• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
• /
• v.44 no.4
• /
• pp.56-69
• /
• 2011

A Gamsil is an ritual instrument which enshrine the ancestral tablets of four lines from late great-great-grandfather and grandmother to late father and mother. This has their soul. Juja's "Garye" informs its structure pattern. It is placed in Sadang and takes the form of a perfectly square box. It partitions four rooms and enshrine an ancestral tablet room by room. They get the ancestral tablets line up from west to east. And they also enshrine the ancestral tablets without his descendant together in Gamsil. A Gamsil is a space to enshrine the ancestral tablets and to place an order within a family. A social status and A family economic power become a standard in making and managing Sadang. Kingdom in Joseon period limited the ancestral tablets considering of his degree of official rank which descendant enshrined. A official servant can be stable economically in getting a stipend and build sadang in the house. While household a little in economic enshrine the ancestral tablets at a Gamsil placed at the a space of private home. His personal circumstances make size and pattern, place change in relation to Gamsil. A Gamsil looks like house in structure and pattern. It has the immortality of the soul. And it changed from a table size to a ancestral tablet size. This Gamsil is comfortable to move and is made considering of the width and height of household. The transition of Gamsil means institutions is in close to a family economic power in social change. Kingdom in Joseon early period makes a policy of a Gamyo's build and an ancestral enshrine in basement of Juja's "Garye". The transition of Gamsil gave a common people limitted socially and institutionally the service of late four lines. Most of people enshrine the ancestral tablets of their four lines in approaching of in the late of Joseon Dinasty. They compromise on their reality and cause. The transition of Gamsil implied many different things in social ; the authenticity search and a dignity expression of his family, the foundation for the diffusion of an ancestral service, a space sharing with ancestor and descendent, the increment of a family economic power etc.