A field guide · 09 entries

Meet the beings.

Explore how beings appear in particular stories and cultural sources. We keep each recorded telling distinct from modern interpretations.

A shaggy mythical creature chews an iron fragment beside scattered metal pieces in a mountain clearing.

Legendary creature · Folklore figure

Bulgasari

Iron-eating creature

불가사리

A legendary creature associated with eating iron, known through differing accounts whose details should not be collapsed into one definitive design.

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A wooden club and abandoned treasure remain in a rural room as an ambiguous shadow fades.

Supernatural being · Folklore figure

Dokkaebi

Korean goblin-like spirit

도깨비

A familiar but varied supernatural figure in Korean tales, often encountered through a particular story rather than a single fixed portrait.

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A silver-white nine-tailed fox stands on a rocky pine-covered ridge beneath the moon.

Folklore figure · Fox-being

Gumiho

Nine-tailed fox

구미호

A fox-being in Korean narrative traditions whose stories vary; modern screen portrayals are only one layer of its history.

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A single-horned guardian creature sits on a stone plinth before a palace wall.

Legendary creature · Protective symbol

Haetae

Mythical guardian creature

해태

A legendary judge-like creature associated with distinguishing right from wrong and with protective imagery in Korean architecture.

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A long green serpent rises from a mountain pool amid mist and clouds.

Legendary being · Serpent figure

Imugi

Serpent-like being

이무기

A serpent-like being in some Korean accounts, sometimes connected with becoming a dragon; the motif has more than one form.

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An anonymous robed messenger walks a pine-lined mountain path carrying a small lantern.

Otherworldly messenger · Religious and performance figure

Jeoseung Saja

Messenger from the afterlife

저승사자

An underworld messenger in Korean belief and performance traditions, represented in different ways across contexts and periods.

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A modern illustration of the Dangun story; the ending refers to Dangun becoming a mountain spirit.

Deity · Nature spirit

Sanshin

Mountain spirit

산신

A mountain spirit or deity understood through varied local traditions, ritual settings, and visual forms.

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A tiger from a modern interpretation of a Korean folktale.

Animal · Folklore figure

The Tiger in Korean Folklore

Tiger in Korean folklore

호랑이

Tigers appear in Korean stories in more than one role, from threatening animals to comic figures.

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A modern illustration for the Rabbit’s Liver story, with a rabbit and an underwater court.

Water deity · Dragon figure

Yongwang

Dragon King

용왕

The Dragon King associated with water in Korean traditions, appearing in stories and practices whose details vary.

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