Kim Iryeop


Kim Il-yeop or Kim Iryŏp, was a Korean writer, journalist, feminist activist, and Buddhist nun. Her given name was Kim Wonju. Her courtesy and dharma name was Iryeop.

Life

Kim Iryeop was born to a Methodist pastor and his wife in a northern part of the Korean Empire and grew to become an important modern literary, Buddhist and feminist thinker and activist.
Having completed her primary education after the death of her parents, she moved to Seoul to attend Ehwa Hakdang which is equivalent to high school education and in 1915 she moved on to Ehwa Hakdang. She completed her education at Ehwa in 1918 and married a professor of Yeonheui Junior College.
In 1919, Iryeop went to Japan to continue her studies and returned to Korea in 1920. Upon returning, she launched a journal, New Woman, which is credited to be the first women's journal in Korea that was published by women for the promotion of women's issues.
Because of her great intelligence and unique literary talent, which manifested itself early in her life, Iryeop influenced the Korean literary society of her time. She wrote about activities that reflected trends in the women’s liberation movement and this impetus for her founding New Woman. Over the years, a great number of her critical essays, poems and short novels about women's liberation struggling against the oppressive traditions of the period of Korea under Japanese rule were published in such Korean-language daily newspapers as The Dong-a Ilbo and The Chosun Ilbo, as well as in literary magazines including Kaebyeok and Chosun Mundan.
Iryeop ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1933 and moved into Sudeoksa in 1935, where she remained until she died.

Books

Jin Y. Park, trans. .