Sunshine Lee's Culture Essay Written in Poetry Why Still Kyoto? I came back to Korea after putting my long life in the U.S. behind me. I still had ties with Washington D.C. New York and Boston, so I went there quite often. But after 20 years had passed since then, and I got to go to Japan more often.
It was rather a purposeful trip, rather than a leisurely trip. I went there for meetings, seminars, poetry recitals, speeches and concerts where they made music out of my poems.
It’s been a long time since traveling to another land has been blocked due to COVID-19. It is the trip of healing and human exchange that we need the most when the ordinary life stuck inside becomes more and more tiring, but many people, including myself, have not been able to travel to Japan. As everyone has realized, however COVID-19 will subside, and we will be able to resume traveling again.
It was in 2018 when 'Why Kyoto?' was published. After my two poetry collections 'How Could Anything but Blooming Spring Exists in Life' 'Because of Your Heart a Flower Blooms' published in Korea and Japan in 2011, became the talk of the town, I got to visit Japan a lot more often. I felt guilty that I didn’t know Japan too well and decided to go to Kyoto, the old capital of Japan for more than 1,000 years, to study. It was in 2016 that I graduated from Doshisha University, so this book was written over the span of more than 4 years.
Come to think of it, the Japan that I thought was close and I knew well, was a strange foreign country. The studying itself was hard, but I wrote about what I saw and felt that I couldn’t from the numerous several-day visits. People have visited and still will visit Japan for sightseeing. They just saw Japanese history and culture superficially as I did, even though they would be able to see more deeply if they tried a little harder. Moreover, I felt sorry that tourists didn’t understand the Japanese people or what the Japanese people thought.
Out of a sense of duty that I needed to convey what I learned and realized though late, I started writing. Studying Kyoto and Japan closely from the visits and stays of last decade, I was reminded again of our close connections with Japan. I also learned why they built a poetry monument for Son Hoyun, a Korean Poet in Aomori by the Pacific Ocean.
I had thought that I had done my duty by writing a thick book of 400 pages. Then I thought of what was left to be supplemented, from the current circumstances and people taking my book to Kyoto and asking me about it.
And above all, I feel heavy-hearted that the two countries are not close – we should be close to each other whether it be for our geological, historical or blood ties.
It’s been 10 years since the antipathy for each other country from Korea and Japan has surfaced and I waited with patience for them to subside. As the saying goes, the antonym of love is not antipathy but apathy, and it applies here too. I feel sorry that we have grown apathetic to each other.
My mother’s wish that there will be no conflicts between neighbors, neighboring countries and humankind became my wish too. I think it’s not right to leave a situation like this to our posterity.
COVID-19-induced contactless era was long. My contactless era was much longer due to an accident. And I wrote slowly during that time, worried about the Korea-Japan relations and antipathy of Koreans and the Japanese toward each other.
While there are a lot of tourist attractions that I want to keep as a secret in Kyoto, there is also a quiet town named Demachi where I used to live – I would wear a backpack every morning and commute to the campus from there. Cultures of Korea and the U.S. have been ingrained into me, but I somehow became known as an expert in Japan I humbly present 'Why Kyoto 2' picturing the town of Demachi. 'Why Kyoto' was written while traveling frequently to or staying in Kyoto.' Why Kyoto 2' was written in reminiscence, unable to visit Kyoto before the outbreak of COVID-19. Yet, I poured my heart in the 44 stories in 'Why Kyoto 2' like I did in the 61 stories in the last book.
Japanese translation of 'Why Kyoto' will be published soon.
I never give up hope no matter what. I have faith that the world is still good hearted and that our relations, our 2,000-year-old Korea-Japan relations will be beautiful again.
I caress Mugunghwa and Cherry blossoms In the hope that neighboring countries will be close in hearts too
Son Hoyun
P.S. Since readers have visited the ‘8 attractions in Kyoto I want to keep a secret’, I included 9 more attractions that I recommend. I think those places are at their best in the seasons that I mention in the book.
House of Mother & Daughter Poets, Son Hoyun & Lee Sunshine Pirun-dong Seoul
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