Gut — Korean shamanic ritual of music, dance and storytelling

What is a gut?

A gut is a shamanic ritual made of three movements: calling the god, welcoming and entertaining them, and sending them off again. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture says a gut needs three things: a deity to receive the rite, believers who trust that deity and offer the rite, and a ritual specialist, the mudang, who stands between them. Remove any one and it is no longer a gut.

By scale there are two kinds. A gut proper is a large ritual: several mudang, a spread of offerings, musicians called jaebi, shamans in costume dancing and singing and acting out the gods. Because the shaman performs standing, it is also called seon-gut, a "standing gut." A bison is small: a single mudang sits before simple offerings and mostly chants prayers, which is why it is called an "seated gut". Prayers for a child or for good luck could be done either way, depending on the family's means. This page introduces the structure of the gut as culture. For the titles mudang, mansin and baksu, and how to protect yourself from costly ritual scams, see our Korean guide to shamanism.

History

Early records are thin. Ancient community festivals like Buyeo's Yeonggo, Goguryeo's Dongmaeng and Dongye's Mucheon, described in the Chinese Records of the Three Kingdoms, are old communal rites but differ from today's shaman gut. A record that the second Silla king was called Chachaung, which in dialect meant shaman, and a Goguryeo story in which a shaman identified the cause of King Yuri's illness, are among the earliest references to shamans.

The oldest text describing a gut in detail is Yi Gyu-bo's long poem "Song of an Old Shaman" (Nomupyeon) in the Dongguk Isanggukjip, from the Goryeo era. It shows a shaman possessed by a god delivering a gongsu (spoken message), leaping and dancing, and the scene closely resembles central Korean gut today. Scholars therefore think the form was established by Goryeo at the latest. Some argue its roots reach far earlier, pointing to bronze-age ritual bells that resemble a mudang's bells.

Basic structure and Seoul's twelve-section Jaesu-gut

Whatever the region, a gut generally follows the arc of cheongsin (inviting the gods), osin (entertaining them and making wishes), and songsin (sending them off). A single gut is built from many geori, or sections, each welcoming one god or group of gods. The jaesu-gut of Seoul, performed to wish blessings on the living, is commonly called the "twelve geori." The order below follows the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture.

A few terms recur throughout this page. A mudang is the shaman who leads the rite. The jaebi are the musicians, traditionally playing a double-headed hourglass drum called janggu, a gong called kkwaenggwari, a cymbal and wind instruments. The gongsu is the oracle, the message the god speaks through the shaman. Knowing these words makes the descriptions of individual guts much easier to follow.

Guts for the dead: Jinogwi-gut and Ssitgim-gut

Guts that guide the dead to a good place carry different names by region. In Seoul and Gyeonggi it is the jinogwi-gut, and the grand version is the saenam-gut. In Jeolla it is ssitgim-gut (the "washing gut"), and in Gyeongsang and on the east coast ogu-gut. Whatever the name, they all include a recited epic about Princess Bari (Barigongju or Baridegi), the one who opened the road to the afterlife.

The core of the Jeolla ssitgim-gut has four parts. Ogu-mullim is the chanting of the Bari epic. Gopuri is the untying of knots tied in a long cotton cloth, one by one, to release the sorrow lodged in the dead person's heart. Ssitgim is the cleansing itself: the spirit is embodied in a rolled mat dressed in the deceased's clothing, with a bowl for a head and a pot lid for a hat, and washed with water, mugwort water and incense water in turn using a broom. Gil-dakkeum is the clearing of the path to the afterlife, as the spirit is pushed along a long cloth. The music is often in the mournful gyemyeonjo mode, played by an ensemble called samhyeon yukgak.

• Gwakmeori ssitgim-gut: performed beside the body at a funeral
• Sosang and daesang ssitgim-gut: around the first and second anniversaries of death
• Neokgeonji-gut: to draw up the spirit of someone who died by drowning

Guts a village shares: Byeolsin-gut and Dodang-gut

Byeolsin-gut is a large village gut led by shamans. Some villages hold it yearly, but many do so only every three, five or ten years. The east coast tradition is the most vibrant, taking the form of a harvest rite in farming villages and a rite for good fishing in fishing villages. A hallmark is its two-layer structure: first the village officials read a Confucian-style prayer in a quiet ceremony, and then the priest role passes to the shaman and a lively gut begins.

The East Coast Byeolsin-gut proceeds roughly through Bujeong-gut, Dangmaji-gut, Cheongjwa-gut, Sejon-gut, Seongju-gut, Cheonwang-gut, Simcheong-gut, Gunung-gut, then Sonnim-gut, Gyemyeon-gut and Yongwang-gut, and ends with Georigut. Simcheong-gut honors the god said to restore sight. Yongwang-gut consoles the sea-dead. The final geori-gut is a comic play that releases the wandering spirits. East Coast Byeolsin-gut is led by hereditary shamans (semseumu), while the structurally similar Gyeonggi dodang-gut and Hwanghae daedong-gut are led by possessed shamans (gangsinmu).

Meaning and regional differences

Gut is about entertaining the gods, so it is never only solemn. Even the sections for the dead include humor, and the Daegam play brims with laughter. The client hears the words of an ancestor or god through the mudang, the gongsu, and speaks aloud the sadness and worry that have been weighing on them. Folklorists see the gut as a ritual of release, in which a family or village is comforted together and returns to ordinary life.

There are broadly two traditions. North of the Han River, possessed shamans (gangsinmu) perform: the shaman becomes one with the god and acts out the god's behavior. In the south, hereditary shamans (semseumu), who inherit the role through families, act as priests who petition the gods, and are especially known for their epics and music. Scholars sometimes call the first "monistic" and the second "dualistic." On Jeju, the shaman called simbang performs the big gut that can last from seven to fifteen days. That all of this is called gut is itself a mark of Korean shamanism's diversity.

Gut today

Today the gut is protected heritage, a total art of music, dance, song and drama. Seoul Saenam-gut, Jindo Ssitgim-gut, East Coast Byeolsin-gut, South Coast Byeolsin-gut, Yangju Sonori-gut, Gyeonggi Dodang-gut, Jeju Chilmeoridang Yeongdeung-gut and Jeju Big Gut are all National Intangible Heritage, and preservation groups hold public performances each year. Jeju Chilmeoridang Yeongdeung-gut was inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2009.

Meanwhile, demand for household jaesu-gut has shrunk sharply. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture notes that it is nearly extinct except among some merchant families. Appreciating gut as culture and spending large sums on a ritual out of anxiety are two different things. If someone predicts misfortune and demands a high fee, pause and consult family. No problem exists that only a gut can solve.

For readers curious about attending a performance, it helps to know what to expect. A full gut can run for many hours, with changes of costume, shifts between solemn chanting and boisterous comedy, and audience members invited to offer small bills as tokens of goodwill. You are not expected to take part in the ritual itself. Most visitors simply watch, listen to the music, and enjoy the dance, much as one would attend a traditional opera.

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