Bangsangsi Mask (方相氏 탈)

Carved from pine, this mask is a vast face exceeding seventy centimeters in both height and width. The mouth curves as though smiling; the wrinkles are carved deep; the ears flare wide on either side. Once, they say, the brows were vivid with green and red—but all of that has long since faded back to the bare color of wood. Whether the years stripped away the pigment, or whether the pigment withdrew of its own accord, no one can say.

Bangsangsi (方相氏) was the figure appointed in royal ritual to drive out malevolent spirits. Four men robed in red would don this mask and take their place at the head of every procession, threatening unseen things with fire and color and noise. The king's progress, the reception of foreign envoys, the final road of the dead—all of these were opened first by the Bangsangsi, who walked ahead.

In funeral processions, the Bangsangsi stood at the very front and cleared the way. Upon reaching the burial ground, it would strike the earth where the body was to lie, driving out the underground spirits before the coffin was lowered. When its purpose was fulfilled, the mask was buried alongside the dead or committed to fire. A mask that had been used once was not permitted to return to the world of the living.

And yet in 1970, this mask was discovered deep inside a storehouse at Changdeokgung Palace, among funeral implements—neither buried nor burned. Its four eye-holes are not cut through: a sign that it was never meant to be worn by a human face. Some have speculated that it was hung upon a wall and set to stare down the spirits. Whether the mask drives demons away, or whether the mask itself holds them in place, the records do not distinguish.

Its origins can be traced to the rites of the Zhou dynasty; traces appear in Silla funerary practice as early as the fifth and sixth centuries; it endured from the sixth year of Goryeo King Jeongjong (1040) through to the end of the Joseon period. This is the only surviving Bangsangsi mask from the Joseon era. It is said to reside somewhere in the storage vaults of the National Museum of Korea—though no one has confirmed which direction those four blind eyes are facing.