Encyclopedia of Shinto

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カテゴリー1： 4. Jinja (Shrines)
カテゴリー2： Shrine Architecture
Title
Haiden
Text
The haiden is the building provided for the performance of ceremonies and for worshipping the shrine's kami. Normally located in the foreground of the shrine's sanctuary (honden), the haiden is usually built on a somewhat larger scale than the honden, and tends to be the structure most noticed by ordinary worshipers. While the honden is the structure that actually encloses the seat of the kami (shinza), the haiden is the place where visitors engage in acts of worship, such as participating in various rituals and making entreaties to the kami. Some shrines of the late Heian period are known to have possessed structures called reiden for the performance of worship; similar structures were called haiden in the Kamakura period, and hai no ya in the Muromachi period. Haiden are common at most shrines, but at the Grand Shrines of Ise, for example, ceremonies are conducted by priests in the open courtyard, and ordinary worshipers pay their respects from behind the Outer Sacred Fence (soto tamagaki gomon) located before the shrine buildings. This suggests that worship was originally performed in front of and facing a honden, and specialized haiden originated when roofs were placed on storied decorative gateways (rōmon) or on Myōjin style torii or from the provisional use of a pavilion of dance (maidono; see also kaguraden) where rites were performed during rainy weather. In time, these evolved into independent specialized structures with important functions that constituted part of the scenery of the shrines. In the style known as Gongen-zukuri, the haiden is an indispensable element of the architectural style of the honden.
— Mori Mizue

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