They were, inasmuch as any eastern or southeastern Asian peoples were in the middle parts of the second millenium. The Chosun/Joseon kingdom, which ran roughly from the late 14th century to the late 19th century, was - very much in the same vein as shogunate Japan (from whom the Koreans borrowed much during Japan's occupation of Korea.) There was a great deal of admixture of native Korean martiality with Japanese cultural cues, which many people take to be the dominant cues, but Korean martial anthropology can be traced to at least the middle of the first millenium (which was Bronze Age in southeast Asia.)Nutso wrote:So Koreans are, like, a warrior race?
In fact, many styles and items which are popularly attributed to China, Japan, or Okinawa originated (or at least developed concurrently) in Korea. The so-called "butterfly swords," weaponized fans, and the short-hilted double-edged straight sword of Asian design are all Korean contributions; and gungdo - traditional Korean archery with a very specialized recurved horn bow and generally practiced with a thumb ring - was the state of medieval Asian archery, inclusive of the long bows and pellet bows used by shogunate samurai.
