Damyang Go Jae-hwan House

Go Jae-hwan House stands looking out over the broad fields south of the centre of Changpyeong-myeon. Walking along the wide, well-kept village street and turning down a narrow lane toward the house for some ten metres, one reaches a five-bay storehouse block (gokgan-chae), the leftmost bay of which serves as the gate. Following the local custom of entering from the east and exiting to the west, a brick wall just inside the east-facing gate screens the main quarters (anchae) from view. Beyond this screening wall lies a broad inner courtyard enclosed on all four sides by the anchae, the sarangchae (men's quarters), a three-bay annex (samkan-chae) and a storehouse/gatehouse block, forming a square (ㅁ-shaped) layout. The compound consists of a highly formal anchae of six bays across the front and one bay deep, with an eave extension on all four sides, together with a gatehouse, a sarangchae, two storehouse buildings, the samkan-chae and a rear building. Go Jae-hwan's ancestors are recorded as great-grandfather Go Je-du, grandfather Go Ha-ju (1874–1932) and father Go Gwang-pyo (1908–1997). The anchae is sited on a gyejwa-jeonghyang axis, a traditional compass orientation. It stands on a low, two-course platform, with a broad earthen terrace (tobang) and trapezoidal plinth stones supporting square columns. In this mindori-style house, built without elaborate bracket sets, the column heads are joined by horizontal jangyeo and changbang members crossing at right angles with the eave-supporting beams (toebo). Where such beams are usually curved in the umiryang style, here they have been carefully squared off to form a level line. The frame is a two-interior-column, five-purlin structure carrying somewhat slender columns topped by a thick, gently curved main beam. A low king-post rises from the main beam to carry a further ridge beam, above which a circular king-post supports a ridge purlin cushioned by a jangyeo member, bearing the roof. The lattice doors of the rooms are two-panel, double-layered doors, while the daecheong hall has four-panel lift-up-and-hook (deureoyeolgae) doors. The doors between the main room and the daecheong are four-panel bulbalgi doors, with a latticed and paper-screened centre panel, likewise hung to lift and hook up so that the rooms around the daecheong can be opened and merged with it. From east to west the rooms are arranged as a kitchen of one and a half bays, a one-bay kitchen-room, a two-bay main room, a two-bay storage room behind it, a two-bay daecheong, and a one-bay side room. The roof is a hipped-and-gabled (paljak) roof with single eaves; the rafters are closely spaced and neatly finished with narrowed ends, and at the hip corners the fan-shaped rafters curve gently upward, giving the eaves a graceful line. The sarangchae stands to the left as one enters the gate, beside a yard with a modest, well-tended garden. It originally comprised two buildings, an inner and an outer sarang, of which only the inner one survives. It is five bays across the front and one bay deep, with a front eave extension, its square columns set in a neat row. From left to right, the first bay is a storehouse; the second bay is divided into upper and lower sections, the front used as a kitchen and the rear as a room. The walls are of wattle-and-daub construction, a bamboo lath frame plastered over with mud. The roof is a hipped roof laid with three courses of Korean roof tiles. In front of the kitchen, the building has been extended beyond the front eave line with a cement-block wall to enlarge the kitchen; above it is a small room connected to a loft over the kitchen. In front of the storehouse stands an outdoor toilet of the traditional type, set at right angles to the sarangchae. The rear wall of the daecheong joins the surrounding wall and continues to the gatehouse; where the wall begins, a small grooved-board door gives access to the anchae. Between the sarangchae and the samkan-chae stands a simple single-pillar gate fitted with a two-leaf plank door. The front yard of the sarangchae is not large and is enclosed by a low wall, beyond which stands a modest chimney. The samkan-chae faces the gate directly and stands between the anchae and the sarangchae. It served as a separate annex, rarely used in everyday life but opened to entertain guests at feasts and special occasions. Modest in scale, it has three bays across the front, one bay deep, with front and rear eave extensions and a one-interior-column, five-purlin frame. Like the sarangchae, its roof is hipped, its structural beauty shown in the angled corner beam and the fan-shaped rafters, whose form can be studied particularly well from inside. From left to right the rooms comprise a daecheong, two rooms and a kitchen. The building is as well preserved as the anchae, and its materials and joinery are in no way inferior. Go Jae-hwan House is a representative large farmhouse of the southern region, retaining the full range of building types expected of a traditional yangban residence. While a sarangchae together with a storehouse and gatehouse is common enough, a house that also keeps a separate samkan-chae, bathroom and toilet is rare. According to the construction record found beneath the ridge purlin of the anchae's daecheong, the house was built in 1925. It is built and preserved to a standard that compares favourably with any yangban house in the southern provinces: its timber frame is substantial, its woodwork carefully finished and its joinery sound, making it a valuable resource for understanding traditional timber architecture.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Damyang, Jeonnam & Gwangju

Designation

Provincial Folklore Heritage · 시도민속문화유산