박두성 朴斗星

Educator and pioneer of education for the visually impaired who created the Korean braille system "Hunmaeng Jeongeum"

Life & career

Of the Muan Park clan, he was born in Ganghwa, Incheon. From 1913 he devoted himself to educating the visually impaired at the blind and deaf department of the Jesaengwon, and keenly felt the limitations of the Korean braille modeled on Japanese braille.

After long research, in 1926 he completed and promulgated the six-dot Korean braille system called "Hunmaeng Jeongeum (訓盲正音)." Easy to learn and scientific in structure, it became the foundation of the Korean braille used by the visually impaired in Korea to this day.

He later served as principal of Incheon Yeonghwa School, and worked on braille Bible translation, transcribing the New Testament (1941) and the complete Old and New Testaments (1957). He received the National Medal of Merit in 1962 and the Silver Crown Order of Cultural Merit (posthumous) in 1992.

Other 무안 박씨 figures