Takasago Spice Company Shinto Shrine

A company shrine (構內社) possibly known as Nanki-sha (南木社), established in February 1936 at the newly-built factory of the Takasago Spice Company (高砂香料株式會社) in the Long’anpo (龍安坡) area of what is now Da’an District, Taipei. It descends from the Kusunogi Shrine (久須乃木社) at Nanmen. Founded in 1920 by a group of Kyoto Imperial University engineers, Takasago took its name from a classical literary epithet for Taiwan, then a key source of raw materials in the fragrance industry. The company built its business on the island’s camphor and hinoki oils, moving its headquarters from Tokyo to Taipei in 1938 before being taken over by the government after the war. It survives today as Takasago International, Japan’s largest fragrance manufacturer. The shrine itself is gone, its site thought to lie within present-day Siwei Park (四維公園).