Korean

Gumiho · Nine-Tailed Fox — The Bewitching Fox-Spirit of East Asia

A fox spirit that, after a thousand years, gains nine tails. Often transforming into a beautiful woman to beguile humans, it is said to sustain its power by taking livers or vital essence. The Korean form of the fox-spirit tradition shared across Korea, China, and Japan, portrayed as a being holding a tragic yearning to become human.

Dokkaebi · The Korean Goblin — A Capricious Spirit of Mischief and Wealth

A signature creature of Korean folklore, said to arise from old objects or implements such as bloodstained brooms and pestles. Playful and capricious, it loves wrestling and pranks. Wielding a wish-granting club, it bestows or seizes wealth, valuing promises and repayment while mischievously tormenting people.

Cheonyeo-gwisin · The Grudge-Bound Maiden Ghost — A Korean Spirit Wandering With Unresolved Han

The vengeful spirit of a maiden who died unwed, bearing han. She appears in a white burial robe, with long unbound hair and a bloodless face. She wanders the living world until the han of an unjust death or an unfulfilled bond is resolved. Where the Japanese onryo spreads an indiscriminate curse, the maiden ghost carries the Korean sentiment of awaiting someone who will recognize and resolve her han.

A light spear designed for throwing

The javelin is a light spear, about 150 to 200 cm long, designed to be thrown. Unlike an ordinary spear held to thrust, its shaft is thin and light and its balance is set so that it flies far and true. Its most famous variant is the Roman pilum, whose thin soft-iron shank below the head was designed to bend under its own weight once it stuck in an enemy shield, making it hard to pull out: a lodged pilum dragged the shield down and forced the enemy at last to throw it away. The javelin is a universal weapon that arose independently among the civilizations of nearly every continent, and it was usual, just after the throw, to switch to a sword or another spear and carry on the fight.

Korea's traditional garment of curved beauty

The hanbok is Korea's representative traditional garment, composed of a jeogori (jacket) paired with a chima (skirt) for women or baji (trousers) for men. Its defining aesthetic is the creation of graceful curves from straight-cut fabric, embodying the Korean ideals of curved beauty and elegant simplicity. Established in its current form during the Joseon dynasty, it follows strict rules of five directional colors based on yin-yang philosophy, with fabric and ornamentation varying by season and social rank.

The Aspiring Dragon

The imugi is the Korean 'unrealised dragon', a great serpent that must endure a thousand years of practice in deep pools, beneath waterfalls and in hidden caves, accumulating moral merit before it can earn the wish-fulfilling pearl (yeouiju) and ascend as a true dragon. It is depicted as a serpent of immense thickness and scale, with a faint pair of nascent horns on its brow; the same image recurs in folktales collected across South Pyongan, Gangwon and South Jeolla provinces. The earliest Korean-language textual mention is in the 'Sun-o-ji' (1678) of Hong Man-jong (1643-1725), while the most systematic ethnographic record is the field collection of Son Jin-tae (1900-1950?) — published as 'Researches on Korean Folk Narratives' (1947) — and Im Seok-jae's 'Collection of Korean Oral Tales' (Pyongminsa, twelve volumes, 1987-1993), which classifies more than two hundred imugi tales under the 'imugi and the maiden' and 'dragon-pool' types. The Standard Korean Dictionary defines it as 'a great snake that failed to become a dragon', and Korean folklorists treat it as a fusion of the Chinese 'jiao' serpent-dragon with native Korean serpent cults. The image was modernised in the manhwa 'Yongbi the Invincible' / 'Land of the Wind' (Kim Jin, 1992-), in the Hollywood-style blockbuster 'D-War' (2007) directed by Shim Hyung-rae, and in Jeong Ju-yeon's 'Myojin Imugi' (2014).

The Divine Dragon of Korean Myth

The Korean yong is the indigenous Korean dragon, a benevolent water-deity occupying a distinct position within the East-Asian dragon tradition. It is depicted with a long serpentine body, the branched antlers of a deer, the scales of a carp, the talons of a hawk, the soles of a tiger and — most decisively — four toes on each foot, which mark Korea's rank between the five-toed Chinese imperial long and the three-toed Japanese ryu. The earliest extant records are the dragon-deity passages of Iryeon's 'Samguk Yusa' (1281), book I 'Strange Affairs', particularly the entries on Dongmyeong, King Suro and King Munmu, and the dragon iconography on the Baekje and Silla roof-tile-ends of the fifth and sixth centuries. In Korean myth, the yong is the form an imugi attains after a millennium of practice when it finally wins the wish-fulfilling pearl (yeouiju). The image runs through the royal dragon robe (gollyongpo) of King Jeongjo (reigned 1776-1800, National Palace Museum of Korea) and the twin golden dragons on the throne ceiling of the Geunjeongjeon hall of Gyeongbokgung Palace (founded 1395, rebuilt 1865) and is the antithesis of the malevolent Western dragon — fundamentally good, generous and bound to bring rain to the fields.

Hwanung · Korean Sky God — Father of Dangun

In Korean mythology, son of the supreme sky god Hwanin, Hwanung descended from heaven to found the divine city Sinsi (神市). Leading three thousand spirit-officials including the lords of Wind, Rain, and Clouds, he descended beneath the sacred Sandalwood Tree (Sindansu) on Mount Taebaek and governed grain, life, sickness, punishment, and morality. He married Ungnyeo (a transformed she-bear) and fathered Dangun Wanggeom, the founder of Gojoseon.