Bukcheong Saja Noreum (Lion Mask Dance of Bukcheong)

Bukcheong Saja Noreum is a folk performance from Bukcheong-gun, Hamgyeongnam-do, in which people wore lion masks and played on Jeongwol Daeboreum, the first full moon of the lunar year. Believing that the lion had the power to drive away evil, it was widely performed as an event to expel evil spirits and pray for the village's peace. In this region every village dressed up its own lion and played, and when the lions from each village gathered, competitions naturally arose. As the lion play of Toseong-ri, performed together with Gwanwon-nori, grew dominant, the lion plays of other places gradually disappeared. A mask play established as a folk tradition since the Three Kingdoms period, it is now handed down mainly in Seoul, carried there by performers who moved south after the Korean War. Bukcheong Saja Noreum began on the night of the fourteenth day of the first lunar month with a torch fight among young men, continuing until dawn on the fifteenth, and from the sixteenth it was performed touring the houses of invited local dignitaries. First came a madangdori (opening circuit of the yard), followed by the sadang dance, the mudong (boy dancer) dance and the hunchback dance, after which the lion entered and performed a bout of lion dancing. The lion passed through the inner courtyard into the main room and kitchen, miming that it was catching and eating something, then returned to the yard to perform a lively and skilful dance; at this point, at the host's request, it bowed to Jowang, the kitchen god, and to the ancestral spirits enshrined in the house. When the lion tired from dancing and collapsed, a monk was called to recite the Heart Sutra, and if that had no effect a physician was called to give acupuncture; once the lion rose again, the whole cast came out to dance together, and sometimes a pair of lions performed side by side. Characters in the play include the lion, a yangban (nobleman), Kkeokswe, a hunchback, a court messenger, a boy dancer, a sadang (itinerant female entertainer), a monk, a physician, and a geosa (lay Buddhist devotee); of these, the boy dancer, sadang, monk, physician and geosa appear without masks, in costume only. The instruments used include the tungso (a vertical bamboo flute), buk (drum), jing (gong) and janggu (hourglass drum); notably the tungso features prominently, in contrast to the mask dances of Gyeonggi, which mainly use the samhyeon-yukgak ensemble, or those of Yeongnam, which mainly use the kkwaenggwari (small gong). Children were sometimes seated on the lion's back in the belief that this would lengthen their lives, and five-coloured strips of cloth were tied to the lion's body while praying for long life. Money or grain collected on the house-to-house round went towards the village's scholarship fund, poor relief, expenses for the elders' association, and the costs of the lion dance itself. Rather than dwelling on witty or satirical dialogue, Bukcheong Saja Noreum centres on the virtuosity and exuberance of the lion dance, and is marked by movements more intricate and vigorous than in other styles of lion dance.

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Where it is

Region

Location not stated, Seoul

Designation

National Intangible Heritage · 국가무형유산