This study was performed to investigate the physiological responses of Oplopanax elatus by water condition. Drought stress was induced by withholding water for 26 days. The results show that $P_{N;max}$, SPAD, gs, E and Ci were significantly decreased with decreasing of soil moisture contents. However, AQY and WUE were decreased slightly only at 26 day. This implies that photosynthetic rate is reduced due to an inability to regulate water and $CO_2$ exchange through the stomatal. According to JIP analysis, ${Phi}_{PO}$, ${Psi}_O$, ${Phi}_{EO}$ and $PI_{ABS}$ were dramatically decreased at 21 day and 26 day, which reflects the relative reduction state of the photosystem II. On the other hand, the relative activities per reaction center such as ABS/RC, TRo/RC were significantly increased at 26 day. Particularly, Dio/RC and DIo/CS increased substantially under drought stress, indicating that excessive energy was consumed by heat dissipation. These results of chlorophyll a fluorescence show that the sensitivity changes photosystem II activity. Thus, according to the results, O. elatus was exhibited a strong reduction of photosynthetic activity to approximately 10% soil moisture contents, and JIP parameters could be useful indicator to monitor the physiological states of O. elatus under drought stress.