The village of Hahae near Andong, Kyungsangbuk, South Korea has preserved a unique tradition of wooden masks. The originals, said to have been carved from alderwood by a man named Hur, are from the 11th-12th Century; they are in the National Museum Collection in Seoul and have been designated as national treasures by the Korean Government. There are nine masks of human characters now (two have been lost), along with two masks of mythological beasts called Chugi (not represented in the collection). The set of masks have formed the basis for an unbroken tradition of masked dance drama, known Hahae Pyolsin-kut. As the designation kut indicates, the masked drama in Hahae originally had an exorcistic function and served to enourage good crops, as well as to entertain. Until 1928, these exorcistic performances, using the original masks, were held at Hahae every ten years (or on the advise of an oracle) as part of 15 days of ritual activities. The dance drama is now performed frequently by itself, using copies of the original masks, for tourists, for village pride, and at regional festivals. Hahae masks balance satirical commentary on social types with a sense of realistic depiction of complex individuals. Several of the masks are made so that the expression can vary markedly by changing the angle of the attached jaw (a string is attached to the movable jaw and held in the mouth) or by tilting the angle of the mask to the viewer. The view of man presented is thus both humorous and complex, revealing contradictions in character and a depth of human experience. The masks in the IGNCA collection are the work of master carver Jung Sung Am of Seoul. Made of Korean basswood with appropriate dyes, they follow the originals very closely in form and spirit. Born in Inchon in 1959, mask maker Jung Sung Am spent 4 years in Hahae studying the mask techniques there and made a detailed study of the chisel marks and angles of cuts on the orginal masks. His masks have been used in several performances around the Seoul area.