Photo/Illutration Chin Jukan XV is greeted at a memorial event after visiting the grave of Chin Tokichi I’s parents in Gimpo, South Korea, on July 9. (Kiyohide Inada)

GIMPO, South Korea—Chin Jukan XV believes he has accomplished the wish of the “founding father” of his pottery family that had been left unfulfilled for more than four centuries.

The 62-year-old master potter from Kagoshima Prefecture visited the grave in South Korea for the parents of Chin Tokichi I, who was taken from Korea to Japan when warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) invaded the peninsula toward the end of the 16th century.

All succeeding potters in the Chin family were born in Japan, including Chin Jukan XV, the 15th in the hereditary line.

The grave is located in a leafy rural district of Gimpo city in Gyeonggi province, about an hour’s car ride from downtown Seoul.

20220726-korea-2-L
Chin Jukan XV, center, worships at the grave of Chin Tokichi I’s parents in Gimpo, South Korea, on July 9. (Kiyohide Inada)

Chin Jukan XV, who operates a famed Satsuma-ware kiln in Hioki, Kagoshima Prefecture, visited the tomb for the first time on July 9 as if he were Chin Tokichi I, who was never able to attend the gravesite.

He listened attentively to accounts given by family clan members, who had assembled for the occasion, and offered flowers to the grave in the scorching summer heat.

“We continue to bear the family name of Chin to this day in carrying on Tokichi I’s sentiments,” he said before an audience of about 100 during a memorial event. “I have visited the grave today on Tokichi’s behalf. I believe that throughout his life, he never forgot about his parents, whom he longed to see until his last moment, and about the scenery here.”

He choked back tears toward the end of his speech.

“I conclude by letting you know that our household has never disgraced the good family name of Chin during the 424 years,” he said.

The Chin family derives from the Cheongsong Shim clan, which has its roots in the county of Cheongsong, North Gyeongsang province, in the southeast of South Korea.

Chin Tokichi I was one of the Koreans brought to Japan’s Satsuma province, today’s western Kagoshima Prefecture, in 1598 by Shimazu Yoshihiro (1535-1619), a warlord who took part in Hideyoshi’s invasion of Korea.

His descendants have kept the fire burning at their kiln as potters for 15 generations in Japan.

Chin Jukan XV said he learned about the presence of the grave from a member of the family clan when he visited South Korea in May this year to attend President Yoon Suk-yeol’s inauguration ceremony.

The clan member told him that the gravesite has long been treated with meticulous care.

Chin Tokichi I, whose name is pronounced Shim Dang-gil in Korean, was likely in his 20s when he was taken to Japan, members of the Cheongsong Shim clan said.

20220726-korea-4-L
Chin Jukan XV, left, unveils the sign of South Korea’s honorary consulate general in Kagoshima with Lee Hee-sup, the country’s consul general in Fukuoka, in Hioki, Kagoshima Prefecture, in April 2021. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

No records are available on how his parents felt after they were separated from their son, they added.

Chin Jukan XV has promoted friendship between Japan and South Korea. He was appointed as honorary consul general of South Korea in Kagoshima last year. His now-deceased father became the first to take up the post in 1989.

“I feel very happy because it’s like I now have a second hometown,” he said after visiting the grave in Gimpo. “I will tell the story to my ancestors when I am back in Kagoshima Prefecture. I believe they will be happy about it.”

Related News