Holiday Journal

• Start
•  
• Soswaewon
•  
• Myeongokheon Garden
•  
• Original Changpyeong Pork Tripe and Intestine Soup with Rice
•  
• Samjinae village
•  
• Metasequoia Road
•  
• Meta-Province
•  
• Soarejone
•  
• Dalbittturak
•  
• Jungnogwon Bamboo Garden
•  
• Gwanbangjerim Forest
•  
• Ttukbang noodles
•  
• Yongheungsa Temple
•  
• Finish

Myeongokheon garden(No. 44 cultural asset of Jeollanam-do) is one of the beautiful private gardens in Korea. Damyang has a number of pavilions where classic scholars studied and trained younger students after leaving mundane world. It may be because it was the town where many classic scholars lived. O Hui-do(1583~1623) turned his back on the world and lived here. His fourth son O Myeong-joong built Myeongokheon along with a pond. Now, here we go!

You should walk 200 meters to Myeongokheon after parking your car in a parking lot. But it is not boring. There is a large pond in the center of the village, and the reflection is so beautiful. You can take a wonderful picture with tripod.

Pretty murals are drawn on the wall of Hoosan village. You may not be boring for a while.

There is a small country cafe at the entrance of the village. Delivery service is available to Myeongokheon. Why don't you enjoy coffee while sitting at a pavilion? :-)

This place is called “Wonrim” because a house and a pavilion are assigned naturally unlike artificial garden. The reason that our ancestors tried to minimize nature destruction is not because of the construction cost. They just pursued natural beauty.

The pond is square shaped with 20 meters of width and 40 meters of height. There is a round island in the middle of it, and Lagerstroemia indica above. It shows the perspective of the Joseon dynasty period that the ground is square and the sky is round. Lagerstroemia indica has been planted near the pond and the pavilion. It would be wonderful in spring. 5~6 pine trees are standing on the right side. It seems that they were planted in order to make a balance with high ridge on the left side.

Myeongokheon garden above a pond looks so peaceful and elegant. It consists of three front side rooms and two side rooms. It is surrounded with high floors so it looks like Soswaewon Gwangpunggak pavilion. It is different from Gwangpunggak pavilion in that its door is a hinged door.

The signboard of Myeongokheon was made based on the words on the huge rock written by Song Si-yeol. You can see hanging wooden plates that Chinese poetry is written. You may see the wooden plates on the pillars of yangban's house. That is called “Juryeon(a verse couplet carved or written on a plank which is put on a pillar)”. Usually, owners of house write his source of pride or Chinese poetry on it. This is the meaning of the Chinese poetry above.

A brook flows to return to the sea.
A tree lives to blossom its flowers.
Every thing is a dream that disappears all of a sudden.
Hours slipped away and I've got old.

The house is so natural and beautiful, isn't it? It looks a little bit melancholy in winter. But I think it would be well matched with flowing water in spring. It is so amazing.

Like Soswaewon garden, Myeongokheon is open for everyone. Classical scholars would read poety with friends, drinking alcohole and enjoy a taste for the arts.

Myeongokheon garden has a special structure, so it would be an important material for studying gardens of the Joseon dynasty period. Even though I have been to so many places, I have never seen a distinctive style like this. Did you see a square shaped pond in Jungnogwon bamboo garden? The pond “Lee Seung-gi” in TV program “One night two days” was made base on this.

There are so many rocks with moss in a brook in Damyang. It means that it is so clean. You may not see in the picture, but five words are written on the rock on the right side.

The garden was named “Myeongokheon” as the water sounds like jade marble. Song Si-yeol wrote “Myeongokheon gyechuk” on the rock. The signboard of Myeongokheon was originated from it.

There is an old ginkgo tree in Husan-ri, the village at the entrance of Myeongokheon. King Injo tied his horse at the tree when he visited the village to get supporting power. The tree, which is called as Husan-ri ginkgo tree, is 600 years old. It is good to look around.

+Address: Myeongokyeon, Husangil 103, Goseo-myeon, Damyang-gun, Jeollanam-do

+Contact information: 061-380-3752

+Open throughout the year. Admission fee, parking fee: free

Address: 전남 담양군 고서면 후산길 103 / 대한민국 전라남도 담양군 고서면 후산길 103