 Yoon Ja-kyung is a public prosecutor who is also a martial arts master in the sword-intense discipline kumdo. Standing 166 centimeters tall and weighing 46 kilograms, Yoon may look "fragile" by average standards but in June she took the grand prize at the World Culture Open festival's martial arts competition.
Yoon first held a sword when she was a second-year student in middle school, as her parents forced their feeble daughter to train herself. When she was a senior in high school, Yoon was shocked after watching a Japanese woman prosecutor demonstrate the slicing technique with her sword. She wanted to become more like the Japanese prosecutor and practiced her sword work for more than five hours each day.
Yoon made her first overseas demonstration in Ohio in 1998. She was well received by the audience and people complimented her, saying the "Korean sword dance is astonishing. You feel a tremor of glee despite the dreadful tension." Yoon could never forget the audiences in Ohio, and now regularly travels to the United States., Canada and the Philippines, giving over 100 demonstrations each year.
"If the Chinese sword dance is full of skills and the Japanese is more restrained, the Korean sword dance is rougher and wilder," Yoon said. "Personally, I think the Korean sword dance is the strongest and most beautiful. However, since it is not recognized widely, I hope to promote the Korean sword dance as well as the culture."
Yoon is currently practicing for demonstrations in Kazakhstan and New Zealand and is also teaching at the Haidong Gumdo Federation. Yoon's students range from a 6-year-old to people in their mid-40s.
(Shin Ji-eun, ifyouare@chosun.com )
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