| Description |
Masks are commonly used as disguises depicting face-like shapes of deities, humans, devils, and animals over the face. In Chinese characters, they can be called myeon (面), myeongu (面具), daemyeon (代面), gadoo (假頭), gasoo (假首), and so forth. In Korean, they have been called gwangdae, chorani, tal, talbak, takbagaji. However, strictly speaking, myeongu refers to a mask that covers only the front of the face, whereas a mask that covers whole head including the back of the head is separately called gadoo, gasoo and toodoo (套頭). In English-speaking regions, they are called “masks.”
Wood is a primary material to make masks, but paper, lightweight stones, bronze, fabric, and ceramics can also be used to. Masks are often colored with red clay or drawn with various dyes. By pasting paper or fabric on a carved wooden mask and then coating it with lacquer, the mask can be kept for a long time. That is the case with Hahoe Masks of Korea. |
