Taekwondo

Close up view of the calligraphy artwork mounted to this silk brocade wall scroll

This is one of the most widespread types of martial arts in the world as well as being an Olympic sport. Taekwondo was born in Korea with influences of Chinese and Japanese styles, combined with traditional Korean combat skills. Some will define it as the "Korean art of empty-handed self-defense".

In the simplest translation, the first character means "kick", the second character can mean either "fist" or "punching" the third means "way" or "method". Altogether, you could say this is "Kick Punch Method". When heard or read in various Asian languages, all will automatically think of this famous Korean martial art.

It is written the same in Japanese Kanji, Chinese, and Korean Hanja characters - so the appearance of the characters are rather universal. However, you should note that there is another way to write this in modern Korean Hangul characters which looks like the image to the right.

Note: In Japanese, this is pronounced/Romanized as tekondo.
In Mandarin Chinese, it's tái quán dào.
In Korean, it's pronounced 태권도.
This Korean title is most commonly Romanized as Taekwondo, but sometimes it's written Tae-Kwondo, Tae Kwon Do, Taekwon-do, Taegwondo, Tai Kwon Do, Taikwondo, Taekwando, Tae Kwan Do.
Chinese alternates include Taiquandao, Tai Quan Dao, Taichuando, or Tai Chuan Tao.

See our Taekwondo custom Korean Hanja wall scrolls page for more custom Korean Hanja calligraphy options.

This calligraphy was created by Li Dan-Qing of Beijing, China. Materials are xuan paper (known in the west incorrectly as "rice paper") mounted to a silk brocade wall scroll. Painted by hand, and the wall scroll is crafted by hand.