Gang Dae-sik, head of the Dong-gu District Office in Daegu, on Aug. 31 made a special but familiar trip to nearby Mount Palgongsan.

It was the week before Chuseok, or Korean Thanksgiving, a time when Koreans visit the old tombs of their ancestors to pull out the weeds and trim the grass.

But the person buried in the tomb Gang and his colleagues tended to was neither a relative nor an acquaintance. The tomb belongs to a member of the Son family, who came from a small village nearby. About 15 people from the Iljik branch of the Son family are buried there.

The man in the tomb was the great-great-grandfather of Masayoshi Son, the founder of Japan’s largest telecommunications company, SoftBank.

Though the Japanese billionaire was born in Japan in 1957 and had few connections with South Korea, his father was born in Daegu. “Masayoshi Son can be considered to have links to Daegu,” a Dong-gu district office insider said. “We are quite proud of Son. We understand that he cannot pay a visit to his great-great-grandfather’s tomb, but at the same time we believe that he remembers his roots,” he added. 

But the weeding ritual was more than a way of paying respect to the ancestor of a successful businessman. It was part of a four-year effort to encourage a man with an estimated $19.7 billion in assets to invest in his “roots.”

The weeding ceremony dates back to 2011, started by former district head Lee Jae-man. Gang took over the event when his term began in 2014. They aim to draw investments from Son in the high-tech complex for domestic and international medical-related businesses slated to be established in the city. “Apart from a simple business effect, it will be good publicity,” an official said.

And it seems that Son is capable of making that dream come true.

The 57-year-old was the third-richest man in Japan as of 2013, according to Forbes magazine. Often referred to by his Korean-style name Son Jeong-eui here, the Internet and telecom mogul has made a fortune through his daring but meticulous management style.

With his “think until your brain seems to come apart” style came some of the most successful investments in business history, including Yahoo, Vodafone, Alibaba and Sprint. 

And Daegu authorities are hoping that the city will be Son’s latest investment, at least for the sake of his ancestors. The Dong-gu officials have reportedly sent a video message of the weeding along with invitations but have yet to receive a reply.

“There’s no harm in taking good care of your ancestors,” said Chun Seong-jo, a professor at the Yeongnam University Lifelong Education Center. Chun, a feng shui expert, says that the site of the tomb of Son’s great-great-grandfather “has the shape of eggs hatching in a phoenix’s nest” and that it represents the birth of a “superrich” person.

“Taking good care of your ancestors is essential for preserving your wealth,” he said.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)