Traditional games of Korea

What it is

Koreans use the word jeontongnori for these games, and they are too many to list in one place. Jegichagi, ssireum, tuho, yut, biseokchigi and paengichigi are the names often given as examples, but each region keeps its own versions, and even the names shift from place to place. Gonu, for instance, is known in Gyeonggi Province as gonu, goni or ggoni. What holds them together is a shared style of play: most are played with the hands or the feet rather than bought equipment, and they need no special ground or field. They belong to the four seasons, and each has its own time of year.

Origins and beliefs

These games come out of farming life. The peninsula has been farmed since ancient times, and people looked to gods who guarded nature and the land. Rites were held to drive off evil and to ask for good harvests and healthy animals, and singing and dancing went with them. The games grew in that setting. Many of those beliefs are no longer held, yet the games stayed on. Their history is uneven in other ways too. During the period of Japanese rule, almost every traditional game in Korea fell out of use. Their names and their rules also differ from one district to the next.

Games of the seasons

Winter shapes several of these games. Children spin wooden tops on ice or hard ground, and the best tops are heavy, cut from birch, jujube or pine, with a firm tip. Kites, known as yeonnalligi, are flown by children and adults: bamboo frames covered in paper, rectangular or shaped like a stingray, held on a line from a reel. Kite season lasts from New Year's Day to Daeboreum, when the string is cut so the kite flies away. Jegichagi, kicking a shuttlecock made from a coin and hanji paper, is another winter game. Neolttwigi, the standing seesaw that throws a partner into the air, belongs to holidays such as Dano and Chuseok.

Board games and stones

Yutnori is the best known board game: four wooden sticks, each with a round side and a flat side, are thrown to give one of five results, do, gae, geol, yut and mo. A yut or a mo earns another throw. Two players or teams race four pieces around the board; the first to bring all four home wins. The game has roots in divination. Gonu is simpler, played with pebbles or bits of wood on a board drawn on paper or in the ground; a player wins by blocking the other. Gonggi uses five or more small pebbles or coloured plastic stones. Garakji chatginori is a winter game for women, played indoors: a ring is passed around a circle while a finder, eyes covered, guesses who holds it.

Contests and village games

Ssireum, Korean wrestling, sets two opponents in a sandy ring; throwing the other to the ground scores a point, and annual competitions draw crowds. It began as combat and self-defence and formed part of rituals in the old tribal states, later becoming a national sport. Juldarigi is tug of war with two thick rice-straw ropes joined by a peg, pulled by teams standing for the east and west sides of a village, with rituals before and after. Tuho, once a game of royal households and the upper class, asks players to throw arrows into the narrow neck of a wooden jar. Seokjeon, a stone battle, was held yearly in Goguryeo with the king present.

How Traditional games of Korea is kept

Children and adults take part, often in groups, and most games need little more than hands, feet, a few stones or a stick. At New Year families and neighbours sit down to yutnori, throwing the sticks in turn and moving pieces around the board. Winter brings tops spun in groups, kites flown until Daeboreum, and jegichagi kicked in the cold. Village contests, from wrestling to tug of war, are staged at annual gatherings, sometimes with rituals before and after. Indoor games such as garakji chatginori pass the time in winter, with a circle of players and one finder guessing.

When and where

The games follow the year rather than a single date. Yutnori belongs to New Year, kites fly between New Year and Daeboreum, and neolttwigi comes out at Dano and Chuseok. Top spinning and jegichagi are winter games. Ssireum competitions are held every year, and seokjeon was an annual event in Goguryeo.

They belong to the Korean peninsula and are kept in villages and cities across it, with names and rules that change from region to region, as Gonu shows in Gyeonggi Province. Gonggi has a counterpart in Nepal, where it is called Gatti, and ssireum is often compared with Japanese sumo. Today the games are played in homes, schoolyards and at public gatherings.

What Traditional games of Korea means

For the people who keep them, these games carry the memory of a farming life and of the beliefs that once surrounded it. They began as part of rites for good crops and healthy animals, and yutnori keeps a trace of divination in its throw. Ssireum once belonged to rituals in the old tribal states, and juldarigi still has ceremonies around the pull. The games also mark the seasons, giving winter a shape and New Year a shared activity. Many of the old beliefs are gone; the play remains.

Days Traditional games of Korea is marked

Questions people ask about Traditional games of Korea

See also

JwibulloriA Korean New Year game of whirling fire-cans to clear fields and wish good luckYunnoriA Korean board and stick-tossing game played with tokens during the Lunar New YearJegichagiA paper shuttlecock kicked and kept in the air, a winter game for Korean childrenGutSacred rites of song, dance, and spirit communion performed by Korean shamans

Good reading and sources

• Traditional Korean wrestling (Ssirum/Ssireum)UNESCO, Heritage listing
• Traditional Korean wrestling (Ssirum/Ssireum)UNESCO, Article

• Traditional games of Korea on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-09.