Tyrosinase inhibitory activities of 14 kinds of seaweed, Ecklonia stolonifera, Ecklonia cava, Undaria pinnatiflda, Laminaria japonica, Sargassum fulvellum, Sargassum miyabei, Sargassum thunbergii, Porphyra yezoensis, Gracilaria verrucosa, Carpopeltis affinis, Pachymeniopsis elliptica, Gelidium amansii, Codium fragile and Ulva pertusa were determined using commercially available mushroom tyrosinase in an in vitro assay system. The $1\%$ (w/v) methanol extract from E. stolonifera showed the highest tyrosinase inhibitory activity of $79.0\%$, electron donating activity of $79.0\%$ and total phenol content of 3.75 mg/100g. Ethyl acetate-methanol-water (7 : 2 : 0.2, v/v) fraction $(0.5\%,;w/v)$ isolated from the methanol extract showed tyrosinase inhibitory activity of $75.9 \%$, electron donating activity of $88.1 \%$ and total phenol content of 4.38 mg/100g. Tyrosinase inhibitory activity was closely associated with total phenol content (R = 0.99) and electron donating activity (R=0.99). Maximum absorption wavelength of the fraction was 218nm and that of phenolic compounds showed about a range from 210 to 220nm. The inhibition mode of the fraction was noncompetitive inhibition.