Yeongcheon Manchwidang Historic House

About this place

This is the house of Jo Hak-sin (1732–1800), a seventh-generation descendant of the Neo-Confucian scholar Jo Ho-ik, known by the pen name Jisan, of the reign of King Seonjo of Joseon; Manchwidang is the name of the men's quarters (sarangchae). The new men's quarters, Gwangmyeongheon, as well as the detached shrine and Bobonjae, are said to have been built by later generations. The house stands in the middle of a flatland village surrounded by a pine forest on a low hill. It forms a flat, layered scene in which the roofs of the men's quarters and the inner quarters can be glimpsed here and there between the roofs of the roadside new men's quarters and the raised gate of the servants' quarters. The men's quarters, set apart from the servants' quarters, together with the inner quarters form a square (ㅁ) shape, with the shrine to the right. Behind it lie the detached shrine, Bobonjae, and other buildings, so that it may be said to have the full appearance of a scholar-official's house. The inner quarters are U-shaped (ㄷ); of the four central bays, the two on the right contain the master bedroom, a wooden-floored hall, and a small room. At both ends of the center there are wings: on the master-bedroom side are the kitchen and a storeroom, and on the hall side are a lower room and a floored room. The men's quarters, which bear the plaque 'Manchwidang,' have two rooms on the left serving as the men's room, next to it the wooden-floored hall, and at the right end a room for performing ancestral rites. On the left of the men's quarters is a middle gate leading from the men's courtyard to the inner courtyard. As a house of the late Joseon period, though the mill quarters have now disappeared, it retains a full range of the components of a scholar-official's residence, from the inner quarters to the men's quarters, the new men's quarters, and the detached-shrine annex, making it valuable material for examining the architectural style and domestic life of the time.