Koxinga Shrine

Date CapturedFebruary 8th, 2017 at 07:19 UTCCameraNIKON D3100LensAF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED IIApertureƒ / 5.3Shutter Speed1/30 secFocal Length48.0 mmISO1600Exposure Value9.7 EVOriginal Size3600 × 2400

An important historic site commemorating the pirate-king Koxinga and his accomplishments in opening Taiwan to Han settlement. Every colonial power that followed played upon his biracial Chinese-Japanese ancestry as a way of legitimizing their nation-building project, and so this shrine has undergone numerous renovations since it was first planned in 1874. During the Japanese colonial era it was incorporated into state Shinto and remade several times under the name Kaishan Shinto Shrine (開山神社), or Kaizan-jinja in the original Japanese, starting in January 1897. It was renovated again in the post-war period and most recently reconstructed in 1964. Today it still features a stone gate not unlike a torii with the KMT’s white sun on a blue sky emblem.