Jinju Ogwangdae Mask Play

Jinju Ogwangdae Mask Play was passed down as a seasonal folk custom of Jinju, but declined under the Japanese colonial period's policy of eradicating national culture in the 1920s and was discontinued around 1937; it was restored in 1998 as a mask play of the Jinju region in South Gyeongsang Province. The play was performed on the evening of the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, centred on dance and accompanied by witty dialogue, gestures and song. It is accompanied mainly by gutgeori rhythm played on kkwaenggwari (small gong), buk (drum), janggu (hourglass drum), jing (large gong), haegeum (two-stringed fiddle), piri (reed pipe) and jeotdae (bamboo flute), to which performers dance deotboegichum, a base style varied according to each character, including jinchum, mundungchum (leper's dance) and jungchum (monk's dance). The play is structured in five madang. The first is the Obangsinjangmu (Dance of the Five Direction Guardian Generals) madang, in which the Five Direction Guardian Generals — the Blue Emperor General of the East, the White Emperor General of the West, the Red Emperor General of the South, the Black Emperor General of the North, and the Yellow Emperor General of the Centre — suppress and drive away all evil spirits and demons on earth. The second is the Mundungi (Leper) madang, in which the Five Direction Earth Gods, represented by blue, white, red, black and yellow masks for east, west, south, north and centre, appear and perform byeongsinchum, dances mimicking illness and disability, driving out the plague god who brings dreadful disease and so protecting peace and well-being. The third is the Yangban (Nobility) madang, in which the erudite servant Malttugi mocks his ignorant master Saengwon and the master's friends Ong Saengwon and Cha Saengwon, exposing the moral corruption of the yangban class and showing the injustice of a social system that discriminated against people by status. The fourth is the Jung (Monk) madang, in which a somu (young female shaman dancer) dances a hand dance to taryeong rhythm, and a monk, led in by a sangjwa (novice monk), enters and dances to seduce her; it satirises a monk who breaks his vows after coming down into the secular world and, seeing the yangban dancing and enjoying themselves with the palseonnyeo (eight fairy maidens), becomes captivated by worldly pleasure, contrasting the life of a religious devotee with that of an ordinary person to pose the question of what a truly worthy life is. The fifth is the Halmi-Yeonggam (Old Woman and Old Man) madang, in which Malttugi brings back the Saengwon, who had abandoned his family and wandered off, but turmoil breaks out between Halmi, who has grown old as a virtual widow, and Yeonggam, who returns bringing two gisaeng concubines with him, showing what becomes of a woman's life and household because of an irresponsible husband. The masks used in Jinju Ogwangdae include the Five Direction Guardian Generals, the leper, eodingi, Ong Saengwon, Cha Saengwon, Malttugi, Halmi, the monk, the sangjwa, the somu and the palseonnyeo.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jinju, Gyeongnam

Designation

Provincial Intangible Heritage · 시도무형유산