Zanfu Temple

A small temple beside the southern terminus of Sanceng Tunnel (三層隧道) in Zhongpu, Chiayi, enshrining a deified Japanese soldier, Second Lieutenant Chiba Takuma (千葉太久馬). Posted to Taiwan after the First Sino-Japanese War, he and his detachment were ambushed and killed at a treacherous pass nearby in October 1898 by “bandits” according to colonial era accounts and anti-Japanese resistance fighters under Huang Guozhen (黃國鎮) according to later historians such as Su Beng (史明). Villagers buried Chiba and, through a spirit medium, enshrined him as a martial deity (中營兵將公), first within Kaifeng Temple (開凰宮) and later in this dedicated shrine. His mounted figure stands in military uniform on the altar, once flanked by a Japanese flag that has since been removed.