Lost Joseon-era building returns home from Japan after nearly 100 years

An ancient Korean building believed to be a royal shrine from the Joseon Dynasty has made the long journey back home from Japan.

Our Choi Soo-hyung shares its story.

Roof tiles, wooden pillars, and planks all carefully wrapped one by one.

A lost Joseon-era building that had been hidden behind a Japanese Buddha statue for nearly 100 years has finally come home, piece by piece with nearly 5,000 wooden parts.

This building, called Gwanwoldang, is now being kept in the Traditional Architecture Elements Conservation Center in Paju, Gyeonggi-do Province.

It is the first time that a full wooden Korean structure like this has been returned home.

It used to be located at the very back of a famous Japanese temple called Kotoku-in in Kanagawa Prefecture.

It is believed that in 1924, during the Japanese occupation of Korea, the building was given to a Japanese businessman by the Joseon Industrial Bank, and from there, it was moved to Japan.

Later, the building was donated to the temple and used as a prayer room until it was first revealed in the 1990s by a Korean professor Kim Jeong-dong.

Though Korea tried several times to bring it back, those efforts failed, until last year.

However, thanks to the support and strong will of Takao Sato, the chief priest of the temple, the return was made possible ensuring the shrine could be preserved in its original home, Korea.

Experts say the building may be related to royal architecture, based on the unique and colorful roof tile designs, including dragons and butterflies.

"This feature has a striking appearance. It is usually found in palace buildings, and at Gwanwoldang, 10 pillar patterns like this were installed. This shows that Gwanwoldang is linked to royal architecture."

"There are five known remaining, Joseon royal shrines. We think this one was also royal, but likely outside in a small palace near Gyeongbokgung. It's probably a prince's shrine, smaller than those for royal concubines."

Park also noted that, even though the building stayed in Japan for a long time, there are clear signs that any attempts at restoration followed traditional Joseon architectural styles.

"The roof tiles taken from Joseon were only the original ones installed at Gwanwoldang. So, if those tiles were damaged, they would have had made new ones in Japan. But they copied the original Joseon's designs exactly, even though the dragon pattern is very complex to produce."

Administrator of Korea Heritage Service, Huh Min, also expressed a strong commitment to continue bringing back cultural heritage items that were taken out of the country.

"Currently, about 247,000 national heritage items have been taken abroad. Of these, only about 5 percent have been returned by repatriation or donation. We are determined to recover all items that were stolen or illegally taken."

Once research are complete, the plan is to restore Gwanwoldang by preserving its key parts and recreating the damaged sections using traditional methods as much as possible.

Choi Soo-hyung, Arirang News.