Taichung Shinto Shrine

The second-generation Shinto shrine in Taichung (第二代台中神社) was built over the course of several years and inaugurated in 1940. In 1942 it was upgraded to the rank of subnational shrine (國幣小社). As the region’s highest-ranking shrine it oversaw three district shrines, at Changhua, Qingshui, and Yuanlin, together with eight ungraded shrines.

In the post-war period the main hall was converted into Taichung Martyrs’ Shrine (台中忠烈祠), and over subsequent decades the remaining structures and landscaping was repurposed for use by Taichung Confucian Temple (台中孔廟) and Shuangshi Junior High School (臺中市立雙十國民中學). Following Japan’s recognition of the People’s Republic of China in the early 1970s the remaining traces were demolished, leaving only a handful of relics now on display in Taichung Park (台中公園), around the former site of Taichung’s first-generation Shinto shrine. A shrine mikoshi (神輿) is preserved at Xinzhuang Dizang Temple, and the shrine’s name-stele (社號碑), its inscription gouged out, was repurposed as the founding monument of Chenggong Elementary School (成功國小).