• The origin of the Hahoe T'al(masks), the oldest wooden masks in Korea, dates  
  back to the 12th century A. D.The masks were hand-crafted at Hahoe  maul, 
  Andong, Korea. Of the two legends on the mask making, the story of  Ho-dory- 
  ong, an unmarried young nobleman, is well known at the village. 

• The legend says that the youngman had a special talent for mask making. One  
  day the young man received a revelation in a dream from the village god to confine himself to a secluded place,and devote himself to making masks without seeing 
  anyone or being seen by anyone until he completed all the masks. Despite the  
  divine order, his girl friend,who missed him very much, could not refrain from  
  peeping at him through a small hole made in the paper door by a touch of her wet finger. The instant he was seen, he began spitting up blood and died on the spot. 
  It is said that his sudden death left the last mask, Imae, unfinished without a chin. 

• The masks were carved out of alderwood, covered with Korean paper made  
  from tak-namu (a type of paper mulberry), and then lacquered heavily and  
  painted with natural pigments. One of the distinctions of these masks is their  
  preservation; they were used repeatedly over a long period of time in the mask  
  dance drama. The Hahoe masks were considered as sacred and kept in a holy  
  place until the next performance. Most other masks in other regions were, and  
  still are burned once they are used in the performance of a mask dance. 

• It is said there were 14 masks originally, but three have been lost. The remain- 
  ing eleven masks are: Kakshi (abride), Yangban (an aristocrat), Sonbi (a scholar),  
  Pune (a flirtatious young woman),Ch'oraengi (a rash meddler), Paekchong (a 
  butcher), Halmi (a granny), Chung (a buddhist monk), Imae (a foolish person), 
  and two Chujis (two lions). 

•  One of their characterisitics is that each mask is made in such a way that a  
  perfectly harmonized face is revealed no matter how the mask is worn. If the  
  dancer looks upright while wearing the mask, a happy and bright expression  
  appears, but if the dancer looks downward, a sad and dark expression is seen.  
  Each of the masks has its own artisticvalue, and each has its own exquisite  
  expression of human emotion, depending on the direction from which the  
  spectators observe the mask. 

• Some of the masks (the characters of Yangban, Sonbi, Chung, and Paekchong) 
  are peculiar in that the jaw is separated from the upper part of each mask and 
  fastened together with a piece of string on both sides of the jaw, permitting the  
  lower jaw to move up and down as the performer speaks and thus expressing a 
  wider range of emotion. Some other masks (Kakshi, Pune and Halmi) have small mouths or no nostrils, representing their social status and the social aspects of 
  their times. 

• The masks were used in the village ritual of Pyolshin-gut T'al-nori, a shaman rite 
  for exorcising evil spirits, which was peformed in early January in the lunar calen- 
  dar in order to pray for an abundant harvest and peace at Hahoe Maul (Hahoe 
  Folk Village) in Andong. The original eleven masks still exist and are now preser- 
  ved in the Korean National Museum in Seoul. In 1964, the masks are designated  
  as National Treasure No. 121 for their highly artistic value. 

  Dr. Hyun Tae-duck, 1996

 KakshiT'al
(The Bride Mask)   

The Bride Mask has very small eyes to show her shyness and a tiny mouth indicating that she should not talk much. It has a white powdered face with round circles of rouge on her cheeks and brow. She plays the role of the local goddess in the first act and the bride in the last. 

YangbanT'al
(The Aristocrat Mask)  

The Aristocrat Mask has a long black beard to show his dignity, and has an expressive smile to show his generosity and arrogance. If the player looks upright while wearing this mask, a happy and bright expression with laughter is revealed, but if he looks downward an angry and dark expression with a closed mouth appears.This mask is said to best represent the highly artistic value of the Hahoe Masks. 

 SonbiT'al 
(The Scholar Mask) 

The Scholar Mask has a wide nose and well-developed cheek bones to  showthat he is a sonbi. The mask shows a discontented scholar who is poorly adjusted to society. The mask also reveals the dignity of a scholar and a lofty air which is unbecoming to a scholar. A sonbi was a scholar who did not hold any government position. Sonbis were supposed to spend their time studying the Chinese classics or writing poetry, but in reality, a lot of these people only human faked scholarship. 

 PuneT'al
(The Flirtatious Young Woman Mask)

The Flirtatious Young Woman Mask has a heavily made-up oval face with a smiling mouth, a high nose, and semicircular eye- brows. The smiling face is very attractive, seductive and flirtatious. She plays the role of a professional entertainer or a concubine of the Yangban. 

Ch'oraengiT'al
(The Rash Meddler Mask)   

The Rash Meddler Mask has a tiny lop- sided brown face with buck teeth to show his discontent. His projected forehead means that he does not agree with his master and his short nose shows that he is rash. He simply can't resist meddling with everything happening around him. He plays the role of theYangban's servant. 

PaekchongT'al
(The Butcher Mask)   

The Butcher Mask has a coarse, lined brown face which has double expressions, depending on which way the mask is seen. If he looks up the mask appears to be grinning, mad with the sin of killing living creatures, and if he looks down ,the mask shows the butcher's true nature and looks cruel and sinister.  

Halmi T'al
(The Granny Mask) 

The Granny Mask has a tiny wizened brown face to show the hard life the widowed granny has had. It has a pathetic expression and the open mouth is always ready to take in food and pour out her lamentations. The mask of Halmi reveals the poverty and the figure of a woman surviving in a hard world.  

Chung T'al
(The Buddhist Monk Mask) 

The Buddhist Monk Mask has a greasy grinning face to show his dissimulating behaviour. The crescent-shaped eyes reveal that he is a lecher.He is not a monk who leads an ascetic life, but a depraved one who wanders and begs.  

Imae T'al
(The Foolish Person Mask) 

The Foolish Person Mask has a happy-go-lucky face which instantly shows that he is a simple minded fool. The crooked nose reveals that he is deformed, and the down-slanted eyes show that he is free from malice. He plays the role of a foolish person as the Sonbi's servant. This is the only mask without a chin. 

Chuji T'al
(The Lion Mask)   

The Lion Mask is an animal mask which has a short but wide (or fin-like) face with a bill-like mouth and feathers. It is said to be themask of a lion. However it is difficult to identify the mask as that of a lion.The lion is a supreme creature in Buddhism and its position is very high. Unfortunately, Koreans at that time had never seen a lions and therefore they only guessed what lions might have looked like.   

If you have any comments, or would like to learn more about Hahoe Tals, please contact hyun@andong.ac.kr