Motoyuki Nomura, Pastor, Passed Away on July 26
Relief Work for the Poor in Cheonggyecheon in the 1970s and 1980s
Cheonggyecheon Museum to Launch Full-Scale Nomura Collection Archive
Documenting Cheonggyecheon Through Photographs and Records
The Cheonggyecheon Museum, an annex of the Seoul Museum of History, announced on August 5 that it will officially begin documenting the donated materials of the late Japanese pastor Motoyuki Nomura (1931?2025), who recorded the lives of residents in the Cheonggyecheon shantytown during the 1970s and 1980s. The museum is also preparing to hold a special memorial exhibition marking the first anniversary of his passing.
The appearance of the Cheonggyecheon shantytown in the 1970s photographed by the late Motoyuki Nomura. Cheonggyecheon Museum
The donated materials consist of photographs taken by Pastor Motoyuki Nomura himself, who used his camera to document and share the lives of people living in the Cheonggyecheon shantytown. These photographs vividly capture scenes from the Cheonggyecheon shantytown, which represented one aspect of Seoul undergoing rapid transformation due to urban industrialization in the 1970s.
Previously, in February 2006, after hearing news of the completion of the Cheonggyecheon restoration project, Pastor Motoyuki Nomura donated his photographs and materials documenting his relief work for the poor in Cheonggyecheon to the Cheonggyecheon Museum.
Starting in 2026, the Cheonggyecheon Museum will launch a three-year project to systematically document the Nomura Collection. Through professional cataloging and translation of the donated materials, the museum aims to build a comprehensive archive and provide citizens with in-depth analysis and information services.
In addition, in July 2026, to mark the first anniversary of Pastor Motoyuki Nomura's passing, the museum plans to hold a special memorial exhibition tentatively titled "Motoyuki Nomura, Who Became a Star of Cheonggyecheon."
Choi Byunggu, Director of the Seoul Museum of History, stated, "We are deeply grateful for the profound and noble dedication of Pastor Motoyuki Nomura, who devoted himself to the people of the Cheonggyecheon shantytown. We hope that, thanks to his efforts, the era of the Cheonggyecheon shantytown, which is gradually fading from memory, will be remembered for a long time."
The materials donated by Pastor Motoyuki Nomura can be viewed on the Cheonggyecheon Museum website.
Pastor Motoyuki Nomura was born in Kyoto, Japan in 1931 and was both a pastor and a social activist. After studying in the United States in 1954, he returned to Japan in 1961 and made his first visit to Korea in 1968. Between 1973 and 1985, he traveled between Japan and Korea more than 50 times to carry out relief work for the poor in Cheonggyecheon. Witnessing discrimination against Korean students and workers in Japan during his kindergarten and elementary school years, he developed a sense of social justice, believing that such problems stemmed from the wrongdoings committed by Japanese imperialism in the past. His relief work in Cheonggyecheon was part of his volunteer activities carried out with a sense of atonement as a Japanese national.
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