"No Official Records Exist"

Author: Bret Gordon

From 1946 to 2018, the Daito Ryu Aiki Jujutsu (mainline) hombu dojo firmly denied any connection between Choi Yong Sul, the founder of Hapkido, and their art. They maintained that no records existed proving Choi ever trained under Takeda Sokaku and even went so far as to label him a fraud. For over 70 years, this was the official stance that went unchallenged.

Then, in 2018, everything changed. Seemingly out of nowhere, a long-lost record was "found" and released to the public. This single entry claimed that Choi attended a 10-day training seminar in 1942. After decades of absolute denial, this sudden discovery raises more questions than it answers. Why now? What else might be hidden or conveniently overlooked? Makes you wonder about the "official" records kept by the various Daito Ryu organizations...

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