Masks depicting hemifacial microsomia and cleft lip.
All masks are created by craftspeople. Accordingly, most masks are generally predictable in dimensions, and the portraitures usually depict the faces and heads of humans. The authors found some masks representing the features of craniofacial anomalies, such as hemifacial microsomia and, rarely, cleft lip. Reviewing the legends of wearing masks with a medley of grotesque features, the authors could deduce the tone of society in those days. A mask, "crooked mouth," of Native Americans shows typical lineament of hemifacial microsomia. The deformity of the face was legendarily regarded as resulting from trauma caused by either "one's fault" or a "curse of God." "Yangban" (noblemen of aristocratic class) customarily wore the cleft lip mask in age-old Korean masquerade revels. Laymen ridiculed Yangban by making cleft lip masks for them. The authors presume that the victims of craniofacial deformities were treated contemptuously at that time.
Hwang
Kun
K
Department of Plastic Surgery, Inha University Hospital, Choong-gu, Inchon, South Korea. jokerhg@inha.ac.kr
Chung
Robert S
RS
D002971:Cleft Lip / Q000266:history*; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000266:history*; D005146:Facial Asymmetry / Q000266:history*; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049672:History, 19th Century; D006801:Humans; D007198:Indians, North American / Q000266:history; D007723:Korea; D008397:Masks / Q000266:history*; D008512:Medicine in the Arts; D008800:Mexico; D014481:United States