This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
Korean Deities gathers five spirits of Korean Muism, most of them household gods kept in a particular place inside or around the home, alongside one guardian of the wider landscape and one of the sea.
Jowang, the hearth and kitchen goddess, is believed to reside in the kitchen and to watch over a household's food, health and fortune, traditionally honoured with a small bowl of water changed daily on the kitchen shelf as her seat and offering. Samshin Halmoni, Grandmother Samshin, is the birth goddess, granting conception, overseeing pregnancy and safe delivery and continuing to watch over a child through its earliest years, honoured with rice and seaweed soup at a small shelf in the birth room. Seongju, the house guardian god, resides in the central roof beam and is considered the senior spirit of the household pantheon, honoured especially when a new home is built or a family moves, with rites marking the raising of the main beam.
Sanshin, the Mountain Spirit, stands apart from the household gods as a guardian of a specific named mountain, usually pictured as an elderly bearded sage seated with a tiger, and his shrines are a near universal feature of Korean Buddhist temple compounds as well as of independent mountain shrines. Yongwang, the Dragon King of the sea, rules the waters and controls rain, fishing luck and safe voyage, invoked especially by fishing and coastal communities at shoreline gut ceremonies and shrines.