Yizhu

Yizhu (義竹) is a rural township in southwestern Chiayi County. One local legend holds the name commemorates resistance during the 1895 Japanese invasion, though other accounts simply attribute it to the area’s abundant bamboo. The township was one of several endemic zones for blackfoot disease in the 1950s and 1960s, a form of chronic arsenic poisoning from deep well water that disappeared after a central water supply was established. Japanese colonial era infrastructure includes Yizhu Railway Station and Guolu Police Station.