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 vicinity. 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.
Map
Links
- Taiwan Cultural Memory Bank (文化部國家文化記憶庫)
- Taiwan Visual Dictionary (台湾ビジュアル辞典)
- The News Lens (關鍵評論)
Sources
- Kaneko Nobuya, Japanese Deities Overseas, Yeren Publishing House, 2020 金子展也，《遠渡來台的日本諸神：日治時期的台灣神社田野踏查》，野人，2020
Themes
- Japanese Colonial Era Taiwan (台灣日治時代)
- Shinto Shrines in Taiwan (台灣神社)
- Japanese Special Attack Units (特別攻撃隊)
Nearby Locations
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Author
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I am a web application developer, photojournalist, urban explorer, and history enthusiast passionate about the open web and documenting my experiences on this planet. This project was founded in the early 2010s and has evolved into a sort of personal Wikipedia of places that interest me (and often the photographs I’ve taken there). I’m originally from Toronto, Canada, but spend most of my time residing in Taiwan.