Proximate composition, dimension, water uptake and volume increase rates of three cultivars of Korean kidney beans, Pink(PKB), Red(RKB) and White(WKB) were compared. Significant differences in the proximate composition and calorie were not observed among samples. Hull removed samples showed the lowest ash content and the highest calorie. The rates of water uptake increased as the soaking temperature increased from 10~4$0^{circ}C$. The moisture gain of the kidney beans during soaking showed a similar pattern to volume increase. Water uptake and volume increase rates were in the decreasing order of PKB, RKB and WKB. Moisture and volume gains held a linear relation with the square root of soaking time regardless soaking temperatures. The activation energies of water uptake and volume increase were 3033~3087 and 3077~ 3161 kcal/mole, respectively. The log time to reach a fixed moisture content showed a linear relation with soaking temperature regardless soaking temperatures. The z-values calculated from weight and volume changes decreased in proportions to the increase of hydration. The z-values of weight and volume to reach 50% hydration were 50.5~56.6$^{circ}C$ and 48.4~61.2$^{circ}C$, respectively.