Korean shamanism or Mu-ism is a religion from Korea. It is also called musok in Korean. Scholars of religion have classified it as a folk religion. There is no central authority in control of the religion and much diversity exists among practitioners.
Korean mythology is the group of myths told by historical and modern Koreans. There are two types: the written, literary mythology in traditional histories, mostly about the founding monarchs of various historical kingdoms, and the much larger and more diverse oral mythology, mostly narratives sung by shamans or priestesses (mansin) in rituals invoking the gods and which are still considered sacred today.
Stories and practices that are considered part of Korean folklore go back several thousand years. These tales derive from a variety of origins, including Shamanism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and more recently Christianity.
The Igong Bonpuri, better known in Korea as the Hallakgungi myth is an narrative traditionally told by shamans on the Korean island of Jejudo. The story bears similarity to the Buddhist book Wolin Seokbo, showing the close relationship of Korean mythology and Buddhist mythology.
Sungmo, also called Daemo, Jamo, Sinmo, Nogo, Chungkyun Moju and by other names, is a mother goddess in Korean shamanism. She is regarded as the mother or daughter of the Heavenly King and, in some myths, as the mother of all shamans. In other myths, the shamans are rather explained as descendants of Dangun.
Possessed is a 2019 South Korean television series starring Song Sae-byeok, Go Joon-hee, Yeon Jung-hoon and Jo Han-sun. It aired on OCN's Wednesdays and Thursdays at 23:00 KST from March 6 to April 25, 2019.
Ureongi gaksi is a Korean folktale about a poor man who breaks taboo and marries a maiden who comes out of a snail shell until he loses his snail bride when a magistrate kidnaps her. The tale features an inter-species marriage in which a snail transforms into a woman and becomes the bride of a male human. The tale also depicts the motif of a government official from the ruling class taking away a woman in a relationship with a lower-class male civilian.
The bon-puri are Korean shamanic narratives recited in the shamanic rituals of Jeju Island, to the south of the Korean Peninsula. Similar shamanic narratives are known in mainland Korea as well, but are only occasionally referred to as bon-puri.
Korean creation narratives are Korean shamanic narratives which recount the mythological beginnings of the universe. They are grouped into two categories: the eight narratives of mainland Korea, which were transcribed by scholars between the 1920s and 1980s, and the Cheonji-wang bon-puri narrative of southern Jeju Island, which exists in multiple versions and continues to be sung in its ritual context today. The mainland narratives themselves are subdivided into four northern and three eastern varieties, along with one from west-central Korea.
The Seng-gut narrative is a Korean shamanic narrative traditionally recited in a large-scale gut ritual in Hamgyong Province, North Korea. It tells of the deeds of one or multiple deities referred to as "sages," beginning from the creation of the world. It combines many stories that appear independently in other regions of Korea into a single extended narrative. In the first story, the deity Seokga usurps the world from the creator, creates animals from deer meat, and destroys a superfluous sun and moon. In the second, the carpenter Gangbangdek builds a palace for the gods, loses a wager to a woman, and becomes the god of the household. In the third and fourth stories, a boy who does not talk until the age of ten becomes the founder of a new Buddhist temple and melts a baby into iron to forge a temple bell. In the fifth, the same priest destroys a rich man for having abused him. Finally, the priest makes his three sons the gods of fertility, ending the story. The narrative has a strong Buddhist influence.
Life replacement narratives or life extension narratives refer to three Korean shamanic narratives chanted during religious rituals, all from different regional traditions of mythology but with a similar core story: the Menggam bon-puri of the Jeju tradition, the Jangja-puri of the Jeolla tradition, and the Honswi-gut narrative of the South Hamgyong tradition. As oral literature, all three narratives exist in multiple versions.
The Song of Dorang-seonbi and Cheongjeong-gaksi is a Korean shamanic narrative recited in the Mangmuk-gut, the traditional funeral ceremony of South Hamgyong Province, North Korea. It is the most ritually important and most popular of the many mythological stories told in this ritual. The Mangmuk-gut is no longer performed in North Korea, but the ritual and the narrative are currently being passed down by a South Korean community descended from Hamgyong refugees.
The mengdu, also called the three mengdu and the three mengdu of the sun and moon, are a set of three kinds of brass ritual devices—a pair of knives, a bell, and divination implements—which are the symbols of shamanic priesthood in the Korean shamanism of southern Jeju Island. Although similar ritual devices are found in mainland Korea, the religious reverence accorded to the mengdu is unique to Jeju.
The Semin-hwangje bon-puri is a Korean shamanic narrative formerly recited in southern Jeju Island during the funeral ceremonies. As it is no longer transmitted by the oral tradition, it is classified as one of the special bon-puri.
The Naewat-dang shamanic paintings are ten portraits of village patron gods formerly hung at the Naewat-dang shrine, one of the four state-recognized shamanic temples of Jeju Island, now in South Korea. The shrine was destroyed in the nineteenth century, and the works are currently preserved at Jeju National University as a government-designated Important Folklore Cultural Property. They may be the oldest Korean shamanic paintings currently known.
Gongsim is a legendary Korean princess of the Goryeo dynasty said to have been struck with sinbyeong, an illness which can only be cured by initiation into shamanism. According to the myth, she joined the shamanic priesthood at Namsan Mountain in Seoul, and introduced the shamanic religion to Korea or to parts of Korea.
Gawp is a cosmological concept in Jeju Island shamanism referring to the divide between heaven and earth, humans and non-humans, and the living and the dead.
The Durin-gut, also called the Michin-gut and the Chuneun-gut, is the healing ceremony for mental illnesses in the Korean shamanism of southern Jeju Island. While commonly held as late as the 1980s, it has now become very rare due to the introduction of modern psychiatry.
In Korean shamanism, the Chogong bon-puri (Korean: 초공본풀이) is a shamanic narrative whose recitation forms the tenth ritual of the Great Gut, the most sacred sequence of rituals in Jeju shamanism. The Chogong bon-puri is the origin myth of Jeju shamanic religion as a whole, to the point that shamans honor the myth as the "root of the gods" and respond that "it was done that way in the Chogong bon-puri" when asked about the origin of a certain ritual. It also explains the origin of the mengdu, the sacred metal objects that are the source of a Jeju shaman's authority. As with most works of oral literature, multiple versions of the narrative exist. The summary given below is based on the version recited by the high-ranking shaman An Sa-in (1912–1990).
Our Blues is a 2022 South Korean television series starring Lee Byung-hun, Shin Min-a, Cha Seung-won, Lee Jung-eun, Uhm Jung-hwa, Han Ji-min, and Kim Woo-bin. The series revolves around the sweet and bitter lives of people at the end, climax, or beginning of life, and depicts their stories in an omnibus format against the backdrop of Jeju Island. It premiered on tvN on April 9, 2022, and aired every Saturday and Sunday at 21:10 (KST) with 20 episodes. It is available for streaming on Netflix in selected regions. It is also one of the highest-rated dramas in Korean cable television history.
