Dobok

Dobok
Korean name
Hangul	도복
Hanja	道服
Revised Romanization	dobok
McCune–Reischauer	to bohk

Dobok is the uniform worn by practitioners of Korean martial arts. Do means "way" and bok means "clothing." The dobok is modeled on the Japanese gi, used in Judo, which was developed by Judo's founder, Kanō Jigorō. The dobok comes in many colours, though white or black are the most common. The dobok may have the reverse in a different colour than the rest of the dobok. They are made in a variety of materials, ranging from traditional cotton to cotton-polyester blends.

The pants of the dobok may be wider and longer than the traditional Japanese keikogi. Due to this, practitioners often wear a dobok modeled after the Korean hanbok. The dobok of World Taekwondo Federation-style taekwondo practitioners usually have v-neck jackets, tailored after the design of the hanbok. Traditional taekwondo practitioners may wear dobok that are identical or very similar to gi, with a cross-over jacket front, while International Taekwon-Do Federation-style taekwondo practitioners typically wear a newer design with a vertically-closing jacket front.

Around the dobok a dhee or tti (belt) is worn. The colour of the belt denotes the rank or grade of the wearer. Coloured belts are for geup-holders, while black belts are usually worn by dan-holders. The order of belt colours may differ from school to school. Most commonly the first belt is a white belt. Other colours are typically yellow, green, blue, red, and then black. Some schools use other colours, such as brown in place of red.

Practitioners of Korean sword arts like kumdo usually wear wider pants, called chima baji (치마바지; literally, "skirt-pants").

See also

• Keikogi