Following The Footsteps Of Yoon Dongju

At a mission school in Gyeongseong (old name of Seoul), the capital city of colonial Joseon (old name of Korea), Yoon Dongju absorbed ideas and trends from the world, interacted with various young people and intellectuals, experienced society, and faced the  identity of the nation in a wider perspective. One of the things that were central to his growth in this process was literature. The classrooms and campus, everything was literary nourishment to him. These school grounds are clearly expressed in Shooting at the Moon, a class assignment that was polished and submitted to the literary page of Chosun Ilbo, and in "A Flowering Street", written while strolling in the garden of the main building during his open hours between classes. 

As a student of Yonhui College, Yoon Dongju lived and interacted with many of his seniors and juniors in the dormitory, and the works he created became more mature. It is believed that he started living on the third floor of the dormitory before he moved to the second floor on his third year of college. Starting with "A New Path", a poem that expresses the excitement of a freshman who just arrived at the dormitory, he wrote poems such as "Hospital", "Consolation", and "The Beatitudes". As such, his days and nights at the the dormitory were a time of intense contemplation.

Baekyang-ro (meaning ‘white tree path’) is the main path at the center of the campus and was built in 1917. Its name comes from the white poplars that were initially planted along the sides of the path. When Yoon Dongju was a student of Yonhui College,  you could see wagons and students in school uniforms going back and forth on this path. His poem "A New Path" expresses the excitement of a freshman first setting foot on this path of the campus.

At the end of Baekyang-ro, where Yoon Dongju used to walk, in front of the Underwood Statue and the Appenzeller Hall, the stone stairs where the poet took his graduation pictures still remember him. There was no school gate at the time, so it is said that  students only felt like they had arrived at school once they stepped on these stone stairs after walking through the long Baekyang-ro. These stairs were built with the support of New York alumni in 1927, and Yoon Dongju sat here to chat with his colleagues and took his graduation pictures in 1941.

The lecture buildings where Yoon Dongju studied still remain in Yonsei University. The Appenzeller Hall, completed in 1924, was a building mainly used for natural science classes and is currently registered as Historic Site No. 277.

If you come out through the entrance of Cheongsongdae and go past the Appenzeller Hall, you will find an outdoor theater on your left. For over 100 years, this outdoor theater held major school events, including entrance ceremonies, graduation ceremonies, chapels, concerts, cheering festivals, and parks. The outdoor theater, which was completed in 1933, is said to have been the largest theater in the East at the time. When Yoon Dongju was studying at Yonhui College, graduation ceremonies and chapels were also held here, and his graduation pictures include the scenery of this outdoor theater.

If you walk up the path between the Underwood Hall and Appenzeller Hall, you will find Cheongsongdae. Cheongsongdae means ‘listening to the sound of pine trees’. On the hill behind this wooded campus, Yoon Dongju took walks and chatted with his fellows. His mentor Professor Lee Yangha’s essay, "Admiration of Verdure", was also inspired and created here. Yoon Dongju took graduation pictures with his classmates here.    

Yoon Dongju also lived in boarding houses when he was studying at Yonhui College. In his second year, he boarded in the area of Seosomun, Bukahyeon-dong, and in his fourth year from late May to early September 1941, he and his junior in college, Jeong Byeonguk (1922–1982), lodged in the hanok (traditional Korean house) of Novelist Kim Song (1909-1988) located in 9 Nusang-dong, Jongno-gu. After that, Dongju moved to a boarding house in the vicinity of 240 Bukahyeon-dong. He captured the scenery of the streets and and people he saw on the way to and from school in prose, such as "The End and the Beginning". Unfortunately, the boarding houses he lived in no longer exist. 

This is the place Yoon Dongju is believed to have boarded while he was attending Rikkyo University. The poems he wrote during this period talk about the footsteps of and the emptiness felt by a young  international student wandering around the streetcars, streetlamps, and stations of the bustling streets of Tokyo. His longing for the spring of Seoul is also expressed from "a silent boarding room in the outskirts of Tokyo". The boarding house buildings where he lodged while studying in Tokyo no longer exist, and the Braille Library and a flower design academy now stand there.

The campuses of Yonhui University and Rikkyo University were similar in their atmosphere. This is because Murphy & Dana Architects, which was primarily responsible for designing mission schools in East Asia, was involved in the design of both schools. Yoon Dongju studied abroad but in a campus atmosphere he was familiar with. In Tokyo, pivoting around Rikkyo University alumni, the ‘Rikkyo Gathering in Commemoration of Poet Yoon Dongju’ has been actively undertaking activities since 2007 and a memorial service  has been held for the poet every year since 2008.    

Some may be wondering why Yoon Dongju transferred to Doshisha University in Kyoto. We can only presume his motive. First, Jeong Jiyong, a poet Yoon Dongju liked, had studied English Literature in Doshisha University earlier, so Dongju may have had a favorable  impression of English Literature at Doshisha University. Another possibility is that Kyoto is where Song Monggyu, one of his best friends, settled first. Yoon Dongju, who had always attended mission schools, ended up attending Doshisha University, a mission schools, ended up attending Doshisha University, a mission school in Kyoto. He attended the fall semester in October 1942 and the spring semester in April 1943 here.

A poetry stone to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Yoon Dongju’s death was erected in front of the Doshisha University chapel on February 1995. It was erected jointly by the ‘Doshisha Alumni Korea Club,’ the ‘Group that Cares for Yoon Dongju,’ and the  ‘Poetry Stone Building Committee.’ A poetry stone for Jeong Jiyong (1902-1950) was also erected next to him later. The poetry stones are engraved with "Prelude" for Yoon Dongju and "Ap-Chun" for Jeong Jiyong, and it is meaningful that Yoon Dongju finally met Jeong Jiyong, and it is meaningful that Yoon Dongju finally met Jeong Jiyong, a poet he liked during his lifetime, albeit through poetry stones erected side by side.

Poet Yoon Dongju stayed 10 months of 1942 in a boarding house in Kyoto where many Korean international students lodged. Kyoto University of the Arts was later built on this site, but the ‘Yoon Dongju Gravestone’ and the ‘Yoon Dongju Poetry Stone’ were erected  in a corner of the university site to remember the existence of a Korean international student poet named Yoon Dongju who lived there. In Kyoto, the ‘Kyoto Group in Honor of Poet Yoon Dongju’ and the ‘Building Committee for the Monument of Poet Yoon Dongju’ and the ‘Building Committee for the Monument of Poet Yoon Dongju’ are active.

The Suspension Bridge on the Uji River is where Yoon Dongju’s last picture was taken. This is where you can see his last appearance and deeds. It was the last outing Dongju, who had to quit his studies and return home due to strengthening war footing, went on. Here, you can see the sky, the flowing water, the forest, and the bridge that had filled his eyes.

At the Hakko Bridge located near the Suspension Bridge, a poetry stone for Poet Yoon Dongju, the ‘Memories and Reconciliation Stone,’ was erected in 2017 thanks to the long efforts of many people, including the ‘Building Committee for the Monument of Poet Yoon Dongju.’ On this poetry stone, the poem "A New Path" that the poet published in Munwu, the Yonhui College magazine, is engraved in Korean and Japanese.

where Yoon Dongju’s posthumous work was preserved

This is Jeong Byeonguk’s house where Yoon Dongju’s only remaining handwritten manuscript, Sky, Wind, Stars, and Poem, was hidden away from Japanese crackdown and confiscation. The house was preserved to this day and was designated as Registered Cultural  Heritage No. 341 in 2007 in recognition of its cultural and historical value.