• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.45 no.5
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• pp.60-70
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• 2017

This study traces the development of physic gardens in Korea and explores their significance in the history of landscape architecture. For this purpose, records related to physic gardens from medical sources from the period of the Three States to the Joseon dynasty, when herbal medicine was systematized as a field, were searched. Physic gardens had been developed by the time of the late Goryeo and early Joseon dynasties, in the 13th and the 15th centuries. Yakpo(kitchen gardens for medicinal herbs) were cultivated by a group of new high-level officials in the late Goryeo dynasty, when an increasing interest in hyangyak(native herbs) emerged under the influence of the Neo-Confucian perspective on nature, which emphasized locality. The sources analyzed in this study confirm that physic gardens called jong-yakjeon(royal medicinal herb gardens) were in operation in the early Joseon dynasty when policies to investigate, discover, cultivate, and research native herbs were put into place. It is likely that the jong-yakjeon were established at the beginning of the Joseon dynasty as subsidiary facilities under its central medical institutions, the Naeuiwon and Hyeminseo, and then declined in the late Joseon dynasty. Jong-yakjeon can be confirmed to have existed in the mid-15th century. Physic gardens were located in several places outside the Fortress Wall of Hanyang, such as Yakhyeon, Yuldo, Yeoudo, and Saari. The total area encompassed by physic gardens was about 160,000 square meters in the early 18th century. In jong-yakjeon, dozens of medicinal herbs were cultivated, including Schizonepeta tenuifolia var. japonica, Rehmannia glutinosa, and Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fischer, and these gardens were operated by physicians dispatched from the Naeuiwon and dozens of provincial slaves. In conclusion, the jong-yakjeon were similar to the physic gardens of Renaissance medical universities in that they reflected the interest in and development of theories about new herbs, and were similar to the physic gardens of medieval castles and monasteries in terms of species types, location, and function. This paper has limitations in that it does not present the specific spatial forms of the yakpo or the jong-yakjeon. Nevertheless, this paper is significant for the field of garden history because it shows that physic gardens in Korea appeared in the late Goryeo and early Joseon dynasties concomitantly with the development of medicine towards native herbs and functioned as utilitarian gardens to cultivate community remedies.