About the Instructor

Jo Kyo Nim Karl Kutz (1st dan)

My journey with Hwa Rang Do began about 35 years ago when I was in grade school. I desperately wanted to learn a martial art, but there was no school in the little Montana town that we lived in. So my parents purchased a martial arts book for me. I worked on some of the materials in the book as much as I was able, but obviously could not go very far. Later my martial arts interests were somewhat satisfied by high school wrestling and a handful of lessons in Tae Kwon Do during college from the custodian in the athletics facility. After that I moved on to other things.

Ten years later while I was in graduate school I was invited by Master Kijek (Madison, Wisconsin) to try out Hwa Rang Do. The ironic thing was that after training for about 3 months I noticed the Hwa Rang Do books in the display case and realized that the book my parents had purchased so many years earlier was Hwa Rang Do volume 1. So I feel like it was a little bit of destiny that brought me into the Hwa Rang Do brotherhood.  I continue to pursue training with visits to the World Hwa Rang Do® Association Headquarters (Downey, California).

I am excited to be a part of raising up a new generation of Hwarang warriors who are committed not only to excellence in martial arts, but who continue to develop in all areas of life and have a positive impact in the world.  In addition to training and teaching I have a special interest in traditional weapons and have constructed many of my own (photos).  I am also working on an English translation of the Hwarang Segi, a seventh century Korean manuscript which records the biographies of the first 32 leaders of the Hwarang.  I currently serve as a professor of Biblical Languages and Bible at Multnomah Bible College here in Portland.