A diving suit hanging on a wall, a fishing net worn from use, a pair of wooden and rubber goggles dating back decades: these are the first objects that welcome visitors to the Jeju Haenyeo Museum, located in the village of Hado-ri, in the northeastern part of Jeju Island, South Korea. This is not an abstract collection, but real tools that belonged to real women who spent their lives diving into the ocean without oxygen tanks, gathering abalone, sea urchins, and shellfish to support their families.
The museum was inaugurated in 2006 with the aim of documenting and preserving the tradition of the haenyeo, the famous free divers of Jeju, whose practice was recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2016. The institution features an exhibition area spread across several thematic rooms and an outdoor area that directly overlooks the sea, creating a constant dialogue between the collection and the landscape that gave rise to this tradition.
The collections and the exhibited objects
The museum path is organized chronologically and thematically. The first room introduces the history of the haenyeo through black and white photographs dating back to the Japanese colonial period and the post-war decades, when the divers of Jeju were so numerous and skilled that they were hired even outside the island, up to the coasts of Japan and China. Alongside the images, explanatory panels in Korean and English contextualize the economic and social role of these women in a historically matriarchal community.
In the subsequent rooms, the tools of the trade are displayed: the tewak, the floating devices made of gourd or expanded polystyrene that the haenyeo use as a reference point on the surface, the fine mesh nets called mangsa, the knives for detaching mollusks from the rocks, and the neoprene suits that have progressively replaced the traditional white cotton outfits. This transition from white clothing to neoprene, which mainly occurred in the Seventies and Eighties, is documented precisely and represents one of the most interesting moments of the exhibition path.
The video interviews: the emotional heart of the museum
The most engaging element of the entire visit is the video installations scattered along the path. Medium-sized screens loop interviews with elderly haenyeo, some of whom started diving as children, around eleven or twelve years old, and continued into old age. The women speak in the Jeju dialect, with subtitles in Korean and English, and recount the physical strain, the cold, the fear of currents, but also the pride and sense of belonging to a community of sea sisters.
These testimonies give the museum a human dimension that goes beyond the simple display of objects. Listening to an eighty-year-old woman describe how she held her breath for over two minutes at depths that could exceed ten meters, or how the characteristic whistle — called sumbisori — emitted at the surface was a way to regulate breathing and signal her presence, transforms the visit into a memorable experience.
The outdoor area and the landscape context
The museum is not limited to the indoor spaces. Outside, along a path that runs alongside the typical basalt coast of Jeju, there are some reconstructions of traditional huts used by the haenyeo as changing rooms and warming points after diving. These structures, called bulteok, were fundamental social places where women gathered to warm themselves around a fire, share food, and pass on knowledge to the younger ones.
In some seasons, it is possible to observe real haenyeo at work in the waters in front of the museum, making the connection between the collection and the living practice even more direct and tangible. The coastal landscape of Hado-ri, with its fields of lava stone and the open sea, helps to understand the environmental context in which this tradition has developed for centuries.
Practical Information for the Visit
The museum is located about 40 kilometers from the center of Jeju City and can be reached by local public transport, although the most convenient way to get there is to rent a car or a scooter, a very common solution among tourists on the island. The entrance ticket is reasonably priced, typically around 1,100 Korean won for adults, a symbolic amount that makes the visit accessible to everyone. The time needed for a complete and attentive tour is about one and a half hours, but those who stop to watch all the videos can easily exceed two hours.
The most useful advice is to visit the museum in the morning, preferably on weekdays, when organized groups are less present and the video rooms can be enjoyed in silence, a condition that greatly amplifies the emotional impact of the testimonies. It is always advisable to check the opening hours in advance on the official website or through the local tourist office, as they may vary seasonally.
