Jirisan · The Nine-Tailed Fox in the Mountains

Jirisan is the deepest mountain in South Korea; when the fog comes down you cannot see ten metres. The belief that a nine-tailed fox lives on it has come down from Joseon-era notebooks to the present day.

It is said to take the form of a woman who stops people on the trail and asks the same question. Whoever answers wrong is found asleep at the foot of the mountain the next day, remembering nothing.

Hunters going up have an old rule: when a stranger asks you the way, say “I don’t know the road” first, and only then say anything else.

Folklore / Jirisan · South Korea / Joseon period