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Open-Air Exhibition

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CYBER GALLERY
Open-Air Exhibition

Jongga Cultural Property Data No. 90 of Gyeonggi-do

The Jongga("house of the head family") where Yi Wonik's thirteenth-generation eldest son and his wife, the director of the museum, set up a new home, is one of typical houses of the upper-classes built in the early 20th century in Gyeonggi-do. In addition, the house well reveals the elegance of Korean traditional houses. It features moderate beauties expressed by the followings: the roof which resembles the hill at its back; the gudeal("Korean underfloor heating system") and the floors which are designed to be suitable for adapting to the environment of Korea; and the ceiling made of wood by assemblig wooden materials. All of them are simple, but match well with the surrounding landscape.

The jongga consists of a ㄱ-shaped main building and a ㄴ-shaped main gate building, largely making a ㅁ-shaped closed structure within which the front yerd is. The main building is a sorosujang(a Korean traditional architectural style) house as large as thirteen and a half kans("a unit of building area"), and contatins a two-kan room, a three-kan main floored room and two-kan main living room in a row, and, at a right angle to them, a 1.5-kan kitchen and a 1.5-kan floor heated room.

The carpenter's dexterous skill demonstrated on the roof frame and the junctures of posts enabled the simple elegance and the refined structure of the jongga.

General View of the Jongga

Although the eldest grandson and his wife lived in the jongga for only four years, it still serves as the central place of the family and holds many of family events. There are many mortars of various sizes along the alley that connects the jongga with the inner gate of Gwangamdang. And many rose moss blossoms are out in a corner of the jongga, which were originally planted by the eldest grandson's wife during the Korean War. The walls made of stone and clay enclose the whole jongga to prevent other people from looking into it. Harmonized with ivy and persimmon trees, it looks antique and elegant.

Structure of the Jongga

The jongga is an ideal house facing toward the south in a snug site near a mountain, not in an open field. The purlin supporting the roof demonstrates the size of the house, and the rafters slanting down to the both sides are exposed on the ceiling. Stability can be recognized in the main living room and the room on its opposite side, which are not big in size. The real charm of the Korean traditional house is that it is designed for the convenience of residents as shown by some facilities including meoreumdae ("base board under a window or door") which is as high as the armpit of a person sitting in a room, gudeul ("Korean underfloor heating system") for winter and toetmaru ("Korean floored verandah") for summer.

Stylishness of the Jongga

The jongga is harmoniously composed of several buildings such as the main building, the reception building, and the main gate building, and each of them has its own function. Even though all the terrace stones were replaced by the concrete structure during the 1910-1945 period of Japanese occupation, there still remain a buddumak ("fireplace range") and an agungi ("fuel hole") which are rarely found these days. Ridge-end tiles are placed at both ends of the roof ridge, and concave and convex tiles with a rose-of-Sharon pattern at the edge of eaves complete the gable roof. The well of the jongga was made by laying granite stones round. The letter, 'e ("dragon")' in its sangryangmun ("record about building or repair of a house") written with ink on a frame seems to tell that the house is a jongga of a distinguished family.