• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.20-33
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• 2018

This study aims to illuminated landscape of Joseon Dynasty in the end of 19th century when Joseon dynasty began to modernize through the perspective of Westerners. Historical meaning to Western people's landscape records has been preceded. And landscape typology and their perception were analyzed. The results were as follows. First, the Westerners who visited Joseon dynasty at that time were involved in the historical and political situation of the Joseon Dynasty or understood their culture through traveling for so long. And record of Westerners is a significant data to analyze scenery at that time because common contents appear in various books. Second, the landscape of Joseon dynasty that appears in Western records was mainly recorded in small towns and villages, natural environments, scenic sites, historic sites, modern facilities, and cultivated areas. Small towns and villages are mainly mentioned with shabby alleys and dense houses. And natural landscape were identified to mountain landscapes and diverse geomorphological landscape that surrounding vegetation along the coast and rivers. The palaces, fortress and temples were recorded as main objects of scenic sites and historic site. And western-style buildings such as foreign legations and settlements, churches and schools were mentioned in the modernized facilities. A cultivated land was confirmed to be underdeveloped and neglected, but as range of view became wider, it was seen to a peaceful and prosperous rural landscape. Third, Westerners' landscape perception of Joseon dynasty at that time can be deduced from positive or negative perceptions. The residential environment was perceived as negative because it was unsanitary and backward. On the contrary, outstanding natural landscapes, scenic sites and historic sites, and upper class gardens were perceived as positive. For modernized landscapes, positive and negative perceptions were similarly mentioned. Positive perceptions were formed in improvement of civilized landscape, and appeared negative perception because damaged traditional landscapes and heterogeneity.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.30-51
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• 2011

During the process of modernization, many rural villages in Korea have experienced degeneration and breakdown, losing sustainability. However, Oeam village in Asan City, South Chungcheong Province (State-designated cultural heritage, Important Folk Material No. 236) has established itself as a unique folk village, which evolves with sustainability, pursuing the revival of Neo-traditionalism. Oeam village is a tribal village of the Yis from the Yean region and has maintained environmental, economic, and social sustainability and soundness for over five centuries. Thus, the village has sustained itself well enough to be a cultural asset with 'Outstanding Universal Value', in terms of its value as world cultural heritage. The village maintains its own identity, filled with a variety of traditional and scenic cultural assets that symbolize a gentry village. Those assets include Confucian sceneries (head family houses, ancestral shrines, tombs, gravestones, commemorative monuments, and pavilions), various assets of folk religion (totem poles, protective trees at the entrance of a village, shrines for mountain spirits, village forests), tangible and intangible cultural assets related to daily lives (vigorous family activities, rigorous ancestral rituals, family rituals, collective agriculture and protection of ecosystem), which have all been well preserved and inherited. In particular, this village is an example of a well-being community with a well-preserved folksy atmosphere, which is based on environmentally sound settlements (nature + economy + environment + community) in a village established according to geomancy, East Asia's unique principle of environmental design. In addition, the village has kept the sustainability and authenticity for more than 500 years, combining restraint towards the environment and the view of the environment which respects the natural order and cultural values (capacity + healthy + sustainability). Therefore, the Oeam folk village can be a representative example of a folksy and scenic Korean community which falls into the category of IV (to exemplify an outstanding type of building, architectural or technological ensemble, or landscape which illustrates significant stages in human history) and V (to exemplify an outstanding traditional human settlement, land-use, or sea-use which is representative of cultures, or human interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change) of Unesco's World Cultural Heritage.