An Se-hwan House, Miryang

The An Se-hwan Old House stands in Cheongun-ri, where the Gwangju An clan has long been concentrated. After Uigwan An Bong-won moved to Cheongun-ri in the 1840s, his two sons rose in family fortune and built houses side by side; this is one of them. The house of the elder son, Hunjae An Jong-mun, is designated Cultural Heritage Material No. 113, while this house was built in 1935 by the younger son, Hojae An Jong-ik. According to oral tradition, the construction cost at the time was equivalent to about 50 majigi (a traditional unit of paddy-field area) of rice paddies. The construction date of 1935 is confirmed by the ridge-raising inscription written in ink beneath the supporting purlin plate of the storage building (gokganchae) east of the inner courtyard, which records the day and hour of the ridge-raising in that year, and by an inscription on a roof-end tile naming a workshop and the same year. Other features consistent with this date include the tall, Japanese-style sliding glass doors used on the floor behind the women's main hall and on the sarang hall floor, the compound sliding windows of the main house, the red-brick chimney, and panelled doors using plywood. The An Se-hwan Old House consists of four buildings — the gate house, the men's quarters (sarangchae), the women's quarters (anchae), and the storage building (gokganchae) — built on a rectangular site elongated east–west; most of the buildings within the compound appear to have been built in 1935. The sarangchae and anchae were arranged side by side, with the 'ㄱ'-shaped sarangchae placed to the west of the straight-line anchae, strictly separating inner and outer space. The gokganchae was placed east of the anchae, which was the centre of the women's domain, and the gate house, mainly used by women, was built to the south. For the men's domain, the sarangchae was built in an 'ㄱ' shape, with a separate four-pillar gate (sajumun) built at its front corner for outsiders entering the sarangchae, separating the circulation routes of men and women. No wall was built between the anchae and sarangchae to divide the outer space, reflecting a more relaxed consciousness of gender separation at the time of construction. The anchae is a hip-and-gable house with five bays across the front and two bays on the side, with developed front and rear verandas. The plan runs, from left to right, kitchen, main room, hall, and small room, with a one-bay kitchen room behind the kitchen. The hall is two bays, with narrow side verandas running the length of the rear and sides, giving the space strong interconnectivity and practicality. In front of the small room is a raised veranda floor, beneath which is a firebox. Above the kitchen is a ventilation facility for discharging polluted air through the roof: the attic floor above the kitchen was cut open to about one cheok (a traditional unit of length) square and fitted with wooden boards to form a square vertical duct, which rises through the roof to a red-brick ventilation structure about two cheok high built on the roof surface. Such a facility is uncommon and is particularly distinctive in showing the changing consciousness of dwelling, and the form and structure of ventilation, in the modern period. Behind the kitchen is a kitchen room of modern character, intended as the centre of household activities. The anchae has a simplified, bracket-less (mindori-type) three-purlin frame, with single eaves and no added under-rafters. The upper framework rests on natural river-stone foundation stones with square pillars supporting the main beam, and a round panel king-post above the hall, or a trapezoidal panel king-post above the partition area between hall and rooms, supports the ridge purlin and its supporting plate. The sarangchae has an 'ㄱ'-shaped plan with four bays on the front and four on the side. The plan runs, from left to right, the large sarang hall, the large sarang room, and the sarang kitchen, which then turns south to the small sarang room and small sarang hall. Placing the sarang kitchen at the rear corner appears to have considered both heating efficiency and circulation for the large and small sarang rooms together. Four-panel folding doors were installed throughout the hall-and-room partition areas, and the interior of the two-bay small sarang room was divided by four sliding doors to increase the room's versatility. A small side gate was installed in the earthen wall facing the rear yard of the sarangchae to allow passage to a branch household, a feature typical of houses in clan villages. By contrast, the extension built in concrete block on the right side of the sarangchae, and the raised, cement-mortar-finished floor of the sarang kitchen, have damaged the sarangchae and should be restored to their original form. The 'ㄱ'-shaped sarangchae is uncommon among modern-period hanok in the Miryang region, and appears to be an intentional form considering spatial separation from the anchae and limits on the building's frontage length. The timber used in the sarangchae is sturdy, and the woodworking and finishing are relatively refined. The gate house, facing the inner courtyard, measures four bays across the front and one bay on the side, with a hip-and-gable roof. The plan places the gate passage on the left, with the remaining three bays used as storage space; its structure is a simple, bracket-less three-purlin frame. The storage building east of the inner courtyard is a hip-and-gable building of three bays across the front and one bay on the side, with plank walls and plank doors on the exterior. The rightmost front bay is used as a mill room, where a foot-powered pestle mill remains; the other two bays are used as storage space for agricultural and household use. Between the storage building and the anchae is a terrace for earthenware jars.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Miryang, Gyeongnam

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료