Abstract
This study investigates the Shishinden, the principal ceremonial hall of the Kyoto Imperial Palace, as a site where spatial hierarchy, ritual movement, and material atmosphere converge to construct a unique form of interiority. Rather than treating the hall merely as a stylistic or historical artifact, the paper analyses how interior experience is actively produced through embodied ritual practices, symbolic spatial organisation, and sensory orchestration. By focusing on the interaction between architecture, politics, and cultural cosmology, the study demonstrates how the Shishinden functions as an affective interior that communicates imperial authority and sacred order. The findings contribute to contemporary interiority discourse by highlighting how ritual space can operate as both a physical and symbolic system of meaning.
Publication Date
1-30-2026
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Submitted Date
2025-02-09
Accepted Date
2026-01-21
First Page
139
Last Page
160
Recommended Citation
Schwamborn, İ. Y. (2026). Embodied Interiority in the Shishinden: Ritual Space, Political Symbolism, and Interior Experience in Japanese Imperial Architecture. Interiority, 9 (1), 139-160. https://doi.org/10.7454/in.v9i1.1164
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