Gunsan Sinheungdong Japanese-Style House (Hirosu House)

About this place

The Gunsan Sinheungdong Japanese-style house (formerly the Hirosu House) is a two-story Japanese-style wooden house built by a Japanese man who operated a fabric store and a small farm in Gunsan during the Japanese colonial period and served on the Gunsan-bu Council. It is known as the house built by 'Hirosu Keisaburo,' and is an architectural work that clearly shows the characteristics of Japanese-style houses, providing a good glimpse of the lifestyle of the upper-class Japanese residents of Gunsan during the colonial period. After the 1945 liberation, it was transferred to the former Honam Flour Milling as enemy property (jeoksan gawok) and came under the ownership of Korea Flour Milling. It was designated National Registered Cultural Heritage No. 183 on June 18, 2005, and has since been managed and opened to the public by Gunsan City. It served as a filming location for the movies 'General's Son' and 'Tazza: The High Rollers,' and is so well known to the general public that numerous Korean films have been shot here. The house is a large two-story wooden building with walls finished in wooden board siding and plastered mortar, and a roof of gabled and hip-and-gable tiles. The interior includes an ondol room, kitchen, dining room, and bathroom on the first floor; traditional tatami rooms and a tokonoma decorative alcove on the second floor — giving insight into the lifestyle of Japanese landowners during the colonial era. There is a Japanese-style garden between the two L-shaped buildings, and a large stone lantern within the garden.