1904- 1986

Yong-Sool Choi, born in Chung Buk province in Korea, was one of the most influential people in the development of modern Korean martial arts. His parents died when he was very young, and he was taken to Japan from Korea by a Japanese candy maker when he was 8 or 9. Choi became very homesick and was abandoned by the candy maker so he had to wander the streets as a beggar which resulted in him being regularly assaulted by other children.