Unhyeongung, a royal family’s private house

The notes set out from three visits: Unhyeongung, once the private house of Heungseon Daewongun (Yi Ha-eung); the Baek In-je House, where a modern hanok can be seen; and Changdeokgung. Hanok, they write, differ by period and by rank: a palace, a yangban house, and a commoner’s house do not look the same.

Unhyeongung stands in Jongno. It was Daewongun’s private residence, and also the house where his second son, Gojong, lived until the age of twelve, before taking the throne. The gate used as the main entrance today, they were told, was once the rear gate; of four gates, only the front and the rear remain. To the right of the main gate is Sujiksa, quarters for the guards, with braziers and lamps of the period; opposite it, a hall of household objects, writing tools, and reconstructed dress for Gojong, Empress Myeongseong, and Daewongun himself.

Noandang, past a soaring gate, was the quarters Daewongun used from day to day, with a flight of stairs unusual in an ordinary house. Norrakdang is the large central building of the inner court, and the place where Gojong and Queen Min were married; traditional weddings can still be booked there. In the shade of its eaves the writer noticed rounded timber fitted cleanly, and ikgong brackets on the column heads. Irodang, a detached hall, was a space for women that men from outside could not enter, built, the writer thinks, on a square plan.

The Baek In-je House in Gahoe-dong

The house in Gahoe-dong was built by Han Sang-yong and later took its name from Dr. Baek In-je, who lived there. A briefing in the house’s screening room, the notes say, treated it as a hanok that also carries Japanese elements from the colonial period, and so as a good place to see a modern hanok.

The kitchen still has an agungi, used both for cooking and to heat the ondol. Parts of the house are brick, which the writer reads as a modern touch. Most hanok are a single storey; this one has a second floor, a tatami room, which felt to the writer unlike a traditional Korean plan. The sarangchae at the centre has a large garden, more modern than a classical courtyard, and the living room is glazed on three sides, so the garden can be seen from more than one angle.

Changdeokgung, and a 250-year ginkgo

Changdeokgung, unlike the other two houses, struck the writer first by its size. From the two-storey pavilion Juhamnu, a stair runs down toward Buyongji, a square pond with a small island, which they read as a figure of the idea that heaven is round and the earth is square. Past Bulomun, Aeryeonji is full of lotuses, also square, with Aeryeonjeong beside it. Farther on are Jondeokjeong, a hexagonal pavilion with a double roof, and Pyeomusa. Fan-shaped Gwallamjeong sits over Gwallamji, a pond also called Bandoji because it is said to resemble the Korean peninsula. By the arched bridge that joins Gwallamji and Jondeokji stands a ginkgo some 250 years old, which, they were told, colours in autumn with the pavilions and the water. The same Korean report, written out more fully, is on CampusDown.

Sources

1. The notes, a student account of visits to Unhyeongung, the Baek In-je House, and Changdeokgung.

Last updated: 15 November 2026