Myeongseok Jaungseok, Jinju

A pair of rocks, shaped like male and female genitalia, symbolising man and woman. According to tradition, at the end of the Goryeo period the Jinju earthen fortress was rebuilt in stone as a defence against Japanese pirate (waegu) raids. A monk who had taken part in building the wall, on his way back to his hermitage, saw two stones come rolling towards him. When he told them, who said they were coming to serve as building stones for the wall, that the wall was already finished, both stones stopped where they stood and wept bitterly. Moved by this, the monk bowed to them nine times, calling them bogukchungseok (輔國忠石, "stones loyal in service to the state"), and from this the two stones came to be called undol ("rolling stones") or myeongseok (鳴石, "weeping stones"). The village itself came to be called Gubok-dong (九伏洞), and the valley down which the stones had rolled was named Gubaegok (九拜谷) or Gubokgok (九伏谷). The two stones each resemble male and female genitalia in shape. The male stone is 85 cm high, 63 cm across at the base and 220 cm in circumference, convex at the top; the female stone is 75 cm high, 55 cm across at the base and 160 cm in circumference, shaped like a woman wearing a jokduri (a traditional bridal headpiece). The male stone originally stood in a paddy field 300 m north-east of the present site, and the female stone by a stream 500 m to the north; in 1973 villagers built the shrine Myeongseokgak (鳴石閣) here and moved the two stones into it, and every year on the third day of the third lunar month a rite is held honouring their loyal service in protecting the nation. Originally objects of prayer for many children and a bountiful harvest, they are a notable example of such a cult enduring by becoming bound up with the Joseon-period ideal of protecting the state and bringing peace to its people.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jinju, Gyeongnam

Designation

Provincial Folklore Heritage · 시도민속문화유산