the name "tangsudo" means "the way of chinese hands". in the korean peninsula several schools of martial arts had been prohibited by japanese invaders for 35 years, and they went out from secret at the end of the second world war. they were known as schools of tangsudo. in the modern korea, the first school of tangsudo was chungdokwan, founded in 1944 by the master wonkuklee. as a result of the liberation of korean nation, which was happened 15th august 1945, other four schools were opened: mudokkwan, songmukwan, chidokwan, and changmukwan. other schools ("kwan") were added to the list after the end of the civil war between north and south (1950-1953). in december 1955, with the approval of the president of republic of south korea, singman rhee, a meeting of the founders of the main schools was called. the intention of this meeting was to unify the different schools and to give the name and the form to the national martial art. the name should be related neither with china, nor with japan ("tangsu"="chinese hands" and its japanese pronunciation is "karate").