“Peace, Human Rights and Sharing in Practice”: Five Recipients Selected for the 30th Manhae Grand Prize

【Financial News Inje=Reporter Kim Ki-seop】The 30th Manhae Grand Prize, which honors the spirit of Han Yong-un, recognized five recipients in three categories: Peace, Practice, and Literature and Arts.
According to the Manhae Festival Organizing Committee on the 9th, the awards ceremony for the 30th Manhae Grand Prize was held that day at the main auditorium of the Inje Haneulnaerin Center, alongside the 28th Manhae Festival. Attendees included Jihye, abbot of Sinheungsa, the headquarters temple of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism’s Third District; Yeo Jung-hyup, vice governor for administration of Gangwon State; National Assembly member Lee Yang-soo; Kim Yong-hyun, vice president for academic affairs at Dongguk University; Choi Sang-ki, head of Inje County; and Kim Do-hyung, chairman of the Inje County Council. They joined other figures from various fields in congratulating the recipients.
This year’s Manhae Grand Prize went to five people: one recipient in the Peace category, two in Practice, and two in Literature and Arts. Nishimori Shiozo, a former chairman of the Kochi Prefectural Assembly, received the Peace Prize. Attorney Park Jun-young and Professor Curie Ahn received the Practice Prize, while poet Jeong Ho-seung and Park Myeong-seong, artistic director of Shinsi Company, were selected for the Literature and Arts Prize.
Nishimori Shiozo, the former chairman who received the Peace Prize, served as a member of the Kochi Prefectural Assembly for approximately 30 years and worked to promote exchanges between Korea and Japan. He was recognized for contributing to reconciliation and peace between the two countries, particularly by introducing An Jung-geun’s vision of peace in East Asia to Japanese society and arranging the donation of related calligraphic works to Korea.
Attorney Park Jun-young, a recipient of the Practice Prize, has represented legally disadvantaged people for more than 20 years and secured acquittals in numerous retrials, including the Yakchon Five-Way Intersection, Samrye Nara Supermarket, and Nakdong Riverbank cases. He was also praised for continuing to provide public-interest and human-rights-centered legal representation and support for young people in crisis.
Professor Curie Ahn, who shared the Practice Prize, has worked since 1997 to protect the healthcare rights of medically vulnerable groups, including migrants, multicultural families, and homeless people. She led the founding of Raphael Clinic, where more than approximately 330,000 people, including migrants from more than approximately 100 countries, have received treatment. She also contributed to training medical professionals in medically underserved countries across Asia, putting medical service and sharing into practice.
Poet Jeong Ho-seung, a recipient of the Literature and Arts Prize, has carried on the tradition of Korean lyric poetry through more than 50 years of literary activity, singing of loneliness and sorrow, as well as love and hope. He has published numerous poetry collections, including “Human Because Lonely,” and was credited with broadening the foundation of contemporary Korean poetry through works addressing human dignity, consolation, and religious reflection.
Park Myeong-seong, artistic director of Shinsi Company and a fellow recipient of the Literature and Arts Prize, was recognized for helping popularize and industrialize musicals in Korea. He produced Rent, Mamma Mia!, and Billy Elliot the Musical, and contributed to expanding the creative foundation of Korea’s performing arts through sustained investment in original musicals and plays.
Marking its 30th anniversary this year, the Manhae Grand Prize highlighted the achievements of recipients who have consistently put the values of peace, human rights, sharing, literature, and the performing arts into practice.

[email protected] Kim Ki-seop Reporter