Jeon Gisun/Matsuda Motoyoshi is a cultural translator and earthbag builder currently based mainly in Japan. As the director and coordinator of a team of cultural translators and editors that he established in 2015, he developed a unique cultural approach through co-organising a wide range of projects addressing lifestyle, community, art, food and craftmanship throughout Asia. As a member of 5 mutual aid communities, he continues to expand his living design practices through his characteristic architectural and woodworking techniques.
Born and raised as part of a minority group called Zainichi (a Japanese term referring to ethnic Koreans born in Japan) in a community of about 600,000 people in Japan, Jeon/Motoyoshi was surrounded by multiple identity crises relating to ethnicity, ethnic education, discrimination, politics and the concept of nationality. After coming to the realisation that it was necessary to expand his own consciousness beyond what he was born into to sustain real peace of mind in life, he began experimenting with various lifestyles to develop relationships between individuals that would spontaneously expand regardless of the often ingrained mindset that we are each born into.