Along with Jeju Olle-gil Trails, Mt. Jiri’s Dulle-gil Trails have established themselves as paths of pilgrimage while contributing to the recent walking culture boom. Pictorial Letters from Mt. Jiri’s Dulle-gil Trails, created by Lee Sang-yoon, the “protector of dulle-gil” with his insights, and Lee Ho-shin, the “artist on the road” with his rich and realistic landscapes of Mt. Jiri, is an in-depth account of their desire to create encounters between people and the nature of Mt. Jiri through conversations on life and peace.

In the 21 letters written in India ink while hiking the 21 trails of Mt. Jiri’s Dulle-gil, Lee Sang-yoon and Lee Ho-shin experience the landscape of this majestic mountain beyond a fleeting admiration, as landscape and life experience cohere for the project’s 24 months. To look back and reflect upon life during a pilgrimage on Mt. Jiri is very different from appreciating the mountain’s beautiful landscape in momentary awe. The book created by the real experience of walking on the trails around the mountain while drawing and writing encapsulates not only the four seasons on the trails themselves, but also the stories of the people living there and of the homeland that sustains them. The steps of the two pilgrims Lee Sang-yoon and Lee Ho-shin keep pace with the trails’ landscape and allow for time to catch the life scenes of other people in the landscape. In every moment that connects the lives of the two pilgrims with the lives of the people, the stories of the 21 Dulle-gil trails are filled with insights that go beyond admiration.