Sucheonam Hermitage, Cheongju

Sucheonam, in Cheongju, is a Joseon-dynasty jaesil (a ritual house used by a clan for ancestral rites) located in Hwanhui-ri, Oksan-myeon, Cheongju, in Chungcheongbuk-do. Its date of construction is not known precisely, but it is presumed to have originally been a temple presided over by the Buddhist master Seonjeong-josa during the Joseon dynasty. In 1914 the Miryang Park clan rebuilt it as a jaesil and named it Yeongmojae, though the plaque hanging at the front of the building reads 'Sucheonam'. Sucheonam stands on flat ground along a ridge to the right of the pass leading from Deokchon-ri to Hwanhui-ri in Oksan, facing the Cheonsucheon stream that flows in front of the building. Following the terrain, the single-row jaesil building faces west, with a wide yard in front; to the south-west stands a small single-row storehouse, three bays wide and one bay deep. On the ridge to the east is the grave of Bak Hun, the founding ancestor of this branch of the Miryang Park clan, and on the hill to the north-west stands the budo (memorial stupa) of Seonjeong-josa, who once headed Sucheonam. Sucheonam is a wooden, tile-roofed building with a hip-and-gable roof with single eaves, 6.5 bays wide and 3 bays deep. In plan, from left to right it comprises a kitchen of one and a half bays, a room of two bays, a daecheong of two bays, and a further room of one bay, with a narrow porch running along the front of the rooms. In the daecheong and in the heated room to its left, small side rooms half a bay wide were installed on each side; these are presumed to have been used, once the building became a jaesil, to store ritual vessels and house ancestral tablets, and lattice windows were installed at the rear. The structure is a mindori-style frame, without bracket sets, built with square cornerstones on a high natural-stone platform, square posts raised on trapezoidal plinths, and a frame of one tall central post and five purlins. Tall posts stand at the rear of the daecheong, and short posts at the front; the short posts in particular are almost hidden, buried within the horizontal timber and purlin above the main beam. The heated room on the south side has a hamsil-agungi, a firebox set without a cooking cauldron. Sucheonam, Cheongju, is an unusual example of a small Joseon-period hermitage converted for use as a jaesil, taking the form of a vernacular house typical of the Chungcheongbuk-do region.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Cheongju, Chungbuk

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료