Imugi

The imugi (이무기) is a huge serpent of Korean folklore, understood as a dragon that has not yet finished becoming one. It lives in deep, still water or caves and is imagined as a giant version of the common field snake. Folk accounts say that after about a thousand years, or by seizing a wish-fulfilling jewel (yeouiju), it ascends as a true dragon (yong) bringing clouds and heavy rain. Names recorded in the 1527 character primer Hunmong Jahoe include mireu, and others include isimi and kkwangcheori.

Stories stress that the ascent depends on humans. Interfering with an imugi, or revealing its secret, can stop the rise and invite revenge. In one tale an old man turning into an imugi in a village well was three days short of rising when his wife revealed him; he died in the well.

The imugi’s best-known literary form is in the Samguk Yusa, compiled by the monk Iryeon around 1281. In the story of Boyang, a dragon’s son named Imok lives in a pond near a temple and, during a drought, brings rain without leave of the Heavenly Emperor, who sends an envoy to kill him; Boyang hides him and points the envoy to a pear tree of the same sound, which is struck by lightning. Another being, the gangcheori, appears in 17th-century Korean writings, including Jibong Yuseol (1614), as a venomous dragon-like creature whose heat brings drought.

The imugi is a living motif rather than a documented animal; it appears in Korean film and television, including the 2007 film D-War.

A large, python-like serpent that may have little legs or none and no horns; some versions list stages from tadpole-like creature to coiled dragon.

Deep ponds, rivers, lakes and mountain caves, where it waits for centuries.

A theme in Korean folk art and temples; dragon imagery is widespread in Buddhism and royal robes.