Tug-of-war Rope of Mopo-ri

The Mopo-jul is the tug-of-war rope used in the long-transmitted tug-of-war festival of Mopo-ri. To pray for the village's abundance and peace, Mopo-ri holds a dangje, a rite to the village guardian spirit, at the start of every year, and on the sixteenth day of the eighth lunar month the rope kept enshrined at the Golmaegi shrine is brought out for the tug-of-war. It is said that the side that wins will enjoy a bountiful harvest that year. The contest is fought between an east side and a west side: villages on the seaward side form the east team and villages on the mountain side form the west team. The east side uses the larger "female rope" (amjul), whose looped end where the ropes lock together forms a large noose shape, while the west side uses the smaller "male rope" (sutjul). Once the contest ends, the rope is once again enshrined at the Golmaegi shrine. Inside the shrine, the female rope is coiled up on the wooden floor like a snake, with the male rope laid on top of it, appearing to represent the union of the grandfather god and the grandmother god. Kept in this form as the Golmaegi guardian deity, it is taken out once a year to be used as the tug-of-war rope. To help it last, it is made of rice straw mixed with arrowroot vine or linden bark. The exact date the Mopo-jul was first made is unknown, but it is thought to date from the Joseon dynasty. Whereas ropes used in tug-of-war are usually discarded or burned once the contest ends, Mopo-ri is distinctive in enshrining its rope instead as an object of folk worship.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Pohang, Gyeongbuk

Designation

National Folklore Heritage · 국가민속문화유산