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The International Herald Tribune
Japanese poetry endures in South Korea
Choe Sang-Hun
Tuesday March 25 2008
SEOUL: When Son Ho Yun published her poetry, South Korean writers denounced her as unpatriotic
When Rhee Han Soo wrote his poems, he avoided discussing them with friends because he was certain he would get the same negative response
Although they never met, Son and Rhee shared a passion for more than six decades: They each wrote traditional Japanese poetry in South Korea where animosities rooted in Japan's colonial rule still run deep and people of their generation considered such literary pursuits little short of sacrilegious
"Here, people look up to you if you write poetry in English and publish it in America or England " said Rhee, an 82y ear old retired dentist. "But if you write Japanese poems, they despise you or dismiss you as a fool"
As South Korea's new president, Lee Myung Bak and Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda of Japan prepare to meet next month to chart a new relationship between their countries, Son and Rhee illustrate what Japanese and Koreans mean when they call each other "close yet distant neighbors"
Like other Koreans who grew up under Japanese colonial rule, from 1910 to 1945, Son and Rhee learned Japanese rather than Korean, at school. When the Japanese withdrew after their defeat in World War II, many of these Koreans found themselves without a true mother tongue - ashamed to speak Japanese but unable to read Korean well
But unlike others, Rhee and Son maintained their love of Japanese poetry long after the liberation
For that, they paid a price: a lifetime of disregard or disapproval from fellow Koreans
Before Son died in 2003 at the age of 80, she had published six volumes of tanka - Japanese poems of 31 syllables - in Japan and was invited by Japanese Emperor to a New Year's Poetry reading at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo
Despite this, in 2005, when Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan recited one of her poems during a news conference with the South Korean president Roh Moo Hyun, a poem in which Son dreamed of peace between the two countries, most Koreans were baffled as to who she was
"They say art transcends all borders " Son wrote when some of her poetry was translated into Korean in 2002. "But I was mired in despondency because the path I chose was blocked by a border
"Almost every day, I have lived with doubt wondering, should I continue?"
Once, a Korean editor who was invited to speak at one of her book parties humiliated Son by reproaching her for writing Japanese poetry
For Rhee, Son's predicament sounds all too familiar. On the sideline of his dental practice in Seoul, Rhee has published thousands of haiku, minimalist 17 syllable poems in Japan
"No sooner do Koreans eat sushi or buy Japanese chocolate for their kids than they bad-mouth the Japanese," Rhee said. "Both Koreans and Japanese are too narrow minded when it comes to dealing with their neighbors. How are we going to catch up and compete with Japan without studying Japan?"
Rhee is a regular at the Seoul Haiku Club where since 1993 about 20 Koreans and Japanese living in Seoul have met twice a month to read and write haiku
"I know that writing haiku is not a proud thing for a Korean to do," said Ushijima Takeshi, a Japanese chemical factory executive who heads the club. "So I am grateful to our Korean members for trying to appreciate Japanese culture. They make me feel ashamed that I am not trying as hard to learn Korean poetry"
Yamaguchi Reiko, a Japanese hotel manager and another club member, feels that writing haiku with Koreans has enhanced cultural understanding
"Japanese and Koreans have different ways of perceiving nature," Reiko said. "Japanese tend to find maximum beauty when they see cherry flowers falling. Koreans' hearts exult when the flowers are in full blossom"
Rhee agreed: "It's the same moon. But in haiku, Koreans sing the moon with our heart. To Japanese, our haiku may sound too subjective and hard to understand. Japanese sing the moon with their eye. They prefer realism. Koreans may find their haiku bare and superficial"
Son is thought to have been the last tanka poet in South Korea. It was unclear how many South Koreans write haiku. Fewer than 10 Koreans, most of them in their 70s and 80s, regularly contribute to Japanese haiku magazines, said Kwak Dae Ki, 52, director of the Korea Haiku Institute which he founded two years ago
Since 1997, Kwak has been the host of an annual haiku competition that attracts more than 1,000 submissions from about 200 Koreans. Last year, he also staged a competition in "K-haiku" - haiku written in Korean
But his enterprise has not been without criticism
Younger generations in Japan and Korea, less shackled by wartime and colonial-era memories, eagerly trade popular culture trends. In Japan, Korean pop idols and TV series command large followings. Translations of Japanese novels sprinkle best seller lists in South Korea
"When my friends talk soccer, history and territorial disputes with Japan, they brim with patriotism " said Ahn Jong Seok, 27, a student who won last year's haiku competition. "But when they talk about Japanese comic books, movies and pop stars, they change completely and all rave"
But traditional Japanese poetry still has historical associations here that encourages its enthusiasts to maintain low profiles
On March 1, a national holiday marking the anniversary of a 1919 Korean uprising against Japan, President Lee vowed to abandon "myopic nationalism" and urged the two countries to "foster a forward-looking approach in line with the principles of pragmatism." Lee was born in 1941 in Osaka, Japan where his parents were working at the time
Political leaders on both sides had made similar overtures in the past
But they also were accused of pandering to nationalism for domestic political gain when they stoked disputes over territory or Japanese textbooks that Koreans believe whitewash Japan's militarist past
"I am still afraid to move my institute downtown " said Kwak who runs the Haiku Institute from his home in the southern city of Gyeongju. "If politicians stir up emotions again, my institute could become a target. People are already saying bad things about me behind my back"
Akita Kitade, a Japanese who published a biography of Son in 2001 said Son was introduced to Tanka when she won a scholarship to a Japanese university in 1941. Son sat in the front row of her first poetry class and did not realize that the other Korean students had boycotted it, refusing to learn a poetry form said to exemplify the Japanese national spirit
Although her native country ignored her poems she gave five of her six volumes of poetry the running title of "Rose of Sharon" for the South Korean national flower
"She kept stubbornly to Korean themes in her poems " Kitade said
"There is a poem where she describes how she and her husband when they were refugees during the Korean War, slept hugging each other to keep warm in winter. It's hard to find such passion in Japanese poems which tend to be more self-possessed and even cold"
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