young males - including the king - would spend their free time practicing it.

Revival as leisure activity[link]

Standard gungdo target

In 1899, the visiting Prince Heinrich of Prussia expressed his astonishment to Emperor Gojong at a traditional archery demonstration. The emperor, impressed, decreed "let people enjoy archery to develop their physical strength" and established an archery club building. In the subsequent revival of Korean archery, the nature of the bow and the arrow was standardized, as was the range of the targets. Korean traditional archery now uses one specific type of composite bow, bamboo arrows, and a standard target at a standard distance of 120 bo (about 145 meters).

Construction and competition[link]

Master Heon Kim

The traditional Korean bow is a highly reflexed version of the classic Eurasian composite bow. The core is bamboo, which is sinew backed, with oak at the handle. On the belly is water buffalo horn. The siyahs, the stiffened outer ends of the limbs, are made of either mulberry or black locust spliced (v-splice) onto the bamboo. The glue is made from fish air-bladder. Over the sinew backing is a special birch bark that is imported from Northeast China. It is soaked in sea water (possibly for one year). It is applied to the back using diluted rubber cement (using benzene as the solvent). No sights or other modern attachments are used.

The draw weights vary, but most are above twenty kilograms. The cost for this type of bow is in the US$800 range. For a similar modern version made of laminated fiberglass, the cost is US$200–300. For most competitions, either bow may be used, with carbon-fiber arrows, but for national competitions, only the composite bow and bamboo arrows may be used. Korean archers have also been very successful in Olympic and other competitions with more modern types of bow.^[4]

The sukgung, a kind of crossbow, and the Hwal are a small but very powerful bow. A sukgung can shoot up to 400 meters while a Hwal can shoot up to 350 meters.

See also[link]

• Composite bow
• Hungarian bow
• Turkish bow
• Mongol bow
• Pyeonjeon
• Singijeon

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Korean Traditional Archery. Duvernay TA, Duvernay NY. Handong Global University, 2007.

External links[link]

• Korean Traditional Archery
• The Way of the Bow
• Korean Archery News (Korean)
• Korean Traditional Archery Documentary

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