Yeomseonjae Ritual Hall

About this place

Yeomseonjae is the ancestral ritual hall built in 1882 for the Lady of Suncheon Kim clan—the great-great-great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter of Kim Jongseo (pen name Jeolchae) and wife of Kim Jangsaeng (pen name Sagye). Lady Suncheon Kim was renowned for her filial piety from an early age. She married Kim Jangsaeng as his second wife at the age of 17, and after his death she observed three years of mourning, refusing to eat and drink until she herself passed away. In recognition of her devotion, the local scholars of Yeonsan petitioned the king, and in the 10th year of the Gwangmu era (1906) the royal court conferred on her the title of Virtuous and Faithful Woman (hyoryeol), and she was invested as a government first-grade lady. The jeongnyeogak (memorial pavilion) is notably ornate for such structures, employing a multi-bracket (dapo) style. Her descendants inherited the name of Kim Jangsaeng's ancestral hall 'Yeomsujae' and renamed it 'Yeomseonjae'. The building, with its four-bay-wide, two-bay-deep hip-and-gable roof, was originally a small ancestral hall when constructed in 1882 (the 19th year of King Gojong) but was enlarged in 1913 to its present form.