Gaoshi Shrine ( zh, t=高士神社, p=Gāoshì Shénshè), formerly known as , is a Shinto shrine located in Gaoshi, a Paiwan village in Mudan, Pingtung, Taiwan. With the original shrine destroyed by typhoon in 1946, a new shrine was rebuilt in 2015, making it the first Shinto shrine constructed in Taiwan in the post–

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

era, following the end of the island's Japanese rule. The current shrine is not affiliated with the Shinto religion (or any other deity) but serves as a memorial for the Taiwanese population lost in wars such as World War II.

History

The shrine was originally built in 1939 during the

Japanese rule of Taiwan The island of Taiwan, together with the Penghu Islands, became a dependency of Japan in 1895, when the Qing dynasty ceded Fujian-Taiwan Province in the Treaty of Shimonoseki after the Japanese victory in the First Sino-Japanese War. The shor ...

, but was destroyed in 1946 due to

typhoon A typhoon is a mature tropical cyclone that develops between 180° and 100°E in the Northern Hemisphere. This region is referred to as the Northwestern Pacific Basin, and is the most active tropical cyclone basin on Earth, accounting for a ...

damage. The village's residents wished to rebuild the shrine but could not, as reconstruction was prohibited under

martial law Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. Use Marti ...

at the time. The only surviving portion of the shrine was its concrete base. In 2015, a ''

kannushi A , also called , is a person responsible for the maintenance of a as well as for leading worship of a given .* ''Kannushi'' (in Japanese), Iwanami Japanese dictionary, 6th Edition (2008), DVD version The characters for are sometimes also re ...

'' named learned of the shrine's existence through the Friends of Lee Teng-Hui Association (台灣李登輝之友會總會) in Japan, a cultural exchange organization based in Tokyo. Satō decided to rebuild the shrine as a token of appreciation for Taiwan's foreign aid in the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake. The shrine cost JP¥10,000,000 to build. An opening ceremony was held on 11–12 August 2015 to celebrate the shrine's completion. It involved a Shinto ceremony conducted by Satō, traditional Paiwan dances, and a prayer led by the local pastor, since the majority of Gaoshi's population is Christian.

Structure

No records of the original structure exist. The rebuilt shrine is made of

hinoki ''Chamaecyparis obtusa'' (Japanese cypress, hinoki cypress or hinoki; ja, 檜 or , ) is a species of cypress native to central Japan in East Asia, and widely cultivated in the temperate northern hemisphere for its high-quality timber and orname ...

wood, while the roof is covered in copper. In 2016, a white ''

torii A is a traditional Japanese gate most commonly found at the entrance of or within a Shinto shrine, where it symbolically marks the transition from the mundane to the sacred. The presence of a ''torii'' at the entrance is usually the simple ...

'', also made of hinoki, was added in front of the shrine.

References

{{reflist Shinto shrines in Taiwan Monuments and memorials in Taiwan Religious buildings and structures in Pingtung County Taiwan under Japanese rule 1939 establishments in Taiwan 1946 disestablishments in Taiwan 2015 establishments in Taiwan 20th-century Shinto shrines 21st-century Shinto shrines

History

Structure

See also

References