Welcome to Mantifang. My name is 휴고 J. 스멀. I write about Korea, cultural memory, friendship, koi, landscape, spiritual atmosphere, and the way personal encounters can open a deeper understanding of place.

Mantifang began as a personal journey, but over time it has become a wider archive: part cultural platform, part literary workspace, part record of friendship, and part bridge between Korea, the Netherlands, koi culture, aquascaping, and the book I continue to write.

The site does not aim to be a commercial travel guide or a quick encyclopedia. It is built slowly, through essays, longreads, poems, field memories, and carefully connected pages.

What Hugo J. Smal Connects Through Mantifang

Mantifang is the central home for my writing and research. Around it, several related projects form a wider ecosystem.

• 만티팡 — longform writing on Korea, culture, memory, koi, Baedagol, and personal experience.
• 한국인과 나 — the autobiographical book project at the heart of much of my work.
• 지장 프랙탈 — a literary and spiritual gateway connected to Korean Buddhism, memory, ethics, and return.
• KoiTalk — practical koi knowledge, koi varieties, pond care, water quality, health, and beginner guidance.
• 미로샤키 — aquascaping, aquarium plants, natural layouts, Mickey’s work, and a renewed community around underwater nature.
• 배다골 — stories, memories, and updates connected to Baedagol, Goyang, Kim Young Soo, and the Korean koi world.

Korea, Koi, and Personal Memory

My writing about Korea is rooted in lived experience. It is shaped by visits, friendships, conversations, misunderstandings, memories, and the long process of returning to certain places again and again.

Koi also became part of that story. Through Korean koi culture, Goyang Koi Farm, Baedagol, and the wider world of nishikigoi, I found another way to understand patience, beauty, selection, care, and continuity.

These themes are not separate for me. Korea, koi, landscape, memory, literature, and friendship often move through the same current. Mantifang tries to preserve that current without forcing it into a single category.

The Book: The Koreans and I

한국인과 나 is my long autobiographical book project. It brings together personal history, Korean encounters, cultural observation, tension, friendship, humour, unease, and the strange ways in which a life can be redirected by another country.

Many pages on Mantifang are connected to this wider book-world. Some are background, some are fragments, some are cultural context, and some are part of the atmosphere from which the book continues to grow.

Start here: 한국인과 나.

지장 프랙탈

The Jijang Fractal is a separate but deeply connected literary and spiritual project. It draws on Korean Buddhist atmosphere, Jijang Bosal, memory, moral attention, repetition, compassion, and the idea that certain images and encounters return in altered form.

It is not meant as a simple doctrine or formula. It is a reading path, a literary structure, and a way of approaching the recurring patterns in my work.

Visit: JijangFractal.com.

KoiTalk and Practical Koi Knowledge

KoiTalk is the practical side of the koi world connected to Mantifang. Where Mantifang often moves through story, memory, and cultural background, KoiTalk focuses on clear guidance for koi keepers.

It includes beginner guides, koi variety pages, water quality explanations, koi health information, buying advice, and the Ask Shikibu concept for practical questions.

Visit: KoiTalk.app.

Miroshaki and Mickey’s Aquascaping World

Miroshaki is connected to Mickey’s aquascaping work and to a wider love for underwater nature, aquarium plants, patience, design, and community. It continues an older forum history and carries a quiet respect for the legacy of Takashi Amano.

Miroshaki is being rebuilt slowly as a friendly place for aquascaping, plant knowledge, beginner learning, and natural aquarium inspiration.

Visit: Miroshaki.com.

Baedagol, Goyang, and Kim Young Soo

Baedagol holds a special place in my Korean story. It connects koi, landscape, friendship, Goyang, family memory, and the work of Kim Young Soo, president of Baedagol Theme Park and Goyang Koi Farm.

On Mantifang, Baedagol is not only a place. It is one of the living centers of the wider story.

자세히 읽어보세요: 배다골.

Where to Begin With Hugo J. Smal

If you are new to my work, these pages are good starting points.

• 한국인과 나
• 나의 한국 여행
• 배다골
• 한국사 타임라인
• Korean Archaeology
• 한국 샤머니즘
• KoiTalk
• 미로샤키
• 지장 프랙탈

Contact Hugo J. Smal

You can contact me about Mantifang, Korean culture, koi, Baedagol, Miroshaki, KoiTalk, or the wider book project.

• 이메일: h.smal@me.com
• Messenger: HugoJ.Smal
• Facebook: 휴고 J. 스멀