Historic houses, which have stood for centuries in Museom Village, Yeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do, have been designated as national heritage sites. On December 3rd, the National Heritage Administration announced that the ‘Yeongju Manjukjae House and Relics Collection’ and the ‘Yeongju Haewoodang House and Relics Collection’ have each been designated as National Folk Cultural Heritage.
The Manjukjae House was built by Park Soo (1641~1729) of the Bannam Park clan in 1666 and has been preserved intact for approximately 360 years. This site retains a variety of living artifacts, including wooden signboards. Items such as a marriage document called ‘honsugi’ sent from the groom’s to the bride’s family during a wedding, and traces of sunggyeongdo—a game involving tossing dice on a board painted with ‘office position charts’—can be found. Notably, the ‘Antijapanese Uibyeong Gyeongmun’ records, which document anti-Japanese movements in Yeongnam following the assassination of Empress Myeongseong by Japanese forces in October 1895, carry great historical value.
The Haewoodang House was originally built by Kim Young-gak (1809~1876) of the Seonseong Kim clan in the early 1800s. After his son, Haewoodang Kim Nak-pung (1825~1900), repaired it from 1877 to 1879, the house has maintained its original form for nearly 150 years. Kim Nak-pung was a friend of Heungseon Daewongun Yi Ha-eung (1820~1898), and the ‘Haewoodang’ signboard currently hanging in the sarangchae (master’s quarters) is known to be written by Heungseon Daewongun himself.