Moniligastrids are an important yet often ignored earthworm group commonly found in cultivated soils, especially paddy, in the tropical East. Seven new taxa are: Drawida koreana austri, D. koreana nanjiro, D. koreana shindo, D. odaesan, D. jeombongsan, D. companio and D. csuzdii Blakemore spp. or sub-spp. nov. from Korea. Drawida csuzdii is the first new species from North Korea since Lumbricidae Eisenia koreana (Zicsi, 1972). Historical East Asian moniligastrids are reviewed chronologically and Drawida barwelli (Beddard, 1886), D. japonica (Michaelsen, 1892) and D. siemsseni Michaelsen, 1910 are compared on their museum types. These three taxa were thought similar and related to D. nepalensis Michaelsen, 1907 and its possible synonym D. burchardi Michaelsen, 1903 (priority!) and both of these to prior D. uniqua (Bourne, 1887). Indian Drawida calebi Gates, 1945 is compared to new material of D. japonica from Japan, and D. willsi Michaelsen, 1907 to the new sub-species of D. koreana Kobayashi, 1938 from Korea. Where available, mtDNA COI gene barcodes are provided to help objective determinations and a phylogram is provided with outgroup Ocnerodrilidae Eukerria saltensis (Beddard, 1895) itself found in rice paddy/irrigation. The challenge now is comparison of all early taxa in their various homelands in order to assess the genetic variability and taxonomic boundaries acceptable, especially for unpigmented D. barwelli and also for pink/grey D. japonica and blue/grey D. koreana. A checklist of moniligastrids is appended showing 22 species from China (including Hainan and Taiwan), 21 from Korea, nine from Japan and the Drawida ghilarovi Gates, 1969 species-complex from far eastern Russian (Siberia). Recent Drawida dandongensis Zhang & Sun, 2014 from Sino-Korean border is misdescribed and cannot be meaningfully compared to any other Drawidas.