sword arts developed into the art of man-to-man duelling during the peaceful Edo period and are characterized by a lot of attention to detail under the influence of Zen Buddhism. Traditional Korean arts never underwent this change and were purely taught to soldiers as a way to fight on the battlefield, although this does not mean that in Japanese arts battlefield techniques are not taught. Battlefield fighting is usually characterized by more flowing and ongoing movements. In duel-style fighting a lot of attention is given to the one-strike-one-kill principle, whereas in battlefield-style fighting the emphasis is on keeping the sword in motion and always being ready for the next strike. To give hankumdo a true Korean flavor, Myung Jae Nam used the Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, to teach the basic strikes of the art. Techniques The basis for all Hankumdo techniques comes from the letters of the Korean alphabet, Hangul. This alphabet consists of 24 characters, 14 consonants (자음) and 10 vowels (모음). Since 1997 there have been several revisions of the techniques. In the earliest version the sword techniques reflected the manner in which one would write the characters on paper, thus requiring mastery of only four techniques. In the latest revision more techniques were added and the techniques become more elaborate. As a result, the manner of using the sword and of writing the letters may vary. The strikes are being taught from several positions and with several steps, called Gi Bo Haeng (기보행). The techniques have the same name as the characters followed by the word Begi (베기) which means strike. So the name for the first technique is: Giyeokbegi (기역베기), because the name for the first character (ㄱ) in the Korean alphabet is Giyeok (기역). Myung intended to develop a sword-art that would be truly Korean and easy to learn by everyone. For Koreans who already know the Korean writing system, the techniques are easy to remember, as the sword methods follow the standard manner in which the Korean characters are written. Foreigners are advised to learn how to write Hangul before starting with the sword techniques. Because the Korean writing system is fairly easy to learn, foreigners can become facile in the sword basics within a short period of time. Development After Myung Jae Nam's death in 1999, the development of hankumdo is overseen by the Jaenam Musul Won Foundation Quite a few changes