 While supporting himself through part-time work, he founded Mukuge no Kai, one of the predecessor organisations of Mintohren.The name came from "mukuge", the Japanese word for "hibiscus syriacus", a former symbol of resistance to Japanese colonial rule in Korea and the national flower of South Korea.He hoped to address the problems of violence and delinquency among Korean youth in Osaka; he chose to found a new association rather than work through existing ethnic associations such as Mindan or Chongryon because he felt both were more concerned with the politics of the Korean peninsula than of local Korean communities in Japan.