The Mun (문) Family Home

Today being a sunny day I decided to brave the subarctic temperatures and make our way to the Mun (spelled Moon for some tourists) house for some sightseeing. The Mun family residence is actually the clan headquarters of the Mun family and is located about twenty minutes from my house. It's not exceptionally old by Korean standards, with the original buildings being made only in the 18th century, but it's a functional clan house and it is located right in the mountains. I took some great pics so here's a few shots:

me by the city wall

an alley in the clan residential area

the wall from the outside

some pine trees near the residence



Korean clans are somewhat similar to Scottish clans in structure, though in modern Korea are far less important than they are in contemporary Scotland. However, they still can determine who you can marry. For example a member of the Gimhae Kim clan who falls in love with another Kim must make sure that they are not also Gimhae Kim or else they can not get married. With Gimhae Kim being the largest Kim clan (and thus something like 8% of the Korean population) it can be a big deal for some people. However in the Joseon period (14th - 20th century) clan membership was very important. The Mun family would be a relatively small clan and would have been yangban (Korean nobility) in Daegu and Gyeongsang province, though be of lesser importance in Seoul. Their house was very well maintained and it looks like the clan puts real effort in to maintaining it.

Next to it it another Joseon era building, a seowon. Seowon's are the original hagwon's and were places where yangban studied Confucian texts with learned masters. The most famous one is Deosan Seowon in Andong and it is so revered that it is on the 1000won ($1) note (that's right, there's a hagwon on the Korean $1 bill). This one was very small in contrast and closed, but I still took a few pictures of the outside of it:

the entrance

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It was a great day out and it was a chance to see a bit of local history, even if we had a daytime high of -2.