Rural Korea

Daeheung Farm (대흥농장) sits in the upper reaches of the Boseong River valley — in Geumho-ri, Nodong-myeon, Boseong-gun, South Jeolla Province. The name means great flourishing, taken from my mother’s house-name, Daeheung-daek. Built for a Return This land belonged to my grandfather. When my mother — widowed in her early sixties — chose to leave Seoul and return to the village where she had been a young bride, I built her a small house here. Then, around that house, the farm grew: a hand-built spring, a pavilion carried down from Gangwon Province, a summer pool, a garden. ...

My mother’s house-name is 대흥댁 — Daeheung-daek — and every name on this farm comes from hers. Where the Name Comes From She was born in 1940 in Daeheung Village (대흥마을), Geumsan-myeon, Goheung, South Jeolla Province. In rural Korean tradition, a married woman takes her house-name from her birthplace — so when she came to this valley as a nineteen-year-old bride, the village knew her as Daeheung-daek: “the woman from Daeheung.” ...