Dounan Zhongyi Shrine

A small roadside shrine beside the Dahukou Creek (大湖口溪) south of central Dounan. It was originally built over a mass grave dating to the 1895 Yiwei War, in which the Japanese defeated local militias to conquer Taiwan. Competing accounts obscure its origins; in the Japanese colonial era it is recorded as a memorial to Lieutenant Akaboshi (赤星中尉), a possibly fictitious Japanese officer killed in the battle, while the temple’s own post-war stele claims it honours local resistance fighters, with the “officer” acting as camouflage to prevent the shrine’s destruction. The identity of the enshrined deities has shifted with each political era and remains a subject of local debate.