Uiseong Sachon Village

About this place

Sachon Village, a northern village of Uiseong—a region said to have produced many righteous scholars—is a single-clan village of the Andong Kim and Pungsan Ryu families. There are two accounts of how the name Sachon came about: one holds that, because sand accumulated in the gorges around the village and made its land fertile, it was called Sachon ('sand village'); the other holds that Kim Ja-cheom, a descendant of Kim Bang-gyeong, a meritorious retainer of the mid-Goryeo period, settled here from Hoegok in Andong in 1392 and named it Sachon after the Chinese village of Sajin-chon. Though it appears to be an ordinary country village, it is famous as a representative yangban village of the Uiseong region, having produced some 40 successful state-examination candidates, including Kim Sa-won and Yu Seong-ryong. It not only produced many outstanding scholars but is also of deep historical significance as a center of righteous-army activity during the Japanese invasions of 1592 (the Imjin War) and the later Japanese occupation. Since most of the village was burned down during the Imjin War, most of the old houses remaining in Sachon Village today were built about 100 years ago. Some 30 traditional houses can be seen, the most notable being Manchwidang, a building completed in 1585 that Kim Sa-won erected to pursue his studies and educate his juniors. In Sachon Village, the Sachon-ri roadside forest was created to complement the terrain: when Kim Ja-cheom moved to this village, believing that if the west were 'empty' no great figures would emerge, he planted about 500 windbreak trees to block the east wind and protect his home ground, and these have become today's Sachon-ri roadside forest, now designated a Natural Monument. Beyond serving as a windbreak, the forest captivates visitors with its beautiful scenery and its varied charms that change with the seasons. In addition, there are the Uiseong Righteous Army Memorial Hall, built to make known the righteous-army struggle of the Uiseong contingent and to honor the spirit of the patriots who died fighting for the country, and the Sachon Village Observatory, from which the scenery of Sachon Village can be taken in at a glance.