According to the Army Account of Military Arts and Science (Hanzi: 武備志; Pinyin: Wǔ Bèi Zhì), a Ming dynasty strategy book written in 1621 by Qi Ji Kwang, Korean fencing (朝鮮勢法; Cháoxiǎn shìfǎ) was a martial art that had reached Korea through Chinese martial artists. However, warriors were regarded as secondary to scholars during parts of the Goryeo Dynasty and much of the Joseon Dynasty, and martial arts other than traditional Korean archery were little practised or mostly lost. Today, there are only two remaining documents that refer to ancient Korean martial arts.

These ancient arts are not popularly considered to be ancestors of kumdo, though some kumdo scholars, including those at the Korean Kumdo Association, believe ancient Korean fencing as outlined in a Silla dynasty book known as Bonguk Geombeop (本國劍法; Korean Sword Method) was the basis of all modern two-handed sword techniques. This belief is not commonly held outside Korea.

Gekiken, kendo, and kumdo

Kendo, then still known as gekiken, was introduced to Korea from Japan at the end of the 19th century as a form of police and military training. During the Japanese occupation, its popularity in Korea spread quickly as part of Korea's first national physical education system. Around 1920, the name kumdo was coined as a translation of the sport's new name in Japan, kendo. Up until the end of the occupation in 1945, kumdo developed in parallel with kendo.

After the occupation ended, kumdo restructured itself, and the Korean Kumdo Association was formed in 1947. Some Koreans often call kumdo "Dae Han Kumdo". It means Great Korea Kendo. Dae Han Kumdo is not different from kendo. Most of Dae Han Kumdo dojo are under the control of Korea Kumdo Association which belongs to Internatinal Kendo Federation. But It is doubtful whether the certified Dan (Black belt) taken at some kumdo dojo in US has official worldwide validity. Because they, just belonging to KKA, are not official members of ALL United States Kendo Federation which is an official organization of IKF. When the Korean National Sports Festival was reinstituted in South Korea in 1956, Kumdo was included as an official event.

Kumdo today

The rules and the equipment are almost the same as those of kendo because the two have only been allowed to diverge since 1945. Kumdo tournaments have abandoned some elements of Japanese culture, such as the squatting bow (sonkyo). The hogu (호구; 防具), or armor, are often simplified compared to kendo's bogu.

Kumdo practitioners in Korea now number over 400,000. There are over 200 kumdo organizations in Korea (though the Korean Kumdo Association is a member of the Korean Sports Federation, and claims to be the only official body). There are also a number of Kumdo dojang outside Korea, primarily where there are large numbers of Korean immigrants, such as the United States. Some kumdo practitioners outside Korea will also compete in kendo tournaments. Some practice kumdo without giving respect to kendo, and believe and claim kumdo or Korean fencing is the origin of Japanese kendo and its swordmanship, but that is historically not the case, as demonstrated above.

Terminology

Kumdo uses Korean language terminology exclusively, though much of it is cognate with the original kendo terms. For instance, the criteria used to determine whether a point is scored is known as gigeomche (기검체; 氣劍體), instead of ki-ken-tai-ichi (気剣体一). This name derives from the same Chinese roots; "gi" (氣) for qi or spirit, "geom" (劍) for the sword, and "che" (體) for the body. Below is a table comparing some other similar terms and their corresponding Chinese characters. Note slight differences in the appearance of some characters are due to Japanese use of shinjitai characters.

Schools

There are broadly three schools of modern kumdo:

• World Kumdo Federation and its affiliate Korea Kumdo Federation; Korea Traditional Komdo Association.
• World Kumdo Association, Korean Kumdo Association, and Hwarang Komdo.
• Haidong Gumdo, founded by members who seceded from the KKA. Haidong Gumdo is significantly modified in style from standard kumdo/kendo, emphasizing what they consider "battlefield" style combat over one-on-one dueling.

Kumdo(Bengali) is also a vegetable,English for which is pumpkin.