Do you know an eternal love is the saddest thing in the world ?

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Eternal loves are existing only in the novels and the poems.
At least, I had thought like that until when I knew about love between a Poet and a Ghisaeng.

Ghisaeng is Geisha in Korean.
I think you’ve already heard of Geisha before.
Korea and Japan is very close country.
Due to the geopolitical reasons, Japan had accepted cultures and scholarships through Korean peninsular. I don’t know the exact origin of the Ghisaeng, but it seemed that the Ghisaeng and Geisha were similar to each other.

In Korea the Ghisaeng was a entertainer. They had learnt all kinds of cultire in the school. They needed to sing a song and dance. Among the Ghisaengs there were so many great poets and artists. So many korean traditional songs and dances could be preserved by Ghisaengs.

After liberation from Japanese imperial rule, the Ghisaeng shool was closed. So It could be said that the Japanese Imperial ruling time was the last generation of the Ghisaeng.

At that time, there were the one of the most famous poor young genius poet and the brilliant Ghisaeng.
They had loved each other until the destiny took them apart.
The Poet was Baek Seok, the Ghisaeng was Kim Youghan.

Baek Seok was born in Northern area of korean peninsula, and Seoul was Kim younghan’s home town. Kim younghan was very smart and intelligent.
1940 th she had studied in the University. But the poverty brought her to the life of Ghisaeng.
At that time they met together.

Photos of Poet Baek Seok

When he was a english teacher

When he was a student

Photo of Kim Younghan

at age of 18 years old, her dancing was taken into picture and seemed to be made as a postcard.

It was said that she was so beautiful. But strage enough, her photos were not so much left behind.

This one is the only photo I could find in the internet and books.

They had lived together for a short time. He went to the Manchuria and she left in Seoul. While they were taken apart, the korea was liberated from the Japanese rule, and Korea was divided. After while korean war broke in 1950.

They could not see again until die.

Under the communist rule, he could not write poems anymore. He had live as farm worker and died in 1995 at the age of 83 years old.
He got married in North Korea. He had a son and a daughter. I found his family photo in internet.

Ghisaeng Kim youghan became a billionaire after Korean war. She had run a famous restaurant. But she had regretted not to follow him to the Manchuria. She died in 1999 at the age of 80years old. They had lived together for 3 years.

But she had never forget him in all her life. She had never eaten anything in his birthday in all her life. Before passing away, she donate her all assets and money worth of 100 million dollars to respectable monk. She wanted to make her restaurant a Buddhist temple.

I visited this temple and took the photos.
I will post when it comes to the temple which has beautiful, sad and eternal love story.

It is strange and mysterious that every eternal love is sad, the saddest thing in the world is an eternal love.