Asia, Land of Light and Sound
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This section introduces reproduced contents of the booklet and CD for exhibition, 'Kim, Soo-Nam & Choi, Sang-il - Asia, Land of Light and Sound (6 to 29 July 2005, Seoul, Republic of Korea)'. Kim, Soo-Nam, documentary photographer representing the Republic of Korea, has started his profession as a photo journalist in Dong-A Ilbo and contributed to introduce the beauty of shamanistic and traditional culture of ethnic minorities by traveling everywhere in Asia. He never let the camera out of his hands till his last day in Chiang Rai in Thailand in 2006, next year of the exhibition. His enormous works still pass down Asia’s value to the world. Choi, Sang-il, who believes that ‘folk songs everywhere contain the unembellished thoughts and sentiments of their people’, has shown various broadcast programs, music albums, and books on folk song and music in Korean and Asia since his join to Munhwa Broadcating Company (MBC). Until now, he continues his contributions including recording diverse intangible cultural heritage and promoting it through excellent broadcast program such as ‘In Search of Our Sounds’. In recent, he received commendation from the president and Award for Professional Achievement in Producing. We express our gratitude to the families of the late Kim, Soo-Nam, and MBC producer Choi, Sang-il for allowing to make these precious collections available online, so that the beauty of living heritages in the Asia-Pacific will be better known to the world.
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“Shake the bells and strike the drums/ Shake the bells higher than your eyes/ Shake, shake, shake the bells/ If the bells fall below your eyes/ The gods will be angered by your laziness.” This is an excerpt from an old text describing a shamanistic ritual in Japan. Drums are again mentioned in a different text. “The female shaman’s drum/ is fun to hit up and down/ If we were to join/ Thump thump, let it ring, thump thump, let it ring/ how long should we hit the drum to let it ring on and on.” As can be seen from these texts, instruments such as large drums, small drums, and the flute are key features in Japanese matsuri and kagura. Many matsuri and kagura live in various regions of Japan. There are kagura that offer music and dance to the gods to please them. There are also matsuri in which water is boiled in a large cauldron, offered to the gods, and splashed onto the officiants and participants to cleanse them. There are also kagura performed by travelling performance troupes that would perform dances such as a lion dance to collect donations from spectators.
