Ikseon-dong's past is not a simple story of a quiet residential village suddenly becoming a café street. Close to Jongno 3-ga and Donhwamun-ro, houses stood alongside restaurants, bathhouses, barbershops, inns, and entertainment businesses. In the 1970s and 1980s, Ojinam ranked with Daewongak and Samcheonggak among Seoul's famous *yojeong*—exclusive restaurants where dining, traditional music, political networking, and female service labor overlapped. Their cultural associations should not romanticize unequal labor and power.
Ojinam disappeared, and some of its materials were reconstructed elsewhere
Ojinam was known as Seoul's first officially registered restaurant and served as a contact site in preparing the July 4, 1972, North–South Joint Statement. It was demolished for a tourist hotel in 2010. Parts of the old structure were moved to Buam-dong and reconstructed as Mugyewon, a traditional cultural facility. Do not assume the original building survives in Ikseon-dong; distinguish the historical site from relocated architectural components.
Commercial reuse accelerated after redevelopment collapsed
Ikseon-dong was designated for redevelopment in 2004, but the effort failed when its organizing committee dissolved in 2014. Cafés, restaurants, and vintage shops then converted small hanok, drawing a rapid rise in visitors. Seoul designated the area a hanok cluster in 2018. Reuse replaced wholesale demolition, but it did not distribute benefits equally among buildings, tenants, owners, and residents.
The success of a “hot place” can raise the cost of neighborhood life
A growing district creates opportunities for repair and new businesses, but rising rent, noise, rubbish, queues, and delivery traffic burden residents and longstanding shops. Large venues formed by combining several hanok and adding elaborate interiors can obscure the original pattern of small lots. Go beyond the consumer's story of having “discovered” a beautiful place and ask who left, who stayed, and who now performs the labor of hospitality.