For Part II, click here.
So, Marmot, you went to Japan for your vacation, eh? Well, not exactly. The lovely example of Japanese temple construction you see above is not in Kyoto, but rather Gunsan, Jeollabuk-do. The temple, Dongguk-sa, was founded by Japanese monks in 1913, and today is Korea’s only surviving colonial-era Japanese Buddhist temple. Or at least the only one still functioning as a temple—according to the head monk, there’s an old Japanese temple in Gwangju that’s currently being used as an evangelical church. Frankly, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the temple is well worth visiting, even if—unlike the Marmot—you prefer to spend your first vacation in recent memory doing things other than snooping around colonial-era buildings in small provincial cities.
The temple, built in the Edo-period style, used to cater to the spiritual needs of the once large Japanese commercial community of Gunsan. Amazingly, little about the place has changed. The temple’s buildings are almost exactly as they were when they were first built (although the rock garden is no more). The Buddha statue and hanging paintings in the Main Hall are of recent Korean make, but the altar, scripture table and just about everything else about the temple is Japanese, including the uncompromisingly straight lines and right angles of the decidedly non-Korean woodwork and the spartan white and brown interiors. Unlike Korean temple, the roof eaves are not decorated. The temple bell hanging in the Japanese-style bell pavilion was crafted in Kyoto.
The temple has been designated a cultural property by the Korean Cultural Properties Administration. The head monk, BTW, is very knowledgeable about his temple and has even gone to Japan to collect material and data on its history. He was kind enough, in fact, to rip me a CD full of info he collected on the place and give me a copy of a thesis he contributed to an academic journal published by one of Korea’s Buddhist universities.
Here are some more photos of taken at the temple:
The neighborhood around the temple, and Sinheung-dong in particular, used to be home to Gunsan’s once sizable Japanese expat community. Gunsan, like most of Korea’s other ports, is essentially a product of Japanese colonial planning. After it was opened to international trade in 1899, the town became especially important as a port of exit for Korean rice exports to Japan. Japanese traders, merchants and plantation owners settled in the area, and as you’d imagine, many of their homes still stand, although the original occupants have long returned to Japan.
The most notable of Sinheung-dong’s old Japanese homes is the Hirotsu House (photo above), a palatial residence that was once home to a very well-off drygoods merchant by the name of Hirotsu. Designated a cultural property, the home is being targeted by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism for a 1 billion won restoration. Normally, you can’t enter, but I got lucky and was given a tour of the residence by the elderly gentleman who lives next door. Frankly, the place has seen better days (that government restoration is badly needed), but you can still see how beautiful—and luxurious—a place it must have been in its prime. According to the neighbor, the home is the subject of interest from both Korean and Japanese architecture scholars, with the latter noting that few examples of such residential architecture exist nowadays even in Japan. The Japanese garden in the home’s courtyard is still beautiful, although it will be even nicer once the koi fish pond is refilled.
Here are more photos from Hirotsu House for your viewing pleasure:
As I said above, the whole neighborhood is full of Japanese-style homes left over from the colonial era. Most are still used, either as private homes or businesses. I walked around the area snapping photos of various examples—see below:
Will probably be heading to Gongju’s Magok-sa Temple tomorrow, although there’s an off-chance I might opt for Buyeo. But not before I stop off at an old Japanese plantation and villa just outside of town.
For more information on Gunsan’s colonial architecture, you could check out this piece (in Korean) or take a look at these photos (with English explanations) via the Chosun Ilbo.
21 Comments
Thanks for posting those photos, Robert. It’s too bad that Korea, unlike China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia, has put to the wrecking ball so many architectural legacies of colonial rule. Buildings are buildings, neither good nor evil. They are free outdoor history museums, showcasing architectural styles of a period. It is contradictory to demolish structural remains of Japanese rule yet fill pages in textbooks and columns in newspapers, and erect displays in downtown parks to remind Koreans of Japanese colonialism.
Well, the good news is that era is probably over. The authorities—including the Cultural Properties Administration—seem more aware of the architectural and historical importance of a lot of these buildings and is moving to protect them. I know Incheon is trying to restore its treaty port and colonial era buildings, and I’d imagine Gunsan probably will, too, if it isn’t already.
