Namsadang Nori (Itinerant Troupe Performance)

Namsadang Nori was performed by the Namsadangpae, a troupe of itinerant male entertainers numbering at least forty and led by a ggokdusoe (troupe leader), who travelled through farming and fishing villages performing mainly for the common people from the late Joseon period until the 1920s. Namsadang Nori arose naturally among the common people as a form of popular entertainment, and because the performers were treated with contempt by the yangban aristocracy, they were not even free to perform in villages. The Namsadangpae was organized with the ggokdusoe at its head, along with the hwaju who planned the performances, the tteunsoe who supervised the acts, the gayeol who were the performers proper, the ppiri who were novices, and older members known as jeoseungpae and porters; the performance itself, Namsadang Nori, was made up of pungmul, beona, salpan, eoreum, deotboegi and deolmi. Pungmul, a form of farmers' band music, opened the performance and served to draw in an audience. Beona was a feat of spinning a sieve rim or a bowl on the end of a stick or pipe. Salpan was ground acrobatics similar to modern tumbling, its name meaning "if it goes well, a living ground; if it goes badly, a dying ground." Eoreum referred to tightrope-walking acrobatics (jultagi); the term, meaning as difficult as treading carefully on ice, was originally used only within the Namsadangpae but gradually came into wider use. Deotboegi was a form of mask dance performed wearing masks. Deolmi referred to puppet theatre, and depending on which principal character appeared, it was called Ggokdugaksi Noreum, Bakcheomji Noreum or Hongdongji Noreum. Ggokdugaksi Noreum in particular has been handed down to the present day, and it carries great historical significance as the only traditional puppet theatre in Korea, found solely within Namsadang Nori. Having arisen among the common people and performed for them, Namsadang Nori used performance to release the resentment of a class despised by society at the time, to criticize the immorality of yangban society, and to awaken popular consciousness.

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Where it is

Region

Location not stated, Seoul

Designation

National Intangible Heritage · 국가무형유산