Origin and Development of Korean Mask Dance Dramas Mask dance drama is one typical type of Korean traditional dramas, which is originated from the primitive Shamanistic ritual ceremony, and developed in court and among common people throughout Korean history. In both aspects, a prosperous development has been gained and the final form of the Korean Mask dance drama has been shaped in the Joseon period. Due to various reasons, the arts have been largely lost in the development of the modernization. After the independence, calls for the protection measures of Korean mask dance dramas grew louder domestically, and eventually, it has got a new lease of life under the policy of national intangible cultural protection being carried out in 1960s. By now, there are totally only 13 valuable Korean Mask dance dramas inherited are acknowledged as national intangible cultural heritage. During the spreading and inheriting process, some of the dramas have lost their vitality, while some others have gained new developments and have showed a significant impact on people’s social life.
The Origin of Korean Mask Dance Dramas
In Korean traditional society, the concept of hierarchy was deeply rooted in people’s mind, common people couldn’t speak ill of the people in power, and that is one reason why masks became popular in Korean traditional society. The masks offered freedom for performers to anonymously express their criticisms of powerful local people, such as members of the aristocracy or the Buddhist monastic hierarchy. Some of the talchum(탈춤), or plays, also mock stereotyped versions of annoying personalities within the lower classes: the drunkard, the gossip, the flirt or the constantly-complaining grandmother.
According to relevant eminent scholars studying in this field, Korean Mask dance dramas can be divided into two systems, ancestral rites’ system and Ogwangdae system. Hahoi Byeolshin’gut Talnoli(하회별신굿 탈놀이) and Gangneung Gwanno Gamyeon’ geuk(강릉 관노 가면극) are typically originated from the ancestral rites’ system, developing with traditional religious meanings. While other mask dance dramas have been turned into professional art performances by gwangdaes in Joseon period, and these mask dance dramas usually have better stories passed down from the early three kingdoms period aiming at attracting audiences.
The original stories for Korean mask dance dramas in Ogwangdae system are from western regions like India. In the old days, the western artists brought the mask dance and its stories to China through the Silk Road and then passed them to Silla. In the Chronicles of the Three States, poems about mask dance dramas can be found written by Silla poet Choi Ji-won. For example, in the poem that named Lion, it says that lions have walked a long way to reach here, that the clothes were all tore out with dust on. The lions shook their heads, waged their tails, with mighty momentum( “远涉流沙万里来，毛衣破尽着尘埃，摇头掉尾驯仁德，雄气宁同百兽才”) . This kind of mask dance still can commonly be seen in China or Korea as a kind of traditional performance. Artists imitate every detail of lions’ actions wearing costumes and masks. As in Korea, there have no lions’ images before the three kingdoms period, we can easily draw the conclusion that this kind of dance performance is originated from western regions and then passed down to Korea.
Despite the mask dance dramas originated from western regions, there are some native dramas originated with religious meanings under the impact of Korean Shamanism. Their predominant use in Korea's early history was at funeral services to help banish evil spirits. They were also used for Shamanistic rites and were kept within temples where they were honored with offerings. The origin is always connected with the usage. In traditional Korean society, Shamanism is regarded as a national religion among common people. After mask dance dramas were introduced into Korea, the art has been developed to be an important type of the cult of incantations.
In the Korean primitive tribe period, farmers used to dance before the autumn harvest, in order to drive the insects and filthiness beneath the earth away. From then on, dancing has been developed as a basic form of communication between men and god. While dancing, people imitate god’s attitude in their minds, and it would be the god dancing, other than men’s dance if coupled with masks on the performers’ faces. This kind of ritual dance served as the key procedure in sacrificial rites, which could pass a strong conviction to the prayers, and has also furthered the development of Shamanism culture in Korea. Therefore, the original usage of the masks is to be as the symbol of god. What shamans want to do is to imitate god’s attitude and to pass down the god’s words to common people, and they have to strengthen people’s belief in them or in god in order to develop Shamanism. While they were trying their best to imitate god’s attitude that was closed to people’s expectations by using the masks, the images they were widely used have then become the general image of god in common people’s minds throughout the society.
