Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Jeju National Museum

Many people remember Seok Du Myung by the nickname Dr. Butterfly. However, it is not widely known that it was a connection to Jeju-do Island that led him to become an interdisciplinary scholar working in the natural sciences and humanities. Why was Jeju-do so special to Seok, who had traveled everywhere across the country? This exhibition was born with this question in mind.
The life of Seok Du Myung can be investigated through the several ways he was known, both those he gave himself and those assigned by others. They include “Seok Du Myung” (a spelling showing his pride in his hometown Pyeongyang and its local dialect), “an eccentric in Songdo” (so called when he was a teacher at Songdo Higher Common School in Gaeseong and became engrossed with butterflies without regard to the greater world around him), and “a half-Jeju islander” (as he was known as a mainlander who loved Jeju-do as much as anyone). Seok dedicated the forty-two years of his life to finding connections between details and the whole, such as between butterflies and other living organisms, between humans and nature, and between Korean people and others around the world.
This exhibition invites you to explore the dreams of Seok Du Myung, a man who lived life to the full during the Japanese occupation and in the period following Korea’s liberation from Japan. His unfulfilled dreams still resonate with current generations. Through this exhibition, you can become like a butterfly yourself as you fly through Seok’s dreamscape. We hope you find it a meaningful and inspiring experience.

★ Honoring Seok Du Myung’s support for Esperanto as a common international language, the exhibition panels and labels are provided in both Korean and Esperanto. English, Japanese, and Chinese versions can be found through the QR codes.
★ “Seok Du Myung” is the romanization he personally used during his lifetime. It reflects the pronunciation of Pyeongan-do Province dialect rather than the standard transliteration “Seok Ju-myeong.”

Prologue
Esperanto, literally meaning “one who hopes,” is the name of an international language put forward by Dr. Ludwik L. Zamenhof (1859–1917) in 1887 in hopes of fostering world peace. Seok Du Myung published his Lernolibro de Esperanto (Esperanto Textbook) in 1947 while South Korea was seeking to establish an independent government. A Chinese Yellow Swallowtail can be clearly seen on the cover of the book.
Seok Du Myung’s entomology studies, his research on Jeju-do Island, and the Esperanto movement he led were all streams leading to the same ocean. What hopes was he trying to project onto that ocean? Seok described them as follows.
“Just as my own life is precious, so is the life of another. If we realize that others wish to hold their own opinions to the same degree that we want to hold our own, we can naturally discuss, debate, and decide matters. That is the scientific attitude, and it is definitely democracy.”
In the decades since Seok’s passing, the historical cycle of frustrations and accomplishments has continued. On the eightieth anniversary of Korea’s liberation from Japan, we look back on Seok Du Myung, who dreamed of a unified and democratic nation.

Like a Butterfly in a Dream
Seok Du Myung illustrated the value of a nyang—a traditional Korean monetary unit—with lines on a map of the Korean Peninsula. Regions were divided with values of two, ten, or other amounts of a smaller unit called jeon. He mapped out how many coins were equivalent to one nyang in each region, revealing economic variations much like a biodiversity map.
Moving beyond his research on butterflies—which culminated in his English volume A Synonymic List of Butterflies of Korea—Seok sought to find a representation of Korea that would encompass both its natural environment and the cultural, historical, and philosophical expressions of its people. He believed that the culture of Korea could contribute to enriching the world and lead the nation toward independence. On Jeju-do Island, he discovered what he saw as the purest expression of Korean culture.
“Having lived on Jeju-do Island for two years, I can tell that there are heaps of golden nuggets of information scattered throughout the island that shed light on the history and culture of Joseon-era Korea.”
The academic career of Seok Du Myung, which first focused on butterflies and moved on to living organisms, language, and Korean Studies, burgeoned in Kagoshima, Japan and developed in Gaeseong and Jeju-do. Let us trace his presence within these layered strands of intellectual exploration.

An Encounter between Two Virtuosi
Reaching each other across a span of a hundred years, two virtuosi came face to face through paintings of butterflies: Nam Gye-u, a calligrapher and painter of the Joseon Dynasty whose butterfly paintings deserve global recognition, and Seok Du Myung, a biologist who identified thirty-seven species of butterflies to be found in works by Nam.
“Butterfly paintings by Nam Gye-u (sobriquet: Ilho) are ecological images that render life-size butterflies with precise details and using vibrant primary colors. I offer my sincere respect to Nam for creating paintings of such academic significance, especially as someone from a time long past.”
Let us go deeper into the dreams of these two virtuosi. The exploration of their dreams makes us wonder if the artist and biologist were attempting to transcend the hardships of human life by immersing themselves in the vibrant diverse aspects of nature.

The Room of Butterflies
“Butterfly, let us go to a lush mountain. Tiger swallowtail, why don’t you join us? When evening shadow falls on our way, let us enter the flowers and sleep there. If the flowers treat us coldly, let us sleep on leaves and then continue our journey.”
The beauty, freedom, and plaintiveness found in this poem from the Joseon Dynasty appear to reflect people’s feelings about butterflies.
Butterflies are deeply ingrained in the minds of Koreans. Many human affairs, such as the happiness of love, eternal parting, children’s laughter, and a long life, have been likened to butterflies.
We invite you to look through this room full of items adorned with butterflies, including daily household goods and a wedding dress made to be worn on a single special day.

Epilogue
1,879 days—five years and fifty-four days—is the time that passed between Korea’s liberation from Japan and the passing of Seok Du Myung. During this period, Seok wrote eighty books and articles spanning topics including entomology, Jeju-do Island, Esperanto, biology education, and social criticism. He spent countless nights writing, haunted by the thought that Korea might forget the true meaning of its newly-won independence.
“Bela tago” is Esperanto for a clear, beautiful day. Reading his unfinished diary entry from the day of his death, let us cherish the memory of Seok Du Myung, who left this world like a butterfly.
“September 24, 1950. Sunday. Bela tago—a clear, beautiful day. In the morning, my younger brother told me that the science building where I worked had been hit and was burning after a bombing raid. Alas, a large part of my life was lost in the end. I buried a manuscript that I had hidden during the day, covering it with soil. All through the night, relentless gunfire roared on both sides.”
“October 6, 1950. Friday. Bela tago—a clear, beautiful day.”