Once a part of Sannae-myeon (Gongju-gun), Isadong (Dong-Gu) was included into Hoideok-gun during Gojong Regime in the latter years of Joseon. It was called Wisahan and Aresahan there and they were merged into one in 1914 under Japanese Occupation and named Isadong with past names in it.

This village has been the residence of the Eunjin Song’s clan for 500 years during Joseon Dynasty, known as a lucky location. So, there are about the clan’s 1,000 graves, 14 shrines, Sawoo and Dangwoo as cultural heritages. There is also Wooragje Schrine which Confucious scholar Song Joon-gil built for his father, Song Byeong-wha’s shrine Donglosa and Yeonggwidae, and Kim Ok-kyun's birthplace, who staged Gapsin Coup.

Odosan(338m) which stands in front of Isadong was a battlefield against Japan. Though it is not so high, the mountain is pretty tough to climb. There is only one path to reach the top with cliffs and steep sides. Lee Kyu-hong, a civilian militia leader, fought and shot 150 Japanes solders to death at Odosan in 1907. At that time, Song Chang-jae, a Confucian scholar living at Isa-dong, helped the leader Lee Kyu-hong and was tortured by the Japanese police.

The project of Isadong folk village will be propelled by designation of “Building Asset Promotion Zone” in the are. The designated area for “Building Asset Promotion Zone” and management plan at Isadong amounts to 170,585 ㎡. The main projects of the plan is improving Hanok (Korean traditional house) to restore the past feature, building a traditional rite hall (tentative name), and improving the entrance road of the village.

In particular, the core of this plan is to restore the landscape of tradition before damages by urbanization and the construction of highways, as improving the residential environment to establish a community where cultural heritages and residents coexist.

Daejeon City plans to restore its past landscape this year and to set up building asset management plan to prevent reckless development and obnoxious facilities.

For more information, contact Cultural Heritage Division of Daejeon City at 042-270-4521.

Source: www.daejeon.go.kr

weekly, walkintoKorea