The South Korean government preserves traditional arts at the national, city and provincial levels, through Munhwajae Pohobŏp (Cultural Property Preservation Law), with the aim of preserving the wŏnhyŏng (original form). Specifically, it designates the relevant properties and, for the Intangible Cultural Properties the relevant artists, as “Poyuja (Holder).” However, the government’s intention behind the cultural policy is not often realized in the actual performance context. To address this, I examine how local artists perceive the wŏnhyŏng (original form) in the case of a local art from South Kyŏngsang Province: T’ongyŏng Ogwangdae (Mask Drama of T’ongyŏng). The existing literature on cultural policy in South Korea tends to deal only with the tense relationship between the national government and local artists, focusing more on government acts than on the response of local artists. This research concentrates on illuminating how local artists perceive the original form, in comparison with the investigator(s) for designation. For the Intangible Cultural Properties, the government sets forth as a premise that it can discover “nativeness” in the sector of “folklore” from Korea. In the case of the music of the Mask Drama of T’ongyŏng, the investigators define the original form as the oldest surviving form that, in their perception, has local features. However, the local artists regard it as the original, functionally-intended form, focusing more on “functional intention” that on “physical form.” From this perspective, they show differences from the oldest surviving version in terms of tempo and rhythms. If their essentialism is involved in stronger essentialism, there will be a danger that the governments and the local artists will become estranged and the relationship between them become difficult. To prevent this danger, and to enable them to coexist, I argue that ethnomusicologists might play a positive role as mediators.
