Koxinga Shrine

Koxinga Shrine is a Taiwanese historical temple originally known as Kaishan Temple. It is located in Tainan, Taiwan.

History
Historical records show that a temple was originally built in the 17th century as a Chinese-style ancestral shrine in honor of Zheng's father Koxinga. However, other theories suggest it could be a temple worshipping Wang Ye or other folk heroes.

Koxinga was also known as a rebel against Qing forces. After Qing took control of Taiwan, government moved his grave to Fujian in 1699 and banned Koxinga worship. But the people of Taiwan continued to worship him secretly under the name "Prince Zhu".

In 1897, the shrine was converted into a Shinto shrine by the Japanese government and renamed Kaizan Shrine (開山神社) by the Imperial government during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan. The Japanese were perceived as attempting to downplay Koxinga's historical reputation and legacy as a folk hero in order to legitimize their rule of Taiwan. The conversion of the shrine was part of a larger assimilation campaign to advance idea that Taiwan was always separate from China.

Kaizan Jinja was uniquely a pre-existing shrine-mausoleum that became recognized as a Shinto shrine. Despite significant Japanization efforts, the shrine maintained many Taiwanese elements. For instance, during major festivals, local-style theatre and martial arts were performed. Footage from the 1930s showcases a blend of Japanese and Taiwanese customs during celebrations at the shrine.

The death of Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa was presented as parallel to the much older story of the life of Koxinga, a Japanese man who became an official under the Ming dynasty, and was forced to flee to Taiwan after the Qing took over, drove the Dutch from Taiwan and died of malaria.

In 1942, Miyazaki Naokatsu, governor of Chūreki District in Shinchiku Prefecture, made the argument that Taiwanese mausoleums were Shinto, and when Taiwan became Japanese territory, Taiwanese kami became Japanese kami..

Tainan Shrine was built on the site of the death of Koxinga, a few blocks away from Koxinga Shrine. It was unique in being granted permission to worship only the prince and no other deities, as almost all other shrines would worship the three pioneer kami too..

In the 1960s, the shrine was converted back to a Confucian one. Similarly to the Japanese campaign, the Kuomintang government used the shrine as a way to legitimize its rule against the ascendant People's Republic of China across the Taiwan Strait and was visited by Chiang Kai-shek.

It shares this status with other converted Shinto shrines such as the National Revolutionary Martyrs' Shrine and many other martyrs' shrines in Taiwan.

Today, there is an annual festival on Koxinga's birthday July 14 at the shrine.