Motoyuki Nomura, the Star of Cheonggyecheon

The Cheonggyecheon Museum will host the special exhibition "Motoyuki Nomura: The Star of Cheonggyecheon" in the first half of 2026. The late Motoyuki Nomura was a pastor and social activist who carried out relief activities for the poor in Cheonggyecheon during the 1970s and 80s. After his first visit to Korea in 1968, he traveled between Japan and Korea approximately 50 times from 1973 to 1985 to care for the lives of the neighbors in Cheonggyecheon.

In 2006, upon hearing the news of the completion of the Cheonggyecheon Restoration Project, Motoyuki Nomura expressed his wish to donate photographs and materials taken during his relief activities in Cheonggyecheon. The Cheonggyecheon Museum visited his home in Japan to receive these materials.

The "Nomura Collection," one of the representative holdings of the Cheonggyecheon Museum, vividly captures the shantytown area of Cheonggyecheon—a cross-section of Seoul as it expanded rapidly due to urban industrialization in the 1970s—and holds historical value as the final record of a vanished Seoul. To mark the first anniversary of his passing, we are bringing these precious materials out once again to present them to you.

We hope this will be a time to follow in his noble footsteps, starting from the Cheonggyecheon shantytowns, as he spent his life sharing and standing in solidarity with neighbors in need.