Ji Ha Ryeon House | The Abandoned House Said to Be Haunted

Ji Ha Ryeon House is a modern-era house in Masan, South Korea, built around 1937 and associated with the writer Ji Ha-ryeon. The two-story wooden house combines Western-style architecture with Japanese elements, including its Japanese-style cement tile roof, and is considered significant to the architectural and literary history of the area. Ji Ha-ryeon lived here from around 1940 and wrote several of her works while living in Masan. The house has had a difficult history. After Ji Ha-ryeon and her husband, poet and critic Im Hwa, went to North Korea, the property changed hands several times and was damaged by a fire in 2015. It was later caught up in redevelopment plans, leading to calls for its preservation. In 2024, a plan was agreed to preserve the house in its original location, although questions about its restoration and long-term use remained. The house also has a reputation for being haunted, with stories surrounding the abandoned building contributing to its eerie atmosphere. I don't believe in the paranormal, so I can't say whether there is anything to those stories — but the history and condition of the house make it fascinating enough without them. Today, the building remains a threatened example of modern-era architecture and an important part of Masan's literary history. Its deteriorating condition, including rotten sections of the wooden floor, shows just how vulnerable this piece of local heritage has become.