Among all Korean mask dance dramas, Cheoyongmu is one of the most representative dance used for Shamanistic rites. The dance is based on the legend of Cheoyeong(처용), and has made great progress throughout Korean history in the field of mask dance dramas. In the legend, Cheoyong asserted himself as the son of an ocean king during the rule of King Heongang in the Shilla Dynasty and served as a government worker in the Ulsan region. The king chose a pretty women for Cheoyong to marry as a reward. One day, Cheoyong has went to Gwangju, and didn’t come back home till midnight. Then, when Cheoyong returned home late that night, to find his wife in bed with another man. Rather than exploding in anger, however, he turned the other cheek and went back into the village singing and dancing. The man, who was actually a god of disease, was so impressed by Cheoyong's forgiving nature that he swore an oath to him.
"I admired your wife and committed a wrongful deed. I was so impressed by your virtuous mind that I will never again enter any house that bears your portrait," he said.
Since the legend originated, putting an image of Cheoyong's face on the gate of a house was said to prevent contagious diseases and dispel evil spirits. And in the field of mast dance dramas, Cheoyongmu has been served as a court dance performed to dispel evil spirits and prayed for tranquillity at royal banquets, or during exorcism rites on New Year’s Eve to promote good fortune. While dancing, the shamans would imitate Cheoyong, singing and dancing to drive off evil spirits, which is also regarded as the most primary task in Shamanistic rites.
The Development of Korean Mask Dance Dramas
When taking an overview of the history of mask dance dramas on the peninsula, what is always mentioned is the existence of the oldest mask—a shell mask uncovered in a midden heap in Dongsamdong (inBusan), while the oldest mask being recorded in Korean history is in the Chronicles of the Three States.
Therefore, when we take a look at the development of Korean mask dance dramas, the history can be traced to the early three kingdom period. At that time, Goguryeo, Silla and Baekje all have their best mask dance dramas in different types, especially Silla’s mask dance drama has a rather close connection with the folk music of Tang dynasty. The Goryeo period witnessed the cultural integration between Korean national culture and western regions’ culture. Historians speculate that at Goryeo period, the performing arts were influenced by music, dance, and drama from beyond the peninsula in the same way that sculpture, visual art, and clothing styles entered Korea along the Silk Road, which was often accompanied by new philosophies, such as Buddhism and Confucianism. Besides, at the time, when performing mask dance dramas, artists began to use a high platform as the stage, which was also introduced into peninsula from China. During the Goryeo period, Silla-era kommu was very popular, and by that time the performances certainly included masked dancers. By the late Goryeo period, a new unique form of satirical play has gained new development, with the characteristic of criticizing the political system, yangban and monks. During the Goryeo period, many Buddhist clergy held considerable political power. Corruption was rampant among government officials, and the high monks indulged not only in feasting and bribe-collecting, but also in the pleasures of wine, women and song. Thus, the corrupt and lusty monk became an object of mockery for the common people in mask dance dramas.
In the early Joseon period, performing arts were funded by the state, with mask dance dramas included in court and regional government performances under the auspices of the Sandae Dogam (산대도감). Therefore, Goryeo-era talchum has become more prevalent among both yangban and common people, and also some new plays have been made for yangban and monarch’s needs with similar characters and common characteristics at that time. However, The Sandae Dogam was disbanded later, due to the financial strain of the two invasions in the early 1600s and perhaps also due to the extragance and over-formalism of the Joseon government. Afterwards, the country was stricken heavily by poverty, and at the Young-jo, Jeong-jo period, the mask dance dramas played in court have been totally abolished. Thus, performers scattered in different places on peninsula could only continue to perform the plays that they were good at for regional festivals, but without government oversight the dramas diverged from the Sandae Dogam model. The different versions of the mask dance dramas performed by different artists at that time gradually formed today’s Korean mask dance dramas’ system.
Traditionally, the mask dance dramas were performed during important holidays, such as New Year festival, Dano, Daeboreum, and Chuseok. However, like most Korean traditional arts, mask dance performance declined significantly during the Japanese occupation (1910–1945). Though Performances of the mask dance dramas were not explicitly forbidden until after the Sino-Japanese War began in 1937, Japanese government carried out cultural policies early than that time which oppressed local expression, taught Korean people Japanese culture and languages, and eliminated many regional festivals and ceremonies. As a result, the mask dance dramas have lost much of the chances to perform, and the artists felt so hard to keep up with the cost of living that many of them eventually gave up the performances.
