Dongnae Yaryu (Mask Dance Drama of Dongnae)

Yaryu (also called deul-noreum, "field play") is a form of ogwangdae (a five-actor mask drama) that was performed inland in Gyeongsangnam-do and was transmitted by sea to Suyeong, Dongnae, Busanjin and other coastal areas; the name yaryu is said to derive from its being performed in open fields. If ogwangdae was an urban mask drama performed by professional entertainers, yaryu was a play indigenised by non-professional performers — that is, by ordinary villagers. Dongnae Yaryu was performed on the evening of Jeongwol Daeboreum, the first full moon of the lunar year, and is said to have been held to divine the year's harvest or to pray for a bountiful crop. Its exact date of origin is unknown, but it is said to have begun about a hundred years ago after local people saw the neighbouring Suyeong Yaryu, and in recent times it has been performed as popular entertainment. The play consists of four scenes: the leper's dance; the comic dialogue between the yangban (nobleman) and Malttugi, his servant; the dance of the Yeongno (a mythical monster); and the dance of Halmi (the old woman) and Yeonggam (the old man). Before the play begins the performers put on masks and costume and process to the performance site to the sound of music, in what is called gil-nori (a street procession). The characters include Wonyangban, Duljjaeyangban and Moyangban (noblemen), Yeonggam, Halmi, Jedaegaksi, a blind man, a physician, a shaman, and sangdogun (funeral-bier bearers). The storyline consists mainly of mockery and insult directed at the yangban. The masks are mostly made from gourds, and a distinctive feature is that the jaw of the yangban masks is made to move, so that during the comic dialogue it moves just like the jaw of a living face. The accompanying music is generally played on percussion instruments, and the performance mainly consists of deotboegi (mask-dance) movements danced to the gutgeori rhythm, of which the Malttugi dance and the yangban dance are the most representative. Unlike other mask dramas of the same ogwangdae lineage, Dongnae Yaryu lacks the dance of the Obang Sinjang (guardian spirits of the five directions), the satire of the apostate monk, and the lion dance.

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Where it is

Region

Dongnae-gu, Busan

Designation

National Intangible Heritage · 국가무형유산