The Jumak

1 · POSITION

The jumak — the name means wine house — was the traditional Korean tavern and inn, giving drink, food and a floor to travellers. Jumak were abundant under the Joseon dynasty in the country and in towns, some with stables, courtyards and gardens. The register holds the jumak as the inn of the commoner, beside the yeok station of the official. [1]

2 · A TAVERN THAT LODGED

A 1901 account says guests paid only for food and fodder: the sleeping room and the stable were given free. Rooms were at best dirt floors covered with straw mats, with a few pillows; many innkeepers were middle-class women. Isabella Bird put room and board at twelve to fifteen cents a night, with rice, eggs, vegetables, soup and seaweed on the table. [2]

3 · WHAT WESTERNERS SAW

The Western travellers of the 1890s were rarely kind. Lillias Underwood ranked Korean inns second only to those of inner China for filth and discomfort, though she came to like them; Isabella Bird described yards shared with pigs, dogs and fowl. George Heber Jones thought the innkeeper the most remarkable thing about a Korean inn. [2]

4 · IN LAW AND STORY

Joseon’s great law code of 1485 set rules for these houses. The chronicle Samguk yusa says the young Silla general Kim Yu-sin frequented one, and the hero of Hong Gildong hides in jumak and gathers news there. [1]

5 · ⚑ CANDOUR

⚑ Checked on 22 October 2026. Guests slept on the common-room floor with wooden blocks for pillows, and decent food could be had even at the crudest inns; Bird brought her own folding cot, which was not the rule. The note now says so. That Isabella Bird herself described the block was not found; the note names her account without the detail. [1–3]