Abstract
ABSTRACT Pungmul, a form of Korean folk drumming, is prominent as a traditional Korean music practice among diasporic Koreans, including Zainichi (Korean residents in Japan). Over the last four decades, it has become popular across the globe as a tool for heritage education and a marker of ethnic identity. In this paper, I engage with several Zainichi Korean musicians who pursue pungmul as their full-time profession or as a serious leisure activity. In Japan, most pungmul musicians are third- or fourth-generation Korean migrants and, as a group, present a complex mix of state, national, and cultural affiliations as North Koreans, South Koreans, and naturalized Japanese. Considering the inherent social complexities among Zainichi, I delineate how a traditional Korean performing art form enables these Koreans to overcome and transcend social barriers and nation-state boundaries while shaping and expressing their identity as diasporic individuals.
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