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A legend on Hahoe Mask
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A legend on Hahoe Masks and Batchelor Huh.
A young man called Huh doryong lived in Hahoe village in the middle of the Korea dynasty. He had a revelation in his dream. It was the guardian deity of his village. The following morning he devoted himself to making masks. He performed his ablutions and spread forbidden strings to prohibit strangers from entering his house.
At those days, a young girl, who was ardently in love with Huh doryong but could not meet him at that period, desired to know what he was doing. Thus, she peeped through a hole she had made into Huh doryong's window-paper. Her actions violated the divine rule of Huh doryong. Huh doryong spewed out blood and died instantly. Thus, he could not finish making the chin of the Imae Mask, his last work. Until now. the ImaeMask, without a chin, has been handed down through generations.
The people of the village built an altar near the shrine of a local god. Sacrifices were made every year for the sake of comforting Huh doryong's spirit. No trace, however, of the altar has been found.
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Hahoe Pyolshin-Gut T'al-nori
Hahoe Pyolshin-Gut T'al-nori is a mask dance drama handed down by lower-class people in the Hahoe Maeul, P'ungch'on-myon, Andong City, Kyongsangpuk-do since the middle of the 12th century. Hahoe Maeul, as a Pungsan Ryu's consanguineous village, has quite well preserved the life and culture of our ancestors.The entire Village has been designated Important Folk Material No. 122. Its topographical features resemble a floating lotus upon the stream, and the Naktong river and the mountain range surrounding the Village form the Taegeuk (Yin-Yang) symbol.Its situation is not easily accessed by foreigners, for to the east of it is located Hwasan and to the north, south, and west is the enveloping Naktong river. These geographically isolated conditions have rendered Hahoe Maeul safe from foreign invasions several times. Its magnificent natural surroundings had aroused very exuberant feelings in the Village people, and thus had been an impulse in the creation of the masterpiece of Hahoe Pyolshin-Gut T'al-nori.
Korean Mask Dance Drama is classified as Sonang (the village shaman) Ritual Mask Dance and Sandae (the mountainous stage) Mask Dance Drama. Hahoe Pyolshin-Gut T'al-nori belongs to the former type, and to the comprehensive village ritual of Pyolshin-Gut while preserving its peculiar dramatic characteristics.Village sacrificial rituals had been performed on January 15 and April 8 (Buddha's birthday) of each year by the lunar calendar in the Hahoe Maeul.Seonghwangshin of the Village was called the goddess born in the year of Mujin, and the annual ritual for this seonghwangshin was Dongje (or Dangje i.e. Village Ritual).Pyolshin-Gut T'al-nori together with Dongje had been performed by an oracle (god-descending) every three, five, or ten years when diseases or epidemic occurred in the village.The structure of Pyolshin-Gut is composed of four parts including god-descending, greeting god, pleasing god, and sending god. T'al-nori belongs to the third part. That is, pleasing god was believed to drive away disasters and to bring forth blessings for the village people. The quintessence of T'al-nori is to portray the conflicting relationship between Yangban (ruling class) and Sangmin (ruled class) by disclosing falsehood of Yangban and Sonbi (the then ruling classes). Additionally, it reveals the depraved Buddhism in those days through Chung i.e. a Buddhist Monk's violation of a commandment, and satirically delineates the joys and sorrows of the ruled common people. Likewise, the lower people of Hahoe Maeul had no reluctance to satire the society and reveal their suppressed feelings. T'al-nori, which criticized the ruling classes of the society in which status and order were highly observed, was performed under Yangban's tacit consent and financial support in Hahoe Maeul, the Yangban Village.The performance resulted in the harmonious life between upper and lower classes, Yangban and Sangmin. For it was possible for Sangmin to settle their oppressed feelings, and for Yangban to understand their way of life and to reduce their complaints. Thus, the conflicts and problems between classes in the inner part of the community had passed through the shock-absorbing process of T'al-nori performed as one of village rituals of Pyolshin-Gut, and once more had the function to reinforce the existing structural systems of the community.
The final Hahoe Pyolshin-Gut T'al-nori was performed in 1928, and was restored to the original state by the Research Society of the Hahoe Mask Dance Drama in 1973. The Korean government designated this T'al-nori as Important Intangible Cultural Property No. 69 on November 1980.
Kangsin Madang Scene
Kangsin (Invocation to a god) represents prayers for a local god to descend at the local shrine. Ringing bells on a god-descending tree symbolize the descendence of the god. The other big tree hanging the bells becomes the divine body of the local god, and only where the tree stops, can the Hahoe Mask Dance Drama start. |