KAGE 🍁 (影, “shadow”) is an immersive web experience built from a single painting: a ronin on a cliff above a sea of clouds, under a red sun that never quite sets.

The site opens like a film. A short launch sequence plays in reverse, pulling the blade’s crimson arc back into stillness, then dissolves into the painting itself, which comes alive. From there, the visitor moves through a prologue on washi paper, the seven virtues of bushidō in red kanji, and a gallery of quiet details from the scene, before ending under the red sun.

What went into it: • Depth from a single image: the artwork is separated into layers, so the samurai moves against the cloud sea as you scroll and move the cursor • A launch film that hands off into the live painting with no visible cut, with the interface revealed only once it ends • Falling sakura petals, drifting mist and a breathing sun glow, all as custom code components • Japanese editorial typography pairing Shippori Mincho with Zen Kaku Gothic, plus a red hanko seal and kanji chapter navigation • Text that surfaces from blur, chapters revealed on scroll, and subtle hover motion throughout • Fully responsive, with layouts tuned for desktop, tablet and mobile and a reduced-motion fallback Visit: KAGE 🍁

Built in Framer, with custom React components.

The layered parallax on the samurai is so smooth. Did you build the petals in custom code?