Japanese book club comes to Korea to pay tribute to Park Gyung-ni

Japanese book club comes to Korea to pay tribute to Park Gyung-ni. November. 22, 2016 07:12. by Jee-Young Kim kimjy@donga.com. A Japanese group of book club members who read Korean novelist Park Kyung-ni's “The Land" visited Tongyeong, a small city in southeastern Korea, on Monday.

The book club consisting of some 30 Japanese writers, poets, publishers and readers paid tribute to the author's tomb in Tongyeong and held an event to celebrate the publication of the epic novel in Japanese. They dedicated to the author’s grave the volume 1 and 2 of the Japanese version of “The Land” published by Cuon. The event was attended by major Japanese media outlets including Asahi, Yomiuri, Mainichi, and Kyodo News Agency as well as Jisako Shimizu who translated the literary work and Minato Kawamura who interviewed the author when she was alive.

“Though I read just volume one and two, there were plenty of people in the novel. It was impressive that all of them were quite strong and strong-willed people” Poet Etsuko Hoshino said. “Although I haven’t got the gist of The Land, the great historical novel also famous in Japan, yet, it had vivid descriptions and was such a page turner.”

“It’s pretty interesting to read the descriptions about the rural life and people’s conversations," said Takashi Kuroda, the editor of the publisher. "As the story itself is interesting, I introduce the book to other people.”

Before returning to Japan, the book club will look around the author’s memorial hall in Tongyeong and the house of Choi Champan in Hadong, South Gyeongsang Province, the background of the novel and the set for the namesake drama on Tuesday. “I witnessed several times that cultural understanding overcomes political conflicts," Cuon CEO Kim Seung-bo said. ‘The Land’ will play such role despite the strained relationship between Korea and Japan.”

Japanese publisher Cuon has translated 15 books of Korean authors including Han Kang’s "The Vegetarian." It will publish the Japanese version of the entire 20 volumes of "The Land" by 2020.