Pronunciation Guide
Names in Pachinko are romanized from Korean or Japanese, depending on the world a character moves through. The respellings below approximate the sounds for English readers; the stressed syllable is marked in teal.
The family surname Baek (백) runs through Isak, Noa, Mozasu, and Solomon. Japanese society and the use of pass-names (tsūmei) repeatedly obscure it, which is ultimately part of its thematic significance in the novel as a whole.
The Busan family
선자
Sunja
Daughter of a Busan boardinghouse keeper; the figure the novel follows across its generations.
훈이
Hoonie
Sunja’s father; a gentle fisherman’s son born with a cleft palate and a twisted foot.
양진
Yangjin
Sunja’s mother, who runs the family boardinghouse after her husband.
The Baek family
백이삭
Isak (Baek Isak)
A young Protestant minister from Pyongyang who lodges with the Busan family.
요셉
Yoseb
Isak’s older brother, already settled and working in Osaka.
경희
Kyunghee
Yoseb’s wife; warm, devout, and childless.
Connected to the family
고한수
Hansu (Koh Hansu)
A worldly, well-connected businessman originally from Jeju Island.
김창호
Kim Changho
A restaurant manager in Osaka who becomes important to the family’s livelihood.
The second generation
노아
Noa
Sunja’s elder son; studious, reserved, and anxious to belong.
モーザス
Mozasu
Sunja’s younger son; spirited and practical. The name renders the biblical Moses.
ユミ
Yumi
A skilled seamstress in Osaka; part of Mozasu’s adult life.
The third & fourth generations
ソロモン
Solomon (Baek)
Mozasu’s son, raised in comfort the earlier generations never knew.
Phoebe
A Korean American woman in Solomon’s adult life.
エツコ
Etsuko
A Japanese woman close to Mozasu in the later sections.
ハナ
Hana
Etsuko’s teenage daughter.
Community & workplace
ゴロー
Goro
A successful, generous pachinko-parlor owner who employs Mozasu.
春樹
Haruki Totoyama
A childhood friend of Mozasu’s from the uniform shop, later a police detective.
Key terms — Korean & Japanese
在日
Zainichi
Literally “residing in Japan”; the term for Koreans in Japan and their descendants.
パチンコ
pachinko
A pinball-like arcade gambling game; the parlor industry many Zainichi entered.
創氏改名
sōshi-kaimei
The colonial-era policy pressuring Koreans to adopt Japanese-style names.
通名
tsūmei
A Japanese “pass-name” used in daily life in place of one’s Korean name.
猪飼野
Ikaino
The Korean neighborhood in Osaka where much of the novel is set.
제사
jesa
The Korean ancestral memorial rite honoring the family dead.
한
han
A Korean concept of deep, accumulated sorrow and endurance.
한복
hanbok
Traditional Korean dress.