Gwak Eun Ritual House, Okcheon

This building is the jaesil, a ritual house used for ancestral rites and quiet preparation before them, of Gwak Eun, a civil official of the reign of King Seongjong of Joseon who served as magistrate of Damyang and as deputy third royal secretary in the Royal Secretariat. It is said to have been built after his death in 1491, was repaired in 1894, the 20th year of Emperor Gojong's reign, and was restored again after flood damage in 1978. The building has a five-bay front and a bay-and-a-half side, roofed with a single-eaved paljak (hip-and-gable) roof. Its floor plan runs, from the east side, a side room, a wooden-floored hall (daecheong), an ondol (heated) room, and a kitchen. A narrow open veranda (toemaru) runs along the front, and in front of the east ondol room there is a raised wooden floor (numaru) with a separate firebox installed beneath it. The building stands on a high foundation of natural stone with unhewn cornerstones; round columns support the front, while square columns form the walls, in the plain tie-beam (napdori) style. The frame follows the five-purlin (oryanga) construction, and the wooden flooring of the hall and veranda shows the old-style woodworking techniques of the Joseon period. Though not large in scale, this dignified ritual house appears to have served both for ancestral rites and as a quiet place for concentrated study and self-cultivation.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Okcheon, Chungbuk

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산