A Korean dokkaebi goblin sitting on the steps outside a 24-hour convenience store at 3 AM, drinking from a can. Broad-shouldered, shabby old-fashioned Korean jacket, a single small horn, mismatched straw sandals, a worn wooden club leaning beside him. Pale blue dokkaebi-fire where a streetlamp should be. Utterly ordinary posture, tired rather than frightening

The last subway train of the night in Seoul, nearly empty. A woman in a plain coat sits alone facing the window, ordinary in every way, but her reflection in the dark glass shows nine faint fox tails spread behind her. No one else notices. Melancholy rather than menacing. Fluorescent train light

A Korean jeoseung saja, the reaper who escorts the dead, waiting patiently in a hospital corridor at night. Tall figure in a black traditional coat and wide black gat hat, hands folded, standing quietly beside a row of plastic waiting chairs as if he has waited many hours. Vending machine glow, polished floor. Solemn and courteous, not threatening

Samsin Halmoni, the Korean grandmother goddess of childbirth, standing outside the viewing window of a hospital newborn nursery at night. A very small elderly woman in a white hanbok, hands pressed lightly to the glass, looking in at the rows of bassinets with quiet satisfaction. A nurse walks past without seeing her

A Korean mountain spirit resting at a spring water station on a hiking trail. An old man with a long white beard in faded hanbok, sitting on the stone ledge beside the stainless steel dipper cups, a tiger dozing at his feet like an old dog. Hikers' litter in a bin, a plastic ladle, a hand-painted sign. Morning mist through pines

The Korean dragon king of the sea, seen at the base of a modern concrete breakwater. An immense serpentine dragon coiled among the tetrapods underwater, barnacles on its scales, one eye open and regarding the surface where a fishing boat's hull passes overhead. Green murky water, discarded net snagged nearby. Ancient and weary

Jowangsin, the Korean household goddess of the kitchen hearth, in a contemporary apartment kitchen. A calm middle-aged woman in old-style dress beside the gas range, watching a pot simmer, entirely at home. A bowl of clean water set out on a shelf as an offering, half forgotten. Modern appliances all around her

A Korean village guardian spirit inhabiting a jangseung totem pole that now stands in a small park between apartment blocks. The weathered wooden post with its carved bulging-eyed face, a faint translucent figure of an old guardian overlapping it, arms folded, watching children's playground equipment nearby. Ribbons tied to the post have faded. Dusk

A teojusin, the Korean spirit that owns the ground a building stands on, occupying the basement boiler room of an aging commercial building. An elderly figure in patched clothing sitting on an upturned crate among pipes and meters, entirely comfortable, a small dish of rice wine on a ledge. Bare bulb, damp concrete. Unglamorous