A Study on Military-style gymnastics and Its Adoption in Public Schools in Late Chosun dynasty

In the late 19th century and early 20th century, Among those of the Northeast Asia three countries, school physical education and military-style gymnastics of Chosun can be regarded as having been the most nationalistic. The adoption of modern physical education in public schools was from the proclamation of 'the Order on Building the Country through Education by King Gojong in February 1895. This paper intends to examine the process of adopting military-style gymnastics education which played the central role in school physical education in the late Chosun period. But, unlike the common guess that military-style gymnastics in public schools in late Chosun would have been full of patriotism and nationalism, the textbooks and teaching contents of Chosun Military Officers' School were very similar to those of Japan, which is an unexpected fact. Therefore, Chosun decided to accept the Japanese-type military-style gymnastics and military training to improve physical strength of youngsters and military power. The fact that, with the advent of modern education, physical education was emphasized above all else has a very important meaning to the history of Korean physical education. Physical activity education emerged as a major education course which had been unthinkable in previous ages. The second characteristics is that the process of adopting military-style gymnastics and its contents were influenced by Japan Third, even if militarystyle gymnastics was imported from Japan as part of school physical education course in late Chosun period, its aim was to train military man powers for the independence movement against Japan, rather than to develop harmonious body.