Masks in Javanese Dance-Dramas Author(s): Soedarsono Source: The World of Music , 1980, Vol. 22, No. 1, masks (1980), pp. 5-22 Published by: VWB - Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43560649 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms , and are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The World of Music This content downloaded from 130.56.64.101 on Sun, 25 Jul 2021 07:56:56 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Soedarsono Masks in Javanese Dance-Dramas Speaking about masks in Javanese dance-dramas stimulates me to trace back the functions of the masks in the past, with the hope that it may clarify the hidden meaning of their roles in their aesthetic uses. Today, a mask literally means a cover for the face usually as a disguise or protection. In Javanese dance it means a cover for the face depicting a character in a story. The Uses of Masks in the Past Among the various religious rites of the primitive Javanese people was ancestor worship. It was done by using human or animal statues as the media of worship.