| Shin Kyung Sun | |
| Birth Place: | Seoul, Korea |
| Residence: | Chicago, Illinois, USA |
| Martial Art: | Judo, Karate, Tang Soo Do, Taekwondo, Hapkido |
| Rank: | 8th dan judo |
| School: | Military Arts Institute |
Shin Kyung Sun (born 1933) is a Korean master of judo and a pioneer of that art in the United States of America. He is ranked 8th dan in judo,[1] and also holds dan ranking in karate.[2]
Shin was born in 1933 in Seoul, Korea.[3] He began training in the martial arts in 1943,[3] and was a long distance runner in high school.[2] During the Korean War, he served in the Special Student Battalion of the Republic of Korea Army.[3] He owned a pharmacy in South Korea, although he was not a pharmacist himself.[2] He had studied English literature at Hongik University, but did not complete the course.[2] He did, however, captain the institution's judo team to the National Collegiate Championship in 1958, his second year there.[2]
Around 1960, Shin emigrated to the US intending to seek a position in a pharmaceutical company.[2] He went to Illinois at first, studied liberal arts in Georgia (where he met and befriended fellow Korean Mas Oyama, founder of Kyokushin karate), and then returned to Illinois in 1963.[2] He studied accounting part-time at the University of Chicago, and it was around this time that he met his future wife, Sandy Hamilton, a biochemistry student who is also a judo practitioner.[2] She was ranked 1st dan at the time.[4]
Shin founded the Military Arts Institute in 1963,[5] [6] and also published a judo magazine.[4] Apart from judo, Shin also teaches taekwondo and hapkido.[5] Around 1967, he visited Seoul and discussed the possibility of a taekwondo tournament in Chicago with Choi Hong Hi, founder of the International Taekwon-Do Federation.[7] In 1977, he was a member of the organizing committee for the Third World Taekwondo Championships.[8] Shin co-authored the book Judo (1977) with Daeshik Kim.[9]
One of the Shins' sons, Gene Shin, holds the rank of 5th dan in judo and teaches the art in Virginia.[10] [11] [12]