The first Korean braille, Hunmaengjeongeum at 100

In 1913, Park Du-seong became a teacher at a school for the blind in Seoul. It was the Japanese colonial period, so classes were taught in Japanese braille. It was not that there was no Korean braille at all. A four-dot braille made by an American missionary was in use. But it did not fit how Hangeul is built, so it was awkward to use.

In 1920, a ceremony marked 30 years since Japanese braille was created. His students asked whether there was no braille for Korean. That year he began research with his students. There were three goals: easy to learn, few dots, and no letters easily confused with one another.

The school blocked research into Korean braille. In 1923 he secretly formed the Korean Braille Research Committee with eight students. They worked day and night, studying the structure of Hunminjeongeum, and in the meantime he nearly lost his sight to keratitis.

On November 4, 1926, the 480th anniversary of the proclamation of Hunminjeongeum, he announced a six-dot Korean braille. It had 63 characters, covering consonants, vowels, and numbers. He borrowed from Hunminjeongeum to name it Hunmaengjeongeum, meaning the correct sounds for teaching the blind.

He said braille took five minutes to learn and half a day to read. He visited blind people who had been hiding at home and taught them, and he mailed reading material printed in braille so that people far away could learn too. When he died in 1963, his last words were that braille books should be shelved upright, not stacked. Stacked, the dots get pressed flat and can no longer be read.

Today, South Korea's official Korean braille is also based on Hunmaengjeongeum. The braille on elevator buttons, stair handrails, and the tops of drink cans is made of those six dots. This November 4 marks exactly 100 years.

Worth adding: to mark the centenary, the National Museum of World Writing Systems in Incheon is holding a special exhibition, 'From Dots to the World: Hunmaengjeongeum at 100', through February 14, 2027. The original 1926 Hunmaengjeongeum and the braille typewriter he used are on display.

Like King Sejong, who created Hangeul, Park Du-seong, who created Korean braille, said:
Even if both eyes are dark, the heart must not be dark as well.