Great photos, and good to learn that these buildings are being preserved, even if they do date from the colonial era. There are a lot of similar-looking buildings in downtown Jinhae as well…actually, the town planning there is interesting, with a central traffic circle (nexus of the annual cherry blossom festival), and eight roads radiating out in all directions.
No surprise that early 20th Century Japanese-style buildings would be found in downtown Jinhae, former Japanese naval port. I was too distracted by the cherry blossoms and the crowds to notice the architecture when I was there on a warm April weekend ten years ago.
Hey, I recognize that place. The Marmot only comes to Gunsan after I leave, huh?
wonder how it’s managed to avoid a firebomb.. should have been torched a long time ago. wreck the damn thing already !!!!!
“It’s too bad that Korea, unlike China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia, has put to the wrecking ball so many architectural legacies of colonial rule.”
well, it just goes to show you, our fiery temperament.
and to me, that statement shows just how naive you are concerning korean-jap related issues.
perhaps, you’d like to rename yourself “kamikaze” instead of sonagi, proudly hold your head up high and display to your neighbors and fellow american citizens of ineptitude about pearl harbor and all that other stuff that happened in WWII.
btw, how many drops of acid have you taken in your lifetime??? few too many ??? son-a-gi?
Have you taken your Toprol XL yet, Ghola?
Wonderful post. We have some Japanese homes down here in Pohang.
Both Gongju and Buyeo are beautiful places. If you have time, I’d suggest a visit to the century-old Catholic church in Gongju. It’s right in the center of the town on a hill. There’s also a mearby temple whose name I cannot remember with with on the most interesting Buddhas I’ve ever seen in Korea.
That IS pretty. Good stuff.
Have you taken your Toprol XL yet, Ghola?
Actually, I’m quite young and healthy. So, the need is not there.. practicing quackery, are we?
has senility touched you, kami?
Pretty sight indeed. In a little while, we may even get to see pretty little Chinese architecture in North Korea.
China has just expanded their historic claims over not just Koguryo, but also kingdoms of Parhae, Ko-chosun, and Puyo - all of which are thought to be Korean kingdoms (up to now). And how does China view the Silla’s unification of the three Korean kingdoms (Shilla’s defeat of Koguryo and Paechae)? They view it as Silla invading China’s rightful territory which China says, is all the way up to the Han River area. Let me see now, doesn’t that just about cover most of North Korea?
By next year it won’t surprise me if China won’t stop there, they’ll just come out and say even kingdoms of Koryo and Chosun were Chinese provinces, so therefore all of Korea is really a Chinese territory.
This is getting weirder and weirder. YTN reports.
http://news.naver.com/news/rea.....enu_id=104
there is a great old japanese school downtown kunsan, by the tunnel that runs under the mountain to the port. it’s painted bright yellow and was in disrepair about ten years ago, so who knows if it still stands. if i can dig out some old photos and scan i’ll post them.
These are really nice pictures Robert. They reminded me of one odd building I noticed down in Kangjin when I was last there. It was an old abandoned building that had been used for retail but the frame and top of the building was very much like what you have here. I was told that there were Japanese in Kangjin, years ago as well.
You should hook Shelton up with some cool photos before he starts posting baby pictures from his co-workers . . .
I think Japanese temples and architecture have a sense of refinement that Korea’s lack. The use of garishly bright colors in Korean temples, for example, is indicative of an inferior and rather childish sense of aesthetics.
Great reporting & pix Robert, thanks again.
I’ve never ever been to Gunsan, never had any good reason; perhaps now i will.
Did you notice whether or not Dongguk-sa includes that most Korean of features, a shrine or at least altar for the Mountain-spirit…?
bluejives — I would say that it is Chinese temples — and Japanese Shinto shrines for that matter — that use garishly bright paint and other decorations (fire-engine-red trimmed with gold). Korean temples use earth-tones, more natural colors that I find far more harmonious with the surrounding forests and mountains — indicative of a very mature, nature-oriented and well-balanced sense of aesthetics. Japanese architecture is indeed very refined, and their carpentry is wondrous, unmatched in the world; but they excessively rely upon unpainted bare wood for that Zen-simplicity look; they become boring after viewing a few. Korea’s temples are the perfect balance between China’s excess garishness and Japan’s excess simplicity…
sanshinseon, I could not agree agree with you more that Korean temples are “harmonious with the surrounding forests and mountains” and that Japanese temples “become boring after viewing a few.”
