Imjindongnaeuichong Tomb

This tomb holds the remains of soldiers, officials and commoners who died defending Dongnae Fortress alongside Song Sang-hyeon, magistrate of Dongnae, when Japanese forces invaded during the Imjin War (1592-1598). In 1731, the seventh year of King Yeongjo, when Jeong Eon-seop, magistrate of Dongnae, rebuilt the walled town of Dongnae, the bones of many who had died in battle were discovered together with cannonballs and arrowheads at the old South Gate site, a fierce battleground of the Imjin War. These remains of the fallen loyalists were gathered and buried in six graves on a hillside west of Samseongdae, south of Dongnae (near present-day Naeseong Middle School), and a stele reading "Imjin jeonmang yuhae jichong" (Tomb of the Remains of Those Who Died in the Imjin War) was erected. The inscription was written by Magistrate Jeong Eon-seop. The stele is 103 cm tall and 45 cm wide; the front bears the title Imjin jeonmang yuhae jichong, while the back records in ten lines the history of the six graves. The state also granted sacrificial land to cover the cost of rites, entrusting it to the local Confucian school (hyanggyo) so that Confucian students would hold a memorial rite there every year at Chuseok. On the anniversary of their deaths, the government sent officers to perform the rites. During the Japanese colonial period the tomb was relocated, owing to land reclamation, to the area near Yeongbodan (now the Bokcheon Museum) on the hill behind Bokcheon-dong, and the stele was later moved and re-erected there as well. In 1974 the site was moved again, to Geumgang Park, with which it had no historical connection. Today Dongnae-gu holds a memorial rite on the 15th day of the fourth lunar month, the anniversary of the fall of the fortress.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Dongnae-gu, Busan

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물