Pungja-tal mask
Masan, Korea
9 inches, painted gourd

This character, the nobleman Mundung-tal, is from Scene 2 of the Tongyong Ogwangdae-nori play. They say Gunchan Lee from Changwon (Masan today) on the southeast coast of Korea imitated the Daegwangdae-pae group of great clowns when he created this play. You don’t see this unusual red and white mask very often. Why, I don’t know. It is one of the most dramatic looking in the repertoire. Making it even rarer is the fact that this one is made of a gourd shell, rather than papier mache or wood.

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