'Gumiho': The Fox Spirit of K-Dramas

Gumiho is a shape-shifting, nine-tailed fabled fox that has been around for thousands of years, usually taking on a a female form

- DEBASHREE DUTTA

ACROSS ALL CULTURES, THERE ARE mythological creatures that are solely entertaining because of how incomprehensible they are. Their impact stems from the sense of mystery that surrounds them; they are like uncharted waters for us in that they are dark, deep, and hard to fathom. And that, I reiterate, is what makes these creatures so intriguing, much like the fabled ‘gumiho’ from Korean folklore: an absolute flight of fancy, like a character from a pipe dream.

As in China’s ‘huli jing’ and Japan’s ‘kitsune,’ gumiho is the Korean equivalent of these legendary creatures. Gumiho, in layman’s terms, is a shape-shifting, nine-tailed fox spirit that has been around for thousands of years, usually taking on a female form. Unlike huli jing and kitsune, which are depicted as kind, evil, or objective, gumiho is typically portrayed as a vicious, flesh-eating monster. The bloodthirsty half-fox, half-human gumiho, on the other hand, prowled cemeteries at night, digging human hearts from graves, as opposed to the benevolent gumiho, who helped people.