Masks made as artwork or for performance purposes have historically evolved to have current secularized and modernized shapes, but they have their origins in various religious rituals As such, their shapes are a result of human efforts to attain divinity on the basis of the ancient religious aspiration to grasp the supernatural energy represented by the notion of divinity in visual objects Such a religious basis is especially associated with shamanism and is still exercising its function in mask plays and dance dramas handed down over generations For example, mask plays began as a form of village shamanistic rituals of each region, and their storylines contain sacrificial, apotropaic, and shamanistic rituals, where the appearance of shamanistic characters such as male or female tutelary deities and dramatic dialogues reflects shamanistic notions This suggests that the shamanistic sculpturing principle may underlie the facial shape of a mask Also, the non-anatomical structural-functional principle common to the multifarious shapes of Korean traditional masks was confirmed to be reflecting the shamanistic world view.
Traditional Korean masks depict their shamanistic characteristics through their anthropomorphic shape and non-human anatomical structure This non-anatomical sculpturing principle was analyzed as being based primarily on the principle of abridgement and exaggeration implemented by applying atypical facial and skull features and ratios to the eyes, nose, and mouth positions and simplifying facial forms, and on the principle of distortion and transformation achieved by combining facial expressions contrary to anatomical facial muscle movements and non-anthropomorphic forms mimicking other species Viewed in the historical context of mask plays, such non-anatomical structures imply, in addition to the intention of showing a visualized divinity, the intention of satirizing such objects of secular criticism as the ruling class in an era where mask plays enjoyed wide popularity.
Korean shamanism has historically been very open to foreign religions, embracing Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and, more recently, Christianity Despite such a liberal approach, it has maintained its unique characteristics over several eras without losing its original identity The non-anatomical structures of masks also display traces of its processes of interacting with foreign religions, for example, the resemblance of the iconography of the masks to that of Buddhist statues of divine generals Further, the mask-like iconography of shamanistic deities such as totem poles and shamanistic paintings of deities also allows us to deduce that the mask is created through an imitation of the appearances of shamanistic deities The unbound liberal shapes demonstrated in the non-anatomical structures of masks are congruent with the intent to experience a Dionysian frenzy through plays of folk society in the late Joseon era, and also with the intent to express in double entendre the spiritual nature of deities and secular nature of humans in Korean shamanism Such mask shapes were imbibed in the characters of numerous mask plays in the late Joseon era and have grown to represent the lively dynamic beauty of our traditional arts, transcending mere familiarity, together with humorous and mock-ironic educative aspects.