Yon Pon Gun

1900’s

Yon Pon Gun began his martial arts training in the Korean styles of martial arts known as Hwarang-Do, later named Subak. Around 1955 the more commonly known name of Tae Kwon-Do was adopted. This was also near the time that the name of Tang Soo Do came into practice. Record indicates that although not trained under Kenwa Mabuni directly, he was trained first hand under students of Mabuni.

Through Gun's later business travels he was able to establish his own group of students in the village of Kushimoto. He would travel to this area regularly to work with these students. Training was sporadic and usually done outdoors. From a background of Okinawan Te and Korean Hwarang-Do, Yon Pon Gun brought about the name of Shinpu-Ren to attach to the system that he was teaching to these students.

In 1945 due to the WWII, the American government placed a ban on the practice of martial arts as a way to subdue and diffuse the militaristic attitude of the Japanese citizens. This ban ceased in 1948. Beyond this it is unknown what became of him. Yoichi Nakachi, founder of Shinpu-Ren in America, who had been a student of Gun's took over the Shinpu-Ren group in Kushimoto until he brought the system to the U.S. in 1959.