Aeeundang House, Saujeong House, and Yonggyejeong

About this place

Aeeundang House, Saujeong House, and Yonggyejeong are folk cultural properties of Gyeongsangbuk-do located within the Deokdong Cultural Village in Pohang. Deokdong Cultural Village is a single-clan village of the Yeogang Yi clan; the clan village was formed on the occasion of the civil official Jeong Mun-bu, who had taken refuge here during the Imjin War, bequeathing all his property to his granddaughter's husband Yi Gang as he returned to Jeonju after the war ended. In addition to Aeeundang House, Saujeong House, and Yonggyejeong, there is the Deokdong Folk Museum, which preserves and exhibits relics handed down through generations in the clan village. Aeeundang House is a Joseon-period dwelling and one of the ancillary buildings that Yi Gang received by transfer. The terrain on which this building sits is turtle-shaped, so the building layout was constructed in a turtle shape, with a detached study and a mill placed respectively at the positions of the turtle's front feet, a silkworm room (a room for raising silkworms) at the front corresponding to the head, and a toilet at the tail. It is a building layout through which one can glimpse the everyday life of the mid-Joseon aristocracy. Saujeong House, like Aeeundang House, is one of the ancillary buildings that Yi Gang received by transfer. Entering the outer courtyard surrounded by a wall, one sees an I-shaped men's quarters, and going through the main gate there is a C-shaped inner quarters. At the corner of the right-hand wall stands a shrine. Lastly, Yonggyejeong is Jeong Mun-bu's villa. It was built in 1546 and enlarged in 1686. It was later also used as a lecture hall. The building is a wooden tile-roofed house measuring five kan across the front and two kan on the side. Among Yonggyejeong's ancillary structures is a posa (a storehouse for ritual implements), and a ginkgo tree, a juniper, and other trees said to have been planted several hundred years ago surround Yonggyejeong.