I'd heard here and there that the royal family of Japan has Korean origins, long ago. Not particularly surprising; that's true of a lot of Japanese provided you look back far enough. However, I was having a conversation with the father of one of my wife's friends the other day, a stereotypical Korean "gentleman and scholar" now in his mid 80s. He asserted that not only did the Japanese royals originate in Korea, he named their ancestral home: Yongwan County in south Cholla province. It's in the northwest corner, on the coast, in case my Hangul romanization is unclear. I thought that was an interesting detail, but I didn't get the chance to pursue it further. I do wonder where he found that piece of information - I've been to Yongwan - there's a really great fish that's fished locally in profusion, known as Yongwan Koolbee. Also, the fishing ports there make some liquor that's highly flammable. Anyone else have some insight on this?