Gyeongyang Seowon

About this place

The Gyeongyang Seowon in Guseong-myeon, Gimcheon, was built to enshrine and honor the spirit tablets of a father and son, Songo Yeo Eung-gu and Gamho Yeo Dae-ro. A shrine stands to the right of the seowon buildings; it was rebuilt after the abolition and, as in the past, holds the spirit tablets of the two men. Yeo Eung-gu passed the special civil service examination in 1572 and served as an instructor at the Seonggyungwan (the national academy), while Yeo Dae-ro passed the special civil service examination in 1583, rose to the post of magistrate, and was a righteous volunteer during the Japanese invasions of 1592. The exact founding date of the Gyeongyang Seowon is unknown, but the 1994 Geumreung-gunji (Geumreung County Gazetteer) records that it was founded during the reign of King Sukjong of Joseon. When the order to abolish the seowon was issued in 1868, the shrine building was demolished while the lecture hall was left standing, and its signboard was changed from Gyeongyang Seowon to Gyeongyang Seodang, presumably to evade the abolition order. The building is a hip-and-gable tiled-roof structure five bays across the front and two bays deep, and the columns of the lecture hall are made of jujube and chestnut wood. The printing woodblocks of the Songo Munjip and the Gamho Munjip (the collected works of Songo and of Gamho) are preserved here.