Bongsanrisa (Bonghwa)

About this place

This building was erected by local Confucian scholars to honor Master Kim Jong-geol (1628–1708), a civil official of the mid-Joseon period. The master was renowned not only for his scholarship and virtuous conduct but also for his profound filial piety: when his parents fell ill, he climbed Mount Sotae and prayed while fasting for seven days. An anecdote tells that afterward, on his way to find medicine, a tiger appeared and guided him so that he obtained a miraculous remedy and cured his parents' illness. After his death he was posthumously elevated to Deputy Minister of Personnel (Ijo Champan). Built in the 17th year of King Jeongjo (1793), this shrine was closed in the 5th year of King Gojong (1868) under the Regent Heungseon Daewongun's order to abolish the seowon academies, then restored in 1925 and remains to this day. A gatehouse containing a ritual officiants' room and a straight (一-shaped) main hall combine to form an overall square-shaped layout. At the front stands the shrine enshrining the master's spirit tablet, where ancestral rites are held in spring and autumn.