Gwenegitdang

Quick facts

Address

1901 Gimnyeong-ri, Gujwa-eup, Jeju-si, Jeju

About this place

Gwenegitdang stands at the south of Gimnyeong-ri, Gujwa-eup, Jeju City. According to its bonpuri, Socheonguk, who sprang up from the Gobuni spring at Alsondang on Jeju, and Baekjuddo, who sprang up on the white sands of the land of Gangnam Cheonja, became husband and wife and lived at Songdang-ri; they bore five sons, and while she was carrying the sixth a number of things happened. The sixth son, Gwenegit Hanjip, took roe deer and deer and held a rite for his father’s spirit, then went to Banggwang Oreum, sent his soldiers back, and came down to Gimnyeong-ri looking for a place to settle. The deity here is a hero god who receives a whole pig, and so a pig rite has been held each year in which one pig is slaughtered and offered. When his taste was asked, the answer given was that the people were poor and could not slaughter an ox, and that each household would slaughter a pig for him instead; from that promise, it is said, the shrine became one that holds the pig rite every year.

Origin and history

According to the bonpuri, Socheonguk, who sprang up from the Gobuni spring at Alsondang on Jeju, and Baekjuddo, who sprang up on the white sands of the land of Gangnam Cheonja, became husband and wife and lived at Songdang-ri. They bore five sons, and while she was carrying the sixth a number of things happened.

The sixth son, Gwenegit Hanjip, took roe deer and deer and held a rite for his father’s spirit, then went to Banggwang Oreum, sent his soldiers back, and came down to Gimnyeong-ri looking for a place to settle.

The deity here is a hero god who receives a whole pig. When his taste was asked, the answer given was that the people were poor and could not slaughter an ox, and that each household would slaughter a pig for him instead; from that promise, it is said, the shrine became one that holds the pig rite each year, offering one pig.

What it is locally associated with

• Origin

  Where the sixth son came down

  Gwenegit Hanjip held a rite for his father’s spirit, sent his soldiers back at Banggwang Oreum, and came down to Gimnyeong-ri to find a place to settle.

  folk tradition

• What people do here

  A whole pig

  The deity here is a hero god who receives a whole pig, and a rite offering one has been held each year.

  folk tradition

• Origin

  Because no ox could be spared

  Asked what he liked, the answer was that the people were poor and could not slaughter an ox, and each household would slaughter a pig instead.

  folk tradition

The god of this shrine did not come from somewhere — he is somebody’s son. He is the sixth son of Socheonguk and Baekjuddo, and his parents’ shrine is Songdang Bonhyangdang, also on Jeju. Waheul Bonhyangdang in Jocheon-eup is the shrine of the eleventh son, so three shrines of one family stand on this site. The grouping is not this site’s; it is the myth’s.

His seat was settled on foot as well. He held a rite for his father’s spirit, sent his soldiers back at Banggwang Oreum, and came down to Gimnyeong-ri looking for a place to sit. It is an account of a god choosing his own ground.

The offering has the clearest history of all. Asked what he liked to eat, the answer came back that the people were poor and could not slaughter an ox, and that each household would slaughter a pig instead. What was to be offered was settled by what could be afforded, and that circumstance became the rite’s own name: the pig rite.

Related guides

• Musok and gut — Korea’s living folk religionWho the mudang are and what a gut is. And what to do if you walk in on one.

Sources

1. 궤네깃당(귀네깃堂) — 한국민족문화대백과사전 (accessed 2026-08-16)