What is "mangjeol"

Mangjeol is a unique Korean family name. It has its origins from a Japanese surname in the Kagoshima Prefecture by Mangjeol Ilrang , a mushroom farmer in Dong-myeon, Yangsan City, Gyeongsangnam-do who was born to a Japanese father and Korean mother towards the end of Japanese colonialism in Korea. His original Japanese name is . Uniquely, the bon-gwan of this surname is Dogan , the Korean name for the hometown of his Japanese grandfather (Shimama 島間, Minamitane 南種子町, Tanegashima Island 種子島, Kagoshima prefecture 鹿児島県). The 2000 South Korean census found 10 South Koreans belonging to one household who have this unique surname, with eight of them living in Yangsan, one in Busan, and one in Ansan. As usual Ichirō Amikiri is currently the patriarch of the Mangjeol family.

The surname, Mangjeol, became relatively well-known to the South Korean public when Nonghyeop awarded Mangjeol Ilrang the Cultural Welfare Prize in 2008.