Jayang-dong

Jayang-dong
Jayang-dong
Korean transcription(s)
• Hangul	자양동
• Hanja	紫陽洞
• Revised Romanization	Jayang-dong
• McCune–Reischauer	Chayang-tong
Country	South Korea
Area
• Total	3.39 km2 (1.31 sq mi)
Population (2001)
• Total	87,567
• Density	26,000/km2 (67,000/sq mi)

Jayang-dong (Korean: 자양동) is a dong (neighborhood) of Gwangjin District, Seoul, South Korea.^[1]^[2]

Name origin

During the Joseon period, the name of Jangyang-dong was "Jamajang" (雌馬場), which translates to "female horse field." The term "jamajang" refers to a female horse. In the early days of the Joseon Dynasty, there was a legend that if one were to raise a thousand horses, a mythical creature called Yongma (龍馬), a dragon-horse, would be born. This led to a great interest in horse breeding in various regions. Jangyang-dong, being an area where fertile sediments flowed through the Han River and accumulated, had vast natural fields, making it advantageous for grazing horses. As a result, a significant number of female horses were raised in this area. Having a large number of female horses in a ranch facilitates the mass breeding of horses through reproduction. The name "Jamajang" was later changed to "Jamajang-ri" (雌馬場里), and during the period of Japanese colonial rule, the Chinese character for "ja" (馬) was changed to 紫, resulting in the current name of Jangyang-dong.