Zhenyang Shinto Shrine

An institutional shrine (構內社) built atop the old Fengshan County city wall near its west gate. It was established in early 1945 by members of the 20th shinyo unit (海軍水上特攻隊震洋隊) stationed in Zuoying, Kaohsiung; four of the ten shinyo units in Taiwan were based in the vicinity¹. The shrine was distantly associated with the Kameyama Hachiman Shrine (亀山八幡神社) in Sasebo, Nagasaki.

After the war the wooden main hall was taken away and ritually burnt, and the surrounding ground was absorbed into Xizizhu New Village (西自助新村), a military dependents’ settlement, where the site was forgotten for decades. Stone steps survive, along with a stone water basin (手水鉢) that lay buried until around 2014, and numerous air raid shelters remain in the vicinity. It is also known as the IJN Shinyo Unit Barracks Shrine (日本海軍震洋隊營內神社) or Shinyo Hachiman-sha in the original Japanese.

Footnotes

1. The 20th, 21st, and 31st squadrons (第20、第21、第31隊) were based in what later became Xizixhu New Village. The 29th squadron (第29隊) was based in Taoziyuan, on the northern flank of Shoushan (壽山). ↩