[KS] The house in Noryangjin: Thank you!

[Stefan Ewing]

Dear Ken:

I cannot thank you enough for all your completely unsolicited hard work!  I 
had only a vain hope that someone might actually undertake this search--a 
potentially fruitless hunt for an old house with no promise of recompense, 
save for the reward of solving a minor historical mystery.  ...Except that 
in place of the original mystery, we now have a whole saga pertaining to the 
property.  Perhaps we should start a new PBS show, "History Detectives: 
Korean Edition"!

I'm passing your email on to the lady in question, and we can work out 
contact details off-list.  She's since mentioned that she's planning to 
travel to Korea...sadly, it sounds like even the few last remnants of the 
house--the garden, the vine-covered wall--might be gone by the time she gets 
there.

For the KS List members in general:

There is another historical tidbit for all and sundry.  Mr. Nomura was 
indeed well liked by his students, so much so that the _Sungnyo^hoe_ 
(Sookmyung Girls' School's alumnae association) pooled money to invite him 
back to visit Korea in 1967 or '69.  His great granddaughter remembers '67, 
but the visit is mentioned briefly in a _Sunday Seoul_ article from 10 
August 1969 (reproduced at 
http://blog.naver.com/kybkang9?Redirect=Log&logNo=100023303082).  The 
article discusses the activities of girls' school alumnae associations in 
general.  Here is my probably inadequate translation of the Sookmyung 
passage--where the retired principal is mentioned by his Koreanized name, 
"Yach'on So^ngjijo":

"Also, if you ask if this spring, did the 'Old Timers' of the Sookmyung 
Girls' School almumnae association 'Sungnyeonhoe' pool their money to invite 
the pre-Liberation, pro-Korean Japanese principal Seinosuke Nomura, then 
there is the rumour that the Baehwa Girls' School is saving up 4 million won 
to help their alma mater."

(Is it notable that he is explicitly described as a "ch'in-Han'guk 
Irin"--"pro-Korean Japanese person"?)

During this visit, Mr. Nomura even met the then prime minister of Korea, who 
at that time should have been Cho^ng Ilkwo^n (Jeong Il-gwon; PM 1964-70).  
For the record, Mr. Nomura's wife's name was Shinohara Kusa (maiden name), 
but as for her husband, my own search for information on her has proved 
fruitless.

I'm very glad--and no doubt my correspondent will be as well--that thanks to 
Ken Kaliher's hard work, we've been able to find the house.  The breadth and 
depth of interests and experiences among the KS List's participants is truly 
staggering, and I'm glad to be a small part of this wonderful group of 
people.

Thanks,
Stefan Ewing

***

>From: <ken.kaliher at us.army.mil>
>Reply-To: Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
>To: Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
>CC: sa_ewing at hotmail.com
>Subject: Re: [KS] Memories of Sookmyung--the house in Noryangjin
>Date: Mon, 02 Oct 2006 19:25:30 +0900
>
>Stefan,
>
>While the Korean Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs 
>began back in 1997 marking buildings in Seoul and many other locations with 
>uniform address signs based on street names and sequential numbers, the 
>chaotic old Japanese address system remains in use to this day.
>
>On the very day that your postings appeared (Sept. 27), however, the 
>Ministry helpfully announced that the systematic new address system will 
>finally be implemented, gradually, by 2011. A service to go on line next 
>year will provide conversions from old addresses to new ones, and all the 
>new signs are to be up by 2009, the Korea Times reported Thursday. Both 
>systems may be used until 2011, the Times said.
>
>-
>
>As for the house in Noryangjin, I quickly located land lot 205 in my Seoul 
>city atlas, and Sundayset out to goexploring.
>Lot 205 sprawls across a hillside which runs from a narrow commercial 
>street up to the Yo^ngbon Primary School on the crown of the hill.
>Most of the 200 or more properties with addresses now beginning 205- are 
>three- or four-story red brickvilla residences of relatively recent 
>vintage, jammed shoulder to shoulder in the typical modern Seoul style, 
>with no grass, or even dirt, around them. The newest, flashiest buildings 
>in the area house dozens of kosiwo^n -- Spartan, multi-story dormitories 
>for those cramming for various entrance or employment exams.
>
>About three-fourths of the way up the hill, however, I happened upon a 
>distinctive property behind a long, high wall covered with thick, 
>broad-leafed vines. It was the only single family residence I saw anywhere 
>in the area, and the only one with an actual garden (literally -- there was 
>a vegetable patch beside the lawn). While the wall was readily identifiable 
>from the photo of Mr. Nomura's home, however, one glance confirmed that the 
>large house on the lot was not that in which he had lived.
>
>I made note of the address, Noryangjin 1-dong, 205-35, and as I rang the 
>doorbell, a sixtysomething grandmother approaching up the alley identified 
>herself as the occupant. As I explained my mission, a younger woman, owner 
>of a nearby kosiwo^n, appeared and joined our conversation. We quickly 
>confirmed that this lot was most certainly the site of Mr. Nomura�s 
>former home. Any ocean views, however, had long since been obliterated by 
>the surrounding villas and the adjacent high-rise Uso^ng Apartment complex.
>
>The grandmother said she and her son had bought the 150-pyong property five 
>years earlier, for 1 billion won, from the family of one Pak Tu-a, a 
>prominent local landowner who had built the current house in 1969. (She 
>knew nothing about him or the property before then.) And I had not come a 
>moment too soon, for they had just sold the house, and were moving out one 
>week later (on Oct. 8). The new owners would be tearing down the building 
>-- stone wall, vines, garden and all -- to build yet another five- to 
>seven-story kosiwo^n.
>
>As the other woman and I strolled back down the alley, we bemoaned the loss 
>of that magnificent wall and its vines. Then she told me that, before the 
>grandmother and her son had bought the house, it had stood vacant for 15 
>years because of some sort of family feud over the property. Thus they got 
>it cheap, as it was a hyungga (house of evil, or haunted house). The 
>grandmother's son, meanwhile, was apparently a mudang (shaman) of some 
>repute, and the huge magnolia tree dominating the home's garden was often 
>festooned with a shaman's red and white paper streamers.
>
>Perhaps the property has many stories of its own to tell from years gone 
>by....
>
>Ken Kaliher
>
>Seoul
>
>P.S. I took some photos with my newly acquired digital camera, but my USB 
>ports are not cooperating, and I haven't been able to download them. If 
>Esther is interested, I'm sure I can eventually send them to you to 
>forward. Ditto for a section from my Seoul atlas showing lot 205 and the 
>location of the old property.

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