Dongnae yaryu is a traditional mask playing in Korea which is selected as the 18th Important Intangible Cultural Properties of Korea next to Bongsan talchum. Yaryu means the playing in a field especially in Gyeongsangnam-do province Korea. It was handed down by Ohgwangdae, a group of mask playing, moved to the province. Yaryu was played by ordinary people while Ohgwangdae was professional entertainers.

History

Dongnae yaryu was played in the night of the 15th day of the New Year according to the lunar calendar. It was for praying the prosperity of farming and for the peace and currently it is for fun. Before the China-Japan war in 1937, It has 4 parts; Mundung, yangban, youngno, halmiand young gam. After, the two parts disappeared and today there are all four parts.

Procedures

Every 3 or 4 in the first month of the year, people in town organize the music group and they visit most of the houses in town praying by the money, which was given by the rich. They played tug-of-war between east team and west team. in 1930, the winning team in tug-of-war made the mask playing for the celebration. When the festival day comes, people gathered together at bridge(busan bridge, buma bridge) and had costume parade to the place where the mask performance played. In the parade, nongjang stands the first and other characters and nongak bands follow. When the parade arrive at the performance field, people in town color their face with Chinese ink or put on masks and dance altogether. The masks are almost made with a gourd instead Moyangban character,which is made with hairy lether. Its eye and lip part are pierced like the size of performer. Its surface is covered with traditional Korean paper handmade from mulberry trees and colored with paint.

Transmission

It stopped after 1937 and reorganized in 1950. At that time the holders were Shin Wu-hun, No Jin-gyu, Lee Nam-sun among others.