Jowangsin (竈王神) is the goddess of fire and the hearth in Korean shamanism, thought to have been worshipped since the Proto–Three Kingdoms period; the Chinese history Sanguo Zhi records that the people of the Samhan “all worship a kitchen god in their western wings.” She was embodied by a bowl of water on a clay altar above the hearth. Every morning the housewife rose early, poured fresh well water into the bowl, and knelt before it to pray for luck.
Because Jowangsin was believed to write down what happened in the house and report it to heaven, taboos followed: do not curse at the hearth, do not sit on it or put your feet on it, keep the kitchen clean. She could take revenge on those who broke them. In the Seongjugut, when Hwanguyangssi throws his muddy shoes into the kitchen and his wife leaves knives above the hearth, Jowangsin tells heaven’s envoy how to capture him. In the Jangja Puli she shows the death gods where Samajangja, who puts his feet on the hearth, is hiding.
She repays kindness too. In the Chasa Bonpuli, because Gangrim Doryeong’s wife offered her rice cakes, Jowangsin guides Gangrim on the road to the underworld in the form of a bent-backed crone. She is rarely worshipped in ordinary homes today but still is in the gongyanggan, the kitchen of Korean Buddhist temples. She is said to be at odds with Cheuksin of the outhouse.