Still, I must say something in defense of Chinese temples. Their garishness, reminiscent of the Baroque or Rococo, fits very well into the urban environments in which they tend to be situated. I find them the most fascinating of the three because the visitor can get lost in them, like in a Gothic cathedral.
Fair ’nuff, Seo-in Seonbi.
Personally, I love the dancheong—five-colour painting—of Korean temples and palaces. The patterns are always so amazingly intricate.
there’s a whole section of youngju, north kyoungsan that is leftover japanese architecture. it’s the poorest part of the city, and from what i could understand people living there are five to ten a room and there isn’t any deposit. it was a bit vague, but for some reason that part of the city became the very worst of a fairly poor farming village and is known for vagrants and general riff raff. it all looked to me like a great real estate investment as the buildings are nice, and it’s a busy part of town. the surprising thing is that it was a decent sized neighborhood that could have been taken out of japan.
Those photos of the temple are terrific!!! It looks a lot better than when I last saw it a few years ago. If you got to see around back where the monk’s quarters are, you would have seen the fine craftsmanship that is not seen nowadays. The temple was constructed with the old Japanese style of not using nails — whereby the whole structure could be disassembled and relocated. There have been some significant improvements to it.
The temple was from the Japanese colonial period and was originally located to the right of Kaebong tunnel that passes under Wolmyong Park. The bell within a structure was located at the base of the park in a large open area. There are photos of the temple and bell during the US Occupation Period after WWII. After the outbreak of the Korean War, North Korean refugees were dumped in Kunsan to survive on a ration of coal as best they could. The hillside on both side of the tunnel became crammed with mudwattle houses and makeshift shanties of the North Koreans. After the war, the temple was relocated to its present location and the site was used to build an elementary school for the North Koreans. (Someone mentioned this school in these comments.) The school was closed in the 1990s when the population dwindled due to the population center relocating to the Naundong area of the city.
The photos of the Japanese section sure brings back memories. There used to be some small business buildings in the area that had art deco type facades dating to the 1930s, but were covered over during that hate-Japan period a few years back. The area was the first area reclaimed by the Fuji Company from the tidal flats. That’s why the streets of the Japanese area of the old city was laid out on a grid, but on the other side of Main Road (Taehakyo-ro) the roads are old-style zig-zag Korean style streets.
During the hate-Japan period a few years back, a pagoda dating back to the Japanese colonial period that was on top of hill overlooking the harbor was torn down. However, other examples of Japanese architecture in the harbor area remains — the most important being the customs house listed as a provincial treasure. Believe it or not, there’s a lot of American history in that same area as Occupation troops after WWII and then troops during the Korean War were housed in some of these same Japanese buildings — simply because they were the best constructed buildings in the area.
Again thanks for posting those pics.
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[...] For Part 1, click here. [...]
[...] Feel free to re-read my travelogue/photo essay on colonial Gunsan (Part I, Part II). [...]
[...] NoCut News, quoting the Air Force Times, is reporting that a squadron of stealth F-117A bombers is heading to Korea for a four month deployment. NoCut News suggests this might be linked to USFK commander Gen. B.B. Bell’s comments about the possibility of a second North Korean nuclear test, but F-117As have been deployed to Korea three times since 2003. As a service to the incoming men of the 49th Fighter Wing, I re-link to my posts on Gunsan’s lovely colonial-era architecture (Part I, Part II). Share and Enjoy:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]
[...] Colonial architecture of Gunsan I [...]
[...] only remaining functioning Japanese-style Buddhist temple. You’ll remember I visited the temple in September and November of last year. Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking [...]
[...] of examples of colonial Japanese Buddhist architecture left in Korea (another in Gunsan’s Dongguk-sa, which still functions as a Buddhist [...]
[...] of examples of colonial Japanese Buddhist architecture left in Korea (another in Gunsan’s Dongguk-sa, which still functions as a Buddhist [...]
[...] Eocheongdo or further afield to China.” I’d like to think that my posts last year (Part I, Part II) proved there was plenty of reason to visit Gunsan other than the ferry. It’s one [...]
[...] of two Japanese Buddhist temples that remain in Korea, the other one being Gunsan’s exquisite Dongguksa Temple (which, unlike this one, is still used as a Buddhist [...]