Jeoseungsaja — the Death Envoy (저승사자)

An errand-runner for the underworld. Charged by the King of Hell to pass between the land of the living and the land of the dead, he makes no distinction between the virtuous and the wicked. The life a soul has led is no grounds for consideration. All that matters is whether a name appears on the red decree or does not.

On the crimson-wrapped register known as the Jeokpaegi — the Red Decree — the names of those who must die today are inscribed in ink. It is said that when Gangnim calls a name for the first time, the soul trembles; at the second call, the body grows cold; and by the time the third call fades, the soul is already standing outside the flesh.

Within shamanistic belief, the Death Envoy is a figure borrowed from Buddhism, yet he came to wear the strict and businesslike character of a low-ranking clerk in a Joseon government office. Gangnim, Yi Deokchun, Haewonmaek — there are those who whisper that the reason there are three names is that the envoys take turns patrolling the world of the living in rotation.

The image people conjure today is of a black durumagi robe, a black gat hat, and a face powdered a chalky white. In older tradition they were dressed as soldiers, yet at some point this vision of dark official robes took root in collective memory. Rumor gives shape to things, and shape feeds on rumor.

Even now, stories surface rarely of someone glimpsing a strange figure in a black hat in the dead of night — and of an obituary that followed not long after. Whether he had come for that place, or merely passed through it, only those who survived to tell the tale can say.