The name is the more popular than any other on the traditional Taekwon-Do sphere. The pivotal factors of Kwon, Jae-Hwa's make-up are his personalized training methods, the ability to correlate with his counterparts on any and every level and his philosophical outlook. Kwon, Jae-Hwa was born in 1937 in Pusan, a large harbour town in South Korea. He began practicing Taekwon-Do in his youth and soon made notice of himself through his exceptional talents. In Hae, Dea-Yeong, 6th Dan, he found a devoted mentor and coach who was totally devoted to the advancement of his students. Upon completion of college studies, in journalism, he was employed by Pusan IIbbo, the town’s largest daily news publication. But his life’s main commitment was still Taekwon-Do. At the age of 24 he was Chief Instructor (highest ranking coach) of the Yonmu-Kwan Taekwon-Do Schools. In 1964 he was appointed to the post of Association Technical Director for most of the Taekwon-Do departments at public schools - as well for private Taekwon-Do schools, and universities in the region of Pusan. Grandmaster Kwon, Jae-Hwa is also active functionary in both of these positions until this very day.

At 29 he was a member of the six-man Korean Demonstration Team chosen to venture out and introduce Taekwon-Do to the western world. A year later, Kwon, Jae-Hwa’s, 6th Dan at that time, utmost goal became making the practice of Taekwon-Do common place in Europe. He founded the German Taekwon-Do Association, was appointed its Head Coach as well as Chief Representative for Europe and the Middle East. Unfortunately, Taekwon-Do was soon propagated in the western hemisphere as a 'modern fight sport'. Grandmaster Kwon, Jae-Hwa deemed it most necessary to distance himself from this developmental trend: 'malicious or intentional injury of others is not the true persuasion of the spirit of Taekwon-Do'.


Taekwon-Do’s foremost goal is the quest toward completeness and perfection of ideas, form and technique. It would be illusionary to undermine the psychological Zen roots – on which he reiterated upon in his book 'Zen-Art of Self-Defence', published in 1970, and simply view Taekwon-Do as just another form of sport. Grandmaster Kwon continues to practice and teach the traditional Taekwon-Do system actively in New York City and has stayed true to the innate idea of 'Do'.

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