Dear, Bittersweet Medicine

In June 2022, we visited the Choonwondang Museum on the way from Jongno-3 Ga subway station. Opposite the Choonwondang clinic was its museum where upstairs the biggest medicine heaters was encased. As a young woman gave us explanations and permissions (she was very kind and gave out details about the many medicine sacks set on the shelves beyond the transparent partitions) we got to the conclusion that we are sure you won't find a finer specimen of Korean medicine clinic in Seoul, nor probably in South Korea.

 

The tallest floor housed a museum for old heating and boiling tools. But most of all, I wanted to see the big, round heaters downstairs exposed through the glass wall, which were designed well into the new millenium by the renowned South Korean architect Hwang Doo-jin.

 

We stepped down to where you could see eye to eye downwards the several enormous medicine heaters. I could look down at many smaller boiling equipment, in operation by the careful crew scurrying around each heater.

 

"In the research institute the medicinal stuff go through multiple check-ups: after the efficacy test and heavy metal tests are complete, they are stored on the shelves on the opposite side. The temperature within the partitions is maintained steady at 17-degree celsius and the number of the kinds of the stored medicinal stuff are over three hundred."

 

On a lower floor, we found some of those transparent sacks of medicinal stuff on drawers and shelves. And further on, a computer for organizing and managing the prescriptions. The efficacy test must be finished for the heater to be ready for the medicine.

"The stainless container is primarily used to macerate and here is why and how they do it: At first, the medicinal stuff is pretty much dry as it is. Then we soak them in purified water for a time period of 160 minutes which maximizes the curing effects. Afterwards, the heating process is informed.

 

"Inside the containers, the medicinal stuff and the smaller containers are built in such a natural way that they don't get burned and good ingredients come out over. Also fibre can come up if you press the medicine hard and you can get indigestion out of it, so we very carefully take this handle (pointing to an equipment on one of the heaters) and do it free-falling way. The residue goes into the black vinyl bag you can see over there.

 

"Within the specially manufactured container we take care of both the medicinal stuff and the containers. A special merit of Choonwondang is that every patient is interviewed by the head clinician. Other clinicians in their specific areas will also see the patient, but the head takes care of all the patients.

 

"Now, the yellow round container includes general medicinal stuff, and the stuff in the sky-blue container is set aside. The heating process goes like this: the stuff are cleansed for a short time and afterwards macerate for 160 minutes: The water is purified and cold. After the maceration the boiling process is finished with additional medicinal stuff added in the final 10 minutes. The free-falling handling method is applied to complete the medicine. The packaging and delivery is part of the cure system."

 

We climbed down to the basement exhibition space, walled on each side with high and broad partitions.

Our guide said:

"From the later period of Joseon dynasty, the sons and grandsons have studied medicine and inherited this legacy as head.

"Here you can see the History of Choonwondang and its 6 generations of head clinicians. The earliest ancestor was a military man. After he quit, in 1847, he couldn't help noticing his aides suffering from various injuries, and he got really interested in curing so eventually it got to be family affair. Here you can unfold books on acupuncture his head descendants made.

"Just after the Korean war there were lots of people with gynecopathy and polio in which this clinic was - and still is in case of gynecopathy - specialized."

 

The clinic eventually settled down here in Jongno Gu area, and the tutor of the fifth ancestors gave it its name meaning a Spring Garden. The logo of the whole clinic was inspired by the way some of the heads wrote the name, by its very typeface.

Nowadays the bestest fruit to bloom here seems to be its superior prescriptions in gynecology and thyroid.

 

You get the notion that between the two buildings they do occupy a certain part of the road to subway station Jongno-3 ga. It also seems to act as a rich source of Korean traditional medicinal discipline and medicine art. The underground space is mainly used for educating visiting children.

 

After having a look at the museum and the heaters, head to their instagram @choonwondang_museum to find out about a number of classes they hold here, including herbal soap making and others!