Sejong Traditional Paste Museum

A mother's soy sauce

A glass case at Sejong Traditional Paste Museum protects something unusual: ganjang made by the founder's mother around 1950, kept with the earthenware jars she used. The sauce is known as ssiganjang, or seed soy sauce. In the traditional practice, a little mature sauce could help carry a household's flavour into later batches

The museum stands in Dweeungbark Village, a purpose-built fermented-food culture park and business in Sejong's rural Jeondong-myeon. This is a themed complex with a museum, restaurant, shop and jar gardens. Its name comes from the dweeungbak, a vessel used to save seeds after the autumn harvest for next year's planting. A stored seed becomes an apt symbol for preserving a family's recipes

Alongside the mother's jars are more than 130 historical onggi objects. Among them is a mulheobeok, the narrow-necked water carrier made with Jeju's volcanic clay. Its shape served a practical job: carrying water by hand or on the back, while larger jars stayed in place for storage and fermentation

What happens inside the jars

The grounds are lined with more than 1,000 earthenware jars. Some hold jang, the fermented soybean sauces and pastes that season Korean food. They come from a process beginning with boiled soybeans crushed into blocks called meju and dried so microorganisms can develop

The blocks ferment in brine. Once separated, the liquid matures into ganjang soy sauce; the soybean solids become doenjang, a thick paste used in soups and stews. Gochujang, red pepper paste, uses a different combination of fermented ingredients and grains

The museum's two exhibition rooms trace the ingredients, utensils and history of these foods. Some outdoor vessels belong to active production, making the jar terrace part of a working food enterprise. The museum opened in 2013, extending a family approach to sauce making into a public display and local food business

Taste the results

At the on-site restaurant, traditional jang flavours dishes including soybean-paste stew. The shop sells finished sauces and pastes to take home. The family sauce preserved in the museum gives those ordinary condiments a story older than the park itself

Seasonal workshops have included making jipjang, a fermented paste, and shaping natural grain soap like a block of meju. Group classes run on scheduled dates, with fees and booking handled by the venue

Before you go

The museum is at 90-43 Baeil-gil, Jeondong-myeon, Sejong. Museum admission is free, with opening hours 10:30–16:30 and Tuesday closure. Restaurant and wider village hours differ; their published opening period has included 11:30–20:00. The museum's enquiries number is +82-44-868-7007, while restaurant bookings use +82-44-866-1114

Bus 801 runs from Sejong Express/Intercity Bus Terminal toward Cheongsong Industrial Complex Entrance, around 22 minutes' walk from the museum. A taxi is a more comfortable option for the rural final stretch. Steps at the museum entrance prevent wheelchair access to the indoor display, although an accessible toilet is listed