Mangjeol is a unique Korean family name. It has its origins from a Japanese surname in the Kagoshima Prefecture

Kagoshima Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyushu. The capital is the city of Kagoshima.- Geography :Kagoshima Prefecture is located at the southwest tip of Kyushu and includes a chain of islands stretching further to the southwest for a few hundred kilometers...

 by Mangjeol Ilrang (망절일랑), a mushroom farmer who was born to a Japanese father and Korean mother towards the end of Japanese colonialism in Korea

Korea under Japanese rule

Korea was under Japanese rule as part of Japan's 35-year imperialist expansion . Japanese rule ended in 1945 shortly after the Japanese defeat in World War II....

. His original Japanese name is . Uniquely, the bon-gwan

Bon-gwan

Bon-gwan is the concept of clan in Korea, which is used to distinguish clans that happen to share a same family name . Since Korea has been traditionally a Buddhist country this clan system is cognate with Gotra in Sanskrit texts and shares most features...

 of this surname is Dogan (도간, 島間), the Korean name for the hometown of his Japanese grandfather (Shimama 島間, Minamitane 南種子町, Tanegashima Island 種子島, Kagoshima prefecture 鹿児島県). There are currently 10 South Koreans who have this unique surname of Japanese origin and as usual Ichirō Amakiri is currently the patriarch of the Mangjeol family.

The surname, Mangjeol, became relatively well-known to the South Korean public when Nonghyeop awarded Mangjeol Ilrang the Cultural Welfare Prize (농협문화복지대상) in 2008.