Taiwan Grand Shrine

The highest-ranking Shinto shrine in colonial Taiwan and the principal symbol of State Shinto on the island, regarded as the guardian shrine of all Taiwan. It was established on Jiantan Mountain in 1901 as Taiwan-jinja (臺灣神社), enshrining Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa (北白川宮能久親王), who had died during the Japanese conquest of Taiwan in 1895. Designed by the architects Itō Chūta (伊東忠太) and Takeda Goichi (武田五一), it was approached across the Keelung River by Meiji Bridge (明治橋) and a ceremonial avenue, the chokushi kaidō (敕使街道), that survives today as Zhongshan North Road. Its construction required clearing private land and relocating the nearby Jiantan Temple.

In 1944 the shrine additionally enshrined the sun goddess Amaterasu and was elevated to Taiwan Grand Shrine (臺灣神宮), with a larger second precinct built just to the east. A military plane crashed beside the new buildings that October, burning much of the unopened complex, and US air raids damaged the old halls in 1945. After the war the shrine was dismantled as a colonial symbol: the original 1901 site became the Grand Hotel, the new precinct the Yuanshan Club, and the adjacent Gokoku Shrine the National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine.

Remainins relics are scattered widely. A pair of stone lions remains at the Grand Hotel; the bronze oxen donated by Manchukuo now stand at the entrance of the National Taiwan Museum; a pair of komainu (guardian lion-dogs) sit in nearby Jiantan Park (劍潭公園), and a stone lantern was relocated to Expo Park. Part of the shrine’s torii was carried off to Zushi Temple in Sanxia, where it was recarved into marble dragon columns.