The Dragon King of the Sea

Yongwang, the Dragon King, rules the sea and its waters in Korean folk religion, a figure closely related to the wider East Asian tradition of dragon kings governing bodies of water found across Chinese and Japanese folk belief, adapted within Korean Muism into a deity of particular importance to the country's fishing communities and to anyone whose livelihood or safety depends on the sea.

Coastal and island villages historically maintained shrines and conducted periodic gut ceremonies specifically addressed to Yongwang, requesting good catches, safe passage for boats, and protection from storms and drowning, and the god remains today one of the most actively invoked figures in Korean shamanic practice wherever fishing continues as a significant local livelihood, reflecting how directly Korean folk religion's pantheon tracks the practical economic and physical risks a given community actually faces. Yongwang is also associated more broadly with rain and freshwater sources inland, extending his domain beyond the ocean itself to rivers, wells and the general provision of water a farming community depends on.