A rite is a traditional ceremony that is carried out by a particular group or within a particular society. We usually call the dance performed in course of the rite for Confucius collectively 『Munmyo Ilmu』. Munmyo Ilmu as a ritual dance has been t...
A rite is a traditional ceremony that is carried out by a particular group or within a particular society. We usually call the dance performed in course of the rite for Confucius collectively 『Munmyo Ilmu』. Munmyo Ilmu as a ritual dance has been transmitted until now as a cultural asset. Ritual means a kind of human activity for connecting things on earth with the heaven. Every time the rite for Confucius was carried out, Munmyo Ilmu has performed at the shrine of Confucius. The purpose of this study was to investigate the stylistic features of Munmyo Ilmu through analysis of the dance in Kinetography Laban. In this study, I researched the original form of Munmyo Ilmu, the changes of its dancing motions. For this study, an ancient version of Munmyo Ilmubo was selected. Therefore, this study was attempted to translate the dances from Munmyo Ilmu which are diagrammatized in 『Namongji』, the subject of this study, and analyze on them to be easy to see. Namongji includes Munmyo Ilmubo as well as the terms indicating meanings of the dances. For analysis of the movement in Namongji, Kinetography Laban, an advanced recording system for human movement, was employed in this study. Kinetography Laban is a highly articulated method for describing bodily movement in space and time. This study thus began with the work of analyzing of Kinetography Laban of Munmyo Ilmu based on pictures of the dance in Namongji. Findings of the analysis on the notation of Namongji are as follows: As a result, the analysis of Munmyo Ilmu in Kinetography Laban allows us to identify the stylistic features of the dance by examining the structure and pattern of the dance movements. Munmyo Ilmu is a ritual dance having a rigid form, which gives symbolism to a dancing movement. In addition to that, for the precise analysis of this study includes ritual music, a ceremonial costume, the phases of the times as well as dance analysis with Kinetography Laban. This study finally suggests that it will be necessary in this field.