Tainan Shrine

Tainan Shrine (台南神社) was a Shinto shrine made outside of Japan by the Empire of Japan. It was linked to imperialism and State Shinto rather than local support for Shintoism It was established in 1920 and upgraded in 1925 and its main deity was Prince Kitashirakawa. who died during the Japanese invasion of Taiwan from malaria. He was enshrined in most shrines in Taiwan including Taiwan Grand Shrine. This was seen as a beginning of a new Taiwanese Japanese civilization.

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 Mind dynasty, and was forced to flee to Taiwan after the Qing took over, drove the Dutch from Taiwan and died of malaria.

Koxinga Shrine was built by the followers of Koxinga and the Japanese converted it into a Shinto Shrine after their invasion. Isogai Seizō requested it be a national shrine but it ended up only being ranked quite low as a prefectural shrine.

Tainan Shrine was built on the site of the death of the prince, 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 (開拓三神) Ōkunitama, Ōkuninushi, and Sukunahikona too..

People were forced to visit shrines at this time by the government rather than going of their own volition. It held an elaborate festival every January.

The main office is still used today.