Gwanghuimun Gate is a gate located southeast of the Hanyangdoseong, constructed between Sungnyemun Gate and Heunginjimun Gate, and was served as a main entrance at the east side of the capital during the Joseon Dynasty. As a gate that showed close ties with the lives of commoners, it boasts of multiple names given by the people more than any other door in the Hanyangdoseong. Although the gate was given the name Gwanghuimun Gate meaning “the light shines in all four directions,” it was more frequently called Sugumun Gate, and around the period of the late-Korean Empire, it was also called Shigumun Gate, having the grotesque meaning of a gate that is used to move corpses.
The Gwanghuimun Gate underwent many changes during its multiple moments of crisis over the past 600 years. This exhibition will cover the characteristics and role of the Gwanghuimun Gate according to each of its names and the history of Gwanghuimun Gate as the small gate southeast of the capital through historical events.