ACTIVITIES OVERSEAS

I went to look around an exhibition at the Osaka Korea Town Museum that is dedicated to the Korean community in Osaka, and looked at the books in its collection. At the Korea NGO Center I met and talked to its secretary-general, and participated in a report meeting on the Jeju April 3 incident. I collected information concerning the history and regions related to the incident.
In Osaka, in addition to information about related locations and events, I learned about the initiative to pass down its history to future generations.

The Seikyu Bunko (the name of a collection of books) in the Kobe Municipal Chuo Library, contains books and documents on history, legal matters, literature and so on about Japan and Korea, that were donated from the personal library of a man who conducted research into Korean history, and I perused books about Jeju Island, Zainichi Koreans (Koreans residing in Japan), Ama divers of Jeju Island, and traditional folktales of Jeju Island. As the time available to me in Japan was restricted it was rather difficult for me to research in detail the topics I wanted to, but it was a great opportunity that will tie in not only with my next work but into further research.

During my stay on Tsushima, centering on the harbors with connections to Ama divers (and particularly the Ama divers of Jeju Island), I visited places related to Tsushima and the Korean Peninsula. In addition, I also took photographs for the creation of my work. At the Tsushima Museum I was allowed to look around the exhibits and the preparations for a forthcoming exhibition, and gained information from the curator about the Ama divers on Tsushima, and the Jeju Haenyeo Museum(Haenyeo is the Korean word for the divers that are called Ama in Japan).

During this second visit, I reconnected with a curator at the Tsushima Museum who had supported my earlier research. Together, we visited the family of a former Ama divers living in Tsushima, whose roots lie in Jeju. They kindly shared memories of the late mother, who had once worked as a diver. I was also introduced to a practicing male diver, who generously showed me his boat and diving tools.

In the days that followed, I was guided to places where Ama divers of Jeju Island once lived, as well as to inlets and ports where they worked. These sites formed part of the visual material for the project. I also had the chance to meet a photographer who has documented them, helping contextualize their stories within a broader narrative.

On the final day, I visited a memorial tower, built to commemorate the victims of the Jeju Island April 3rd Incident, along with sites connected to its establishment, where a local resident shared stories about the memorial.