Portfolio: Okushoin Virtual Tour

Overview

Kotohira-gu is a large temple complex located on the side Mt. Konpira in the Kagawa prefecture of Shikoku, Japan. Okushoin is an area within one of the larger building complexes which once served as the personal residence and study of the shrines head priest. It is filled with wall and screen paintings that were commissioned to legendary Japanese artists from the 18th Century, such as Jakuchu Ito and Okyo Maruyama. Even though the areas contains these great works, most of which are now classified as Japanese national treasures, okushoin had long fallen out of use and was closed to the public. In 2004, it was opened to the public once more for a special exhibit for the first time in 125 years. Running from only September 17th to December 12th, once the exhibit ended it was very likely the works may not be visible for yet another 125 years.

Sti staff was commissioned with planning and creating a web presence for this exhibit to act as supporting material for a television documentary produced by KSB Setonaikai Broadcasting Co., Ltd. The client desired the site to be an interactive experience that provided options a standard HTML site could not deliver. Because they were not sure what was possible, we were basically given free reign to make suggestions for features. While this type of freedom is liberating, a production schedule of only two weeks and an extremely limited budget made it a daunting task, but one enthusiastically accepted.

	Client: KSB Setonaikai Broadcasting Co., Ltd.
	Date: 08/2004
	Category: Web Solutions
	Credits:
	Project Management~ Toshimitsu Honda (MMLab) Design & Development~ Kris Honeycutt Filmography~ KSB Setonaikai Broadcasting
	View Website

Design & Technology

To meet the request for interactivity and innovative features, it was decided that a dynamic Flash site would be created. Key features included an interactive map of the kotohira-gu complex and okushoin, a high-resolution artwork viewer with zooming features. Video footage, provided by the broadcaster, was also used in the site. Converted to Flash Video (FLV), a custom player was designed to seamlessly integrate directly into the sites interface. The site was created modularly so that image, video and text data could be loaded on demand, reducing initial load times.

From a design standpoint the interface was created to give an appropriate classical Japanese feeling, mixed with modern interface conventions. The result was a look and feel that supported the subject matter, yet maintained an easy level of usability.