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Yong Moon (February 14, 1949 - December 15, 2021) was a Korean-American martial artist who founded Moorimdo, a traditional martial arts system that combines techniques from mainly Kung Fu and Taekwondo. He is a 10th Degree black belt in Kung Fu, 9th Degree black belt in Taekwondo, Master in Tang Soo Do, Master in Hapkido, Kickboxing coach, and an early Mixed Martial Arts coach.

Early life
Born in Hapcheon, South Korea, on February 14th, 1949, Yong Moon was an only son amongst 7 siblings. The building that stored Yong’s birth certificate and other identity records were burned in which his uncle had to re-declare his birth at a later time, making his legal birthdate August 1st, 1958. Nevertheless, his family celebrated his birthday on his born day. Yong’s father faced early childhood trauma as he witnessed his entire family get massacred by the Japanese army. His father was the only survivor of the incident, and became an antisocial throughout his life. As a result, Yong and his father did not share many memories and Yong became more reliant on his uncles. As many of his uncles ran a Tang Soo Do, Korea’s main martial arts prior to Tae Kwon Do, school in Korea, he naturally began training from an early age. He went on to receive a fifth dan black belt in Tang Soo Do by the age of 18 which is an extremely high rank for someone that young. Furthermore, Yong traveled to parts of Korea where Chinese Kung Fu masters went underground during the Chinese communist movement’s cultural revolution. Hence, “Korean Kung Fu” was born. His main instructor, Master Kang Gum Bang, was one of the three Chinese historic masters who emigrated to South Korea during the revolution.

Teaching career
Yong first started his school in Busan, Nampo-dong (a residence that was notorious for gang activity at the time) at the age of 18. At the time, Korea was extremely strict with its honorifics to elders, so Yong added a few more years to his age to more comfortably teach his students. In his school, he taught a hybrid form between Korean and Chinese martial arts. He was fascinated by the flashiness of traditional martial arts, but also fell in love with the practical side of martial arts. As a result, he picked and chose the best techniques from the two styles and later called it Moo Rim Do.

In the 1970s, the Korean government was pushing Tae Kwon Do as its newly formed national martial arts and asked Yong to receive the highest honor of 9th degree black belt in exchange for adding the Tae Kwon Do system to his school and to help develop the art. As Tae Kwon Do was a derivative of Tang Soo Do, the two arts shared many similarities, in which Yong accepted.

After a very successful 20s in running his martial arts school, he decided to invest his hard earned capital into a peer’s yacht business. On its first sail however, the boat sank and Yong filed bankruptcy. He was devastated and was said to have drank for weeks nonstop. He struggled regaining his life until receiving an invitation from the then Louisiana Governor and New Orleans Chief Police Officer to come teach traditional martial arts at their state. He decided that he couldn’t continue living in Korea after his catastrophic incident and decided to accept the invitation and move to the States.

In New Orleans, Yong quickly rose to fame as “Master Moon,” receiving a plethora of media attention for his martial arts demonstrations. He taught in New Orleans from 1979 to the early 1990s.

In 1992, Yong decided to put martial arts aside and venture into the import/export business of laundry machines. He moved to Koreatown, Los Angeles to pursue his new business. However, after witnessing an aggressive encounter between a Korean-American father and son, he decided that the community needed a place to help young individuals find direction in their life. He established Moo Sool Won, and taught martial arts to the community. Through the medium of martial arts, Yong was able to teach discipline, respect, and character traits that helped teenagers stay on a path to become positive influences in the community and the greater society. Koreatown, Los Angeles in the early 1990s and 2000s was a dangerous place for kids to grow up in, as there were many gang violence and drug activities from people as early as in middle school.

In September, 2004, Yong was invited by three Chinese National Kung Fu Organizations: The Chi Gong Martial Arts Association, The Institute of Tae Keuk Chi Gong Martial Arts Instructor, and The Council of Traditional Tae Keuk Arts in Moo Soon City, China, to receive the highest honor of 10th degree black belt, hence earning the title of Great Grandmaster.

In 2018, he and his two sons rebranded the academy to Moorimgoong.