Kasuga-zukuri

Kasuga-zukuri (春日造^?) is a traditional Shinto shrine architectural style which takes its name from Kasuga Taisha's honden. It is characterized by the use of a building just 1x1 ken in size with the entrance on the gabled end covered by a veranda. In Kasuga Taisha's case, the honden is just 1.9 m x 2.6 m.

Supporting structures are painted vermilion, while the plank walls are white. It has a tsumairi (also called tsumairi-zukuri) (妻入・妻入造^?) structure, that is, the building has its main entrance on the gabled side.

The roof is gabled (kirizuma yane (切妻屋根, gabled roof^?)), decorated with purely ornamental poles called chigi (vertical) or katsuogi (horizontal), and covered with cypress bark.

After the nagare-zukuri style, this is the most common Shinto shrine style. While the first is common all over Japan, however, shrines with a kasuga-zukuri honden are found mostly in the Kansai region around Nara. If a diagonal rafter (a sumigi (隅木^?)) is added to support the portico, the style is called sumigi-iri kasugazukuri (隅木入春日造^?).

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Wikipedia