여가(Yeoga) is not a simple translation of leisure. It had had about five
hundred years’ own history before it began to use leisure’s translation. The
author intends to a philological analysis in this paper for identifying in which
context 여가(Yeoga) was mobilized for a long time. With help of the analysis,
historical evidences of the mode of circulating the word, (Yeoga) are suggested
and continuously a short summary of its conceptual history is attempted. First,
the necessity of the conceptual history of 여가(Yeoga) is raised and its
methodological specificities are introduced. Second, the usages of the text, the
Annals of the Chosun Dynasty, are introduced in list: chronologically;
the-speaker-and-listener-order; in individual sentences. Next, the usages of 여가
(Yeoga) in the Annals of the Chosun Dynasty are interpreted in the more
generalized theoretical level with a regard to specific characteristics of the
Korean discourse of 여가(Yeoga). Work-oriented, time-oriented and role-model
recommending discourses are introduced. In conclusion, further research agendas
are suggested upon the limits of this study.