It was a huge privilege to be one of the few members of the audience when two leading practitioners of the East Coast Byeolshin Gut tradition displayed their talents in Durham’s music department towards the end of May. Husband and wife team Hong Hyojin and Jung Younrak continue the traditions of the hereditary shaman practice, though nowadays, as the opportunities for performance become rarer, the traditions are passed down to adopted successors rather than from parent to child.
The opening section of the evening called down blessings on the University hosting the event, before we proceeded to the more substantial ceremonial extracts that addressed a community’s guardian deity and banished evil spirits. The evening got progressively livelier as the programme continued – the second start starting with an extract from a folk tale before we moved on to a cymbal dance and ended with a medley of popular songs in which the performers encouraged audience participation. It was a superbly enjoyable evening, one which entirely explains why for some Koreans attending a gut is synonymous with having a good time.
For the record, the programme was as follows:
Bujeong Gut – Cleansing ritual
Golmegi Gut – Ritual for the Village Guardian Deity
Salp’uri mumu – Shaman dance for dispelling bad forces– interval –
Sejon Gut: Chung t’aryeong – Ritual for the God of Fertility and Nurturing: Monk’s song
Para ch’um – cymbal dance
Twitp’uri – after partyHong Hyojin is a central figure in the Tonghaean Byeolshin Gut tradition (East Coast Special God Ritual), designated as Intangible Cultural Heritage 82-1. She is a certified successor (isuja) within the tradition, performing all the roles as a female shaman. She is currently doing a PhD in Korean Musicology at Tongguk University
Jung Younrak is a central figure in the same tradition, working as a musician / instructor, Director of stage performances, and paper flower artist. He has a PhD from Korea University in Applied Linguistics and Culture Studies.
Simon Mills is Professor of Ethnomusicology specialising in Korean music, based in Durham University Music Department.