Gwagam Hermitage

Gwagam Hermitage (藿巖) means 'miyeok bawi', or seaweed rock. It is a natural rock lying in the sea off Panji village, also known as 'Yangban Rock' or 'Bak Yun-ung Rock'. According to the Heungnyeoseungnam, published in 1937, Bak Yun-ung cooperated with Wang Geon at the end of Silla and the beginning of Goryeo, when Wang Geon was reorganising the powerful local clans. As a result, Ulsan was elevated to Heungnyeo-bu, and Bak Yun-ung was ennobled, in recognition of his service, as Heungnyeo-baek of senior fifth rank. The name 'Heungnyeo' means 'making Goryeo prosperous.' According to the Hakseongji and the Genealogy of the Ulsan Bak Clan, Bak Yun-ung was at that time granted land at Dongjin and twelve sections of the seaweed rock at Yupo, thereby gaining the right to harvest seaweed there. Dongjin corresponds to present-day Gangdong and Nongso in Ulsan. Later, during the reign of King Yeongjo of Joseon, the royal inspector Bak Mun-su, responding to the complaints of local residents, had the twelve rock sections — which had been held for generations by descendants of the Ulsan Bak clan — returned to the state. After this confiscation the seaweed harvest failed for three years running, so one of the twelve sections was given back to the Bak clan, and this ownership is said to have continued down to the Japanese colonial period. The Heungnyeoseungnam, volume 1, in its section on notable figures, records that the royal inspector Bak Mun-su carved the two characters 允雄 ('Yun-ung') into the rock face to mean 'a great achievement never decays,' though this can no longer be confirmed today. Gwagam is connected with seaweed production and is important material for research into the economic history of the late Joseon period, and it is valued as a naturally formed scenic resource of Ulsan Metropolitan City.

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Where it is

Region

Buk-gu, Ulsan

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물