Kenneth E. Harker
2008 Korea - Namsangol Hanok Village

On Sunday afternoon, we visited Namsangol Hanok Village, a project of the Seoul city government and the Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation. The village was operated as a city park in the Jungnu neighborhood, in a small valley in the hills just north of Namsan Mountain. Hanok in Korean refers to the traditional Korean house of hte Joseon Dynasty. The village was a collection of old houses (and in one case a replica of an old house) that were moved to this site from other locations in Seoul, chosen for their culturally representative qualities. In addition to the permanent building exhibits, the foundation hires actors and artisans to demonstrate aspects of traditional Korean culture to visitors.

These photos are copyright © 2008 Kenneth E. Harker. All rights reserved.

	Our first visit was to a replica of the house that Sunjeonghyo Yun (1894-1966) lived in before she was married to the Crown Prince and moved into the royal household. Sunjeonghyo was the second consort of Crown Prince Sunjong (1874-1926), who became the final ruling monarch of Korea. Emperor Sunjong reigned from 1907 until the Japanese occupation began in 1910. These furnishings are related to food presentation.
	The kitchen, as it might have looked in the early 20th century.
	Sunjeonghyo's bedroom. Most Korean slept on the heated ondol floor with only a thin mattress.
	Some other furnishings in Sunjeonghyo's bedroom. As with the house itself, these are all replicas. The original house was deemed too old to have been moved.
	Another house in the village was Haepung Buwongun, the house of Takyeoung Yun, the father of Empress Sunjeonghyo. This is the original actual house, which was moved to this location from the Jegidong neighborhood in Seoul, where it was built after Sunjeonghyo's marriage. It was unsually shaped for a Korean house, oriented in a shape similar to the Greek letter π.
	The bedroom of Haepung Buwongun.
	This is a bedroom in Bumadowi, a house that belonged to a Seoul nobleman named Park Yonghyo. It was moved into the Namsangol Hanok Village from its original location in the Gwanhundong neighborhood of Seoul.
	The kitchen for Bumadowi house.
	Looking through a breezeway in Bumadowi. The floors are all raised on stone foundations through which vents are channeled. The heat from fireplaces under the floor spreads through the vents, heating the stone evenly, and creating a radiant heating system for the house, which the Koreans call ondol. The chimneys vent the smoke from the fireplaces. I personally would have made the chimneys taller...
	This kitchen was in Dophyeonsu, the house of Lee Seugup, the master carpenter for the Gyeongbokgung Palace in the mid-nineteenth century. The house was moved to the village from the Samgakdong neighborhood of Seoul and restored.
	Dophyeonsu was chosen for the village to represent the kind of house a middle class tradesman might have lived in in the nineteenth century.
	All of the houses in the village had wooden floors.
	A variety of hanbok, the traditional Korean clothing. Although hanbok literally means "Korean clothing", it usually refers to the clothing of the Joseon Dynasty. This display of hanbok was women's clothing.
	More colorful hanbok. Depending on the social status of the woman, the costume could be more or less elaborate. Hanbok for women usually included a wrap-around skirt, the chima, and a jacket or vest, the jeogori. Men's hanbok was typically a jeogori over loose fitting pants called baji.
	Not all of the hanbok on display was in bright colors.
	A stack of VHF/UHF antennas that looked like it might be for amateur radio. The building behind the antennas is part of the Seoul Namsan Gugakdang, a part of the village that featured performances of gugak, traditional Korean music.
	Some of the rooflines in the Namsangol Hanok Village, with the modern buildings of Seoul in the background.