The subsequent division of the peninsula, civil war, and lean years before the Republic of Korea began to prosper economically resulted in a temporary halt to most performing arts activity. The calls for the protection measures of Korean mask dance dramas were growing louder domestically, and after Park Chung Hee became president, he established the Cultural Property Protection Law (CPPL) in 1962. In the law, one of the four areas was intangible cultural heritage: intangible arts such as music, dance, games, and rites were nominated for protection under the law. Through the nominating process for government protection, Namsadang, Tongyeong Ogwangdae, and Goseong Ogwangdae etc., many of the mask dance dramas were included in the law after a series of reconstruction by local artists. However, there were some plays that already did not have former performers by that time, and it is likely that the reconstructed version is a kind of idealized and imagined version of what may have once been performed.
The existing Korean mask dance dramas are mainly divided into 4 types, three of which are named after the place performing the plays: Sandae Talchum, Hahoi Talchum, Ogwangdae and the Talchum played in Hwanghae Province. Sandae Talchum is the plays performed in court and regional governments in Joseon period as previously mentioned. After the decline of Joseon, the audience of the plays has changed into common people, and the artists have to give a kind of touring performances in different villages to make a living. At holidays such as Dano and Shamanistic rite praying for the rain, the artists would set up a platform for performance at the village square temporarily, and the performance would be started by sunset and end at the midnight. This kind of unique Korean traditional mask dance drama has already lost much of the audience, and by now, there are only one village near Seoul that are still performing the plays with government’s fund. Hahoi Talchum is well-known in Korea due to the government’s promotion. This kind of mask dance drama is not like the others, it is performed not to entertain people, but to diminish evil power and to calm dead women’s souls, and finally reach the destination of protecting the whole village, which is one part of the local shamanistic rite to drive off evil spirits. Ogwangdae is mainly performed in the east-north part of Korea, and is mainly performed to entertain people. In the drama, there are five clowns, each stands in a direction of north, east, south, west and the middle. Ogwangdae is generally performed on the 15th day of the first month according to the lunar calendar, and different plays of Ogwangdae have all been regarded as national intangible cultural heritages.
Nowadays, Korean mask dance dramas have already diverged from the traditional festival activities, performing only as a kind of Korean traditional art and the performers have to do some adjustments to fit the specific audience’s needs. Therefore, the art has become more and more commercialized and entertaining. In addition, as the performing time has been sharply reduced, the performance content, songs and lines have also been greatly cut down.
Conclusion
Korean mask dance dramas is one significant kind of traditional dramas. The original stories for the plays in Ogwangdae system are from western regions like India, also there are some native dramas originated with religious meaning under the impact of Korean national religion Shamanism. Early at the three kingdom period, Goguryeo, Silla and Baekje have all already enjoyed their unique mask dance dramas in different styles, and after new developments through Goryeo and Joseon period, the mask dance dramas has once become a formal ritual played for the government, and there was even a performance and ritual bureau named Sandae Dogam. After the invasion and decline of the Joseon government, this kind of folk art has once been lost, and at the same modernization period, performers scattered in different places on peninsula continued to perform the plays that they are good at for regional festivals. The different versions of the mask dance dramas performed by different artists at that period of time gradually formed today’s Korean mask dance dramas system.
The academic study of mask dance dramas in Korea is no longer fashionable, yet there are many facets of the mask dance dramas that remain to be studied, and also the translation of different mask dance dramas’ names are still not commonly confirmed, which would sometimes result in readers’ misunderstanding.

References
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Lee, Youngmee. 1997. "Korean Traditional Theatre and Madanggeuk Theatre." Korea Journal 37 (3): 40–62.
CedarBough Saeji, 2012. The Bawdy, Brawling, Boisterous World of Korean Mask Dance Dramas:A Brief Essay to Accompany Photographs, E-Journal No. 4: 146-168.
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[ 1 ]. CedarBough Saeji , The Bawdy, Brawling, Boisterous World of Korean Mask Dance Dramas:A Brief Essay to Accompany Photographs, 2012.9