history

Choe Hae San was a talented weapon technician who invented and made powerful powder weapons in the first half of the 15th century to perform great feats in destroying Japanese pirates.

He succeeded his father Choe Mu Son (1326-1395), who devoted his whole life to the development of powder weaponry, to further develop the powder making method and make a lot of powder weapons, thus making a great contribution to strengthening the national power.

At the age of 15, he took over from his mother the book on the powder making method written by his father and strove to grasp it. In 1401 he was promoted to an official of the arms agency of the government, which organized the production of military equipment, and put in effort to further develop powder and powder weapons.

Hwacha, the first repeating firearm, was made in 1409 and the agency was possessed of 13 500 powder weapons in 1417. And the output of powder reached more than 6 980 kun (a kun equals 0.6 kilogram).

Later they made hwapho, a kind of cannon capable of shooting two cannon balls simultaneously.

This shows that Choe Hae San and other weapon technicians further strengthened the power of powder and continuously directed great efforts to the production and development of powder and powder weapons.

The hwapho technique in the early period of the feudal Joson dynasty (1392-1910) was the inheritance of the powder making method and the technique of making hwapho in the period of Koryo. Choe Hae San is largely credited with the readjustment and completion of the technique.