Bulgasari/Hwagasari

The Bulgasari is a creature from Korean myth. Its name means “one that cannot be killed” or “one who can be killed by fire” if called Hwagasari. It ate all the metal it could get to. Many people tried to kill it and failed. Sometimes it has no weaknesses, but in other situations fire is its only weakness. After it’s thrown into the fire, it will charge around completely on fire burning anything around it. It has a bear-like body with needly fur, an elephant nose, eyes like a rhino, claws like a tiger, and a tail like a bull. Some stories claim it originated by being made by a Buddhist monk using rice paste. There was a time when all the Buddhist monks were being rounded up by the government and arrested. The monk who created the Bulgasari hid with his sister rather than fleeing. She tried to tell her husband to turn him in for a reward, but the husband was so enraged by the betrayal that he killed his wife and let the monk go. The monk fed the small rice creature needles while he was in hiding and with every bit of metal it ate, it grew larger and larger.

Citations:

Berg, Sebastian. Korean Mythology: Folklore and Legends from the Korean Peninsula. N.p., Creek Ridge Publishing, 2022.