Japanese-style House in Sinheung-dong, Gunsan

Tucked into a residential lane on the southwestern edge of old Gunsan stands a two-storey timber mansion built for a Japanese landowner during the colonial era, still in almost original condition. Also known as the Hirotsu House, the Japanese-style House in Sinheung-dong has a carefully kept Japanese garden, tatami rooms and even a strongroom building, and shows how the Japanese upper class lived in this port city that shipped Korean rice to Japan. It is also known as a location for the films The General's Son and Tazza.

History: who built it

It was built by Hirotsu Kichisaburo, a Japanese merchant who ran a cloth shop and a farm in Gunsan and sat on the town council. Sources give the construction date as either 1925 or the 1930s. From the start it had electricity, running water and drainage.

After liberation in 1945 it became "enemy property" left behind by the Japanese and passed to the former Honam Flour Mills, later becoming the property of Hanguk Flour Mills. The house sits deep in the residential block, facing southwest. Since being registered as National Registered Cultural Heritage in 2005, it has been managed by Gunsan City, which opens the yard and garden to visitors. Its size and good state of preservation make it the city's best-known modern-era house.

It is a popular film location: besides The General's Son and Tazza, scenes from Fighter in the Wind, Nameless Gangster and Gabi were shot here.

What to see

• Main wings and strongroom: two buildings joined in an L-shape, linked by a two-storey strongroom block, so the means of protecting the family fortune sits right at the heart of the house.
• Japanese garden: trees, a pond, a stone pagoda and a large stone lantern fill the garden between the wings. Looking across it to the glazed upper floor is the house's classic view.
• Exterior: note the walls of timber weatherboarding and plaster, the tiled roofs mixing gable and hip-and-gable forms, and the tin awning added under the entrance eaves, all features that distinguish it from a hanok. The slender square posts standing on square stones over a fieldstone base are worth a look too.
• Back yard: behind the main house are a further annex, a well and an outhouse, which give a sense of the household's scale.
• Interior layout: the ground floor has ondol (underfloor-heated) rooms, a kitchen, a dining room and a reception room, while upstairs are tatami rooms with a tokonoma alcove. The interior is currently closed to protect the building.

Tripto tips

• Opening hours: 10:00-17:00, last entry 20 minutes before closing. Closed on Mondays.
• Admission: free. The address is 17 Guyeong 1-gil, Gunsan.
• Time needed: 20-30 minutes for the yard and garden.
• Parking: there is no parking at the house. Park elsewhere in the old town and walk through the lanes.
• Combine with: a half-day walk through old Gunsan's colonial-era buildings and the Time Travel Village. If you know the films, the garden and corridors will look familiar.