What is a Kagura-den?

Today we are sharing some reference photos with you, which the Studio Syncandi team took while location hunting in Japan. Our quest was to find appropriate locations to use as artist references in order to help our creative team with visual and cultural ideas. The photos below were all taken at Japanese Shinto Shrines, most of which are in the Kansai region of Japan. We needed to find an appropriate dwelling and environment for our SYNCANDI characters, Ikkyu and Sync,

INT. The safe house – EARLY MORNING

Two beautiful but strikingly different women stand in front of a rustic wooden Shinto shrine pavilion (KAGURA-DEN). The building has no walls. It is surrounded by dense forest.

The text above is from Roberto Iolini’s screenplay, for the first SYNCANDI series.

According to Wikipedia,

The kagura-den or kagura-dono (神楽殿 lit. kagura palace), also called maidono (舞殿 dance palace) or buden (舞殿) with reference to the bugaku traditional dance, is the building within a Shinto shrine where the sacred dance (kagura) and music are offered to the kami during ceremonies.

So without further ado, here are some examples of Kagura-den which the Studio Syncandi team documented. As you will discover, the style and settings for Kagura-den vary considerably. Please enjoy.