The physicochemical characteristics and chemical compositions of six Korean traditional soybeans were studied namely, cheongtae, seoritae, jinjoori, subaktae, yutae and huktae. The characteristics of imported soybean were also investigated for comparison. The average weight of one hundred-seed for huktae, which is normally used as nutritional supplement by adding to rice during cooking, was 43.1 g. The average whole length and long and short width for six varieties of the bean were $5.68{sim}10.15;mm$, $5.10{sim}9.33;mm$ and $4.30{sim}7.48;mm$, respectively. Color of cheongtae and subaktae were green, while that of seoritae, jinjoori, and huktae were black with yutae having yellow seed coat. Moisture, crude fat, crude protein and ash content of soybean seeds were all in the ranges of $8.5{sim}11.5%$, $14.0{sim}20.8%$, $38.0{sim}49.2%$ and $4.2{sim}5.0%$, respectively, showing differences among cultivars. Methionine, cysteine and histidine were the minor components of soybean protein and percentage of methionine to the total proteins showed significant varietal differences. Subaktae contained the highest content of methionine with 4.0 mg/g protein, while jinjoori the lowest with 1.8 mg/g protein. The main fatty acids of total lipid were linoleic, oleic and palmitic acids, which comprised over 80% of total fatty acids. Cultivar yutae had higher content of neutral lipid but lower content of glycolipid and phospholipid. Among the fatty acids, content of linoleic acid were the highest $(41.4{sim}54%)$ and ratios of unsaturated fatty acid to the total fatty acid was $82.7{sim}85.2%$. The main fatty acid of neutral lipid, glycolipid, and phospholipid was linoleic acid.