Gumiho

shapeshifter · North Korea · East Asia and Pacific

Gumiho (구미호) is the Korean nine-tailed fox, a fox that cultivates for a thousand years to grow nine tails and the power to take human form, most often a beautiful woman. In traditional tales she seduces men to feed on their livers or hearts, though later retellings give her redemptive and sympathetic roles. The gumiho appears in oral tales, in the Samguk Yusa, and in modern Korean drama and film.

Open in the interactive archive →