> Cyber Museum > What is a Mask   A mask is made after the face of a man or an animal to cover the face for disguise. A mask is called myeon, myeongu, gamyeon, daemyeon, gadu, gasu, etc. in Chinese characters, and angdae, chorani, tal, talbak, talbagaji, etc. in Korea. Strictly speaking, however, a mask that covers only the face is called gamyeon, and one that covers the whole head including the back part of the head is called gadu, gasu or tudu. Korean mask plays and Japanese mask plays including No-o mostly use masks that cover only the face and Chinese mask plays such as Nahee generally use gadu. Masks are found throughout the world. Their shapes are various according to region among Asia, Europe, Africa, America, Oceania, Melanesia, etc. Islamic Koran prohibits performances using the image of man or animals, however, masks are not used in Arabia, Northeast Africa, the Near East including Balkan and North Africa under the influence of Islam. Masks are classified as follows according to purpose and function. The most remarkable magical function of masks is its use for ritual praying for good harvest. Compared to nomadic peoples who move around for hunting or grazing, agricultural peoples who live a settled life have richer mask tradition. In particular, magical agricultural ceremonies were more frequent when the level of technology was low and harvest depended on natural condition, and such traditions are still found everywhere. The styles of agricultural ritual were quite diverse but many of them presented divinities and spirits that brought good harvest using masks.   The second most frequent magical function of masks is exorcism to expel evil spirits. Masks are used not only for believing and worshiping sacred beings but also for threatening and expelling detestable beings such as evil spirits. Masks used in exorcism have extremely threatening looks.   Sacred masks are enshrined in temples or shrines and worshipped. In addition, divinities in mask worshipped are also a kind of sacred masks.   There are two kinds of medical masks. One is masks to call protective powers from which health comes, and the other is those to be able to defeat evil spirits that cause diseases. Masks used in exorcism to heal diseases are a kind of medical masks. Eui, which is the old character of medicine, indicates a shaman who holds a weapon like an arrow to defeat disease-causing evil spirits.   Commemoration masks are to pay a tribute to dead persons and to extol the soul of dead persons.   Soul masks are personalized beings of dead persons.   War masks are full of malice or frightful and grotesque enough to intimidate enemies. Ancient Greeks and Romans used combat shields with a weird mask and their armor and helmets were also ornamented with frightful masks. Mask helmets were used by Japanese soldiers as well.   Funeral masks have several functions such as protecting dead persons from evil spirits, preventing the original look from being destroyed so that the souls of dead persons do not wonder endlessly in the other world, and representing dead persons in funerals.   Coming of age masks are used in coming-of-age ceremonies. In coming-of-age ceremonies, the presiders wore a mask. In some regions, young people who had just finished the coming-of-age ceremony put on a mask that indicated their new roles.   Men in the primitive ages used masks when hunting to camouflage themselves. They made animals' sounds or put on the skin of animals that they wanted to hunt to approach animals. Such a hunting method is still used in primitive societies such as Bushman in South Africa. In Europe, dancers with a mask who are hunting animals are found on a wall painting in a cave, which was drawn in the late Old Stone Age 30,000 years ago.   Totems are natural objects that primitive people believed to be in a special blood relationship with their tribes or clans and regarded as sacred. They took such natural objects as the symbols of their communities and set social regulations through taboos related to the objects. This is totemism. Societies worshipping totems have myths that tell how their ancestors were linked to the totems long time ago and hold religious ceremonies based on the stories, in which masks play important roles. On the other hand, high priests, magicians and shamans possessed their own powerful totems. Putting the totem masks, they expelled evil spirits, defeated enemies, detected game and fish, and healed diseases.   Praying-for-rain masks were used in ritual praying for rain in drought. Ritual for rain is universal throughout the world and some races used masks in the ritual.   Art masks were used in dances and plays. Art masks are found everywhere in the world. With cultural development, people desired to express problems among them artistically, going beyond solving problems with nature or God through magic, and as a result they came to create art masks. As masks, which had been used for magical solutions, became means of creative expression, magical masks evolved into art masks.