Juche

    From olden times, the Korean people had enjoyed Kamu. Kamu is a form of mass arts dancing while singing songs. Unlike the folk dances in which the people only dance to the musical accompaniment, Kamu is characterized with the singing and dancing of the people. It is the general characteristic of Kamu that it goes through while performing dance movements cheering up the taste of the contents of words and their tunes of the song as the dancing and singing go on at the same time.

    Kamu has the longest historical origin of all forms of national arts and it had been enjoyed by the people as the popular artistic form even after the development of songs and dances as independent artistic forms.

    Ancestors in Korea had enjoyed Kamu best than any nations in east and created and handed down a lot of Kamu heritage in the process of historical development. An ancient documents tells that the people in Ancient Korea, Puyo nad Jinguk were fond of Kamu. Some materials also prove that Kamu had been prevalent in the period of the Three Kingdoms, succeeding the tradition. The Sanguozhi(record of three kingdoms in China) tells that the Koguryo inhabitants irrespective of male and female had enjoyed singing and dancing every night in groups in different towns. As regards with the fact that the excellent Kamu heritage like Dongdong had been succeeded and developed continuously even in the period of Joson feudal dynasty, the level of artistic performance of Kamu reflecting Koguryo people’s life and emotion was comparatively high and the popular Kamu held an importance place in their cultural life.

    Customs of the Korean people fond of Kamu had been succeeded and developed through a long historical period. This is proved by the manners of Kamu dancing while singing folk songs in different regions across the country.

    Distinctive Kamu in each region had played a significant role in the life of Korean people.

    Even in the process of their laborious works like agricultural, fishery and handicraft labour lives, the Korean people had attained their labour successes and rest themselves playing Kamu. In particular, Kamu playing while singing a weaving song had been prevailed in the regions where weaving industry was developed, including Songchon, Tokchon in Pyongan Province, northern area of Hamgyong Province, Andong in Kyongsang Province and Muan in Jonla Province.

    Kamu had energetically encouraged and accelerated the production of the Korean people and served as a basis for the further development of folk songs and dances.

    Like this, the Korean nation had led affluent emotional life while enjoying Kamu in particular in the long period of history. In this process, the Korean people created and developed excellent Kamu heritages proving their remarkable artistic talents and thus dynamically stimulated the development of national arts.