Friday, January 8, 2016

Toang Shyau's Shinto Shrine / 通宵の神社 / 通宵之神社

我們還是在苗栗。我離開山腳之後繼續上130號往西,到了一號我北上到通宵。通宵是一個小小的村落,但是以前因為是生意興隆的海港,所以名叫「通宵」。

我來通宵的原因是為了看神社。神社嗎?這裡不是日本哪!對,可是以前日統時代台灣其實有蠻多神社。到了戰爭時期,政府用「皇民化」政策來把全大日本帝國的國民變成好好的國民(好好的意思就是「乖乖地順從政府的命令」)。這個政策通過教育,宗教,軍隊,這三個辦法。當然當時台灣人也是日本的國民,所以在台灣政府建很多神社叫大家去參加神社的活動。

戰後,跟日本打了七年仗的中華民國政府過來統治台灣。因為他們不喜歡前敵國的日本,所以積極地把日式的東西除去,或是改變再利用。這座神社也是再利用的。戰後它變成一座忠烈祠。可是還保有原本的樣子,所以一看到就知道它是日本的神社。

第一張照片是本館旁邊的辦公室。現在負責維護工作。

We're still in Meow Lee.  At this point, we've headed west all the way along Road 130, to where it meets up with Route 1, which runs north-south along the coast.  At that point we headed north until reaching central Toang Shyau (or "Tongxiao" if you prefer an inferior romanization).  It's just a small town, with nothing much to it, but I came here because I had read about there being a nicely preserved Shinto shrine in the town.

When Taiwan was a Japanese colony, there were Shinto shrines all over.  A lot of them were built in the period leading up to WWII when the Japanese empire was trying to make all of its citizens into good, self-sacrificing subjects who would unquestioningly revere the emperor as a god.  The government eventually mandated participation in state-run Shintoism by all subjects of the empire, and every neighborhood had to have at least one shrine.

Fast forward to 1945.  The Republic of China has taken over Taiwan.  Remember that the ROC had been fighting Japan since 1937, and they were NOT fond of their former enemies.  During the post-war period, the ROC government made a big push to eliminate all traces of Taiwan's Japanese past, and to sinicize the island so that they could turn all of the island's residents into good self-sacrificing subjects who would revere the emperor president of China as a god pretty awesome dude and unquestioningly sacrifice their livelihoods towards his impossible campaign to take back China from the Communist rebels.  As a result of this very anti-Japanese government, there are few shrines left in Taiwan, and the ones that do remain are abandoned and in out of the way places, or were repurposed and modified.

This shrine too was repurposed into a shrine to the soldiers who died in the war (that is, the soldiers on the Chinese side)  A number of years back it was designated as a cultural heritage property.

Before we get to the main building, there's this other related building (first photo below) that is being repaired.  I think this was the office for the shrine back in the day.  It's unmistakably a Japanese building.

まだ苗栗県にいる。130号線をずっと西進んだ後、1号線で通宵(トングシャウ)という村まで北上してきた。通宵は小さな村だけど、昔は盛んな港町だったため、この名前をもらった。(徹夜して活躍している場所だという意味。)

私の目的はここにある神社を見ること。大日本帝国時代の台湾にもちろん神社が沢山あった。特に戦争に近づいたら日本政府は皇民化を勧める為に積極的に神社を沢山建てた。

しかし1945年に中華民国は台湾を支配した以来多くの神社は壊された、または改造された。1937年からずっと日本と戦った中華民国は日本に対してものすごく嫌がっていたので、台湾から日本らしい物を全部除けようとした。実はこの神社も改造されて、戦争で亡くなった中国兵士を祀る廟にされた。でも元々の形が結構残っているので、パッと見たら日本建築とすぐわかる。

下の建物は神社の事務所だった。今は何かの保護する仕事が行われている。
一個鳥居。雖然這麼日式的東西可是沒有被拆除,我覺得很不可思議。

One of the Torii gates leading up to the main building.  This is very Japanese style, and it's amazing it was left alone like this.  (Though it's possible that it was modified after the war, and then returned to its original state in recent years.)

この鳥居は間違いなく日本の建築!台湾にこんな堂々とした鳥居はあまり見かけない。

鳥居上的年號被擦掉了。是因為有日本天皇的年號「昭和」。

This is the date that the shrine was built.  The imperial year has been scratched out on top, so now we just have "Built in ------- year, April 22nd".  This is pretty common on old stone structures in Taiwan. Since the Japanese dating system makes explicit reference to which emperor is reigning, the years are often scratched out on old things like this.

建立された日付から「昭和」が消された。戦後の中華民国政府はこんなことをよくやった。
我到了神社時天已經變黑了,所以我拍了很多品質不好,不清楚的照片。為了騙你們讀者我把這些照片改了顏色。

It was evening and getting dark by the time I arrived here.  Because many of my photos ended being dark, blurry, and generally poor  quality, I have tried to fool you all by messing around with the color on them so that their poor quality stands out less.

ここに着いた時はもう夜だったので、あまりいい写真が撮れなかった。ぼやけたりしているやつばかり。だから色を変えて読者を騙そうとする。バレるかな?
在屋頂上有國民黨的黨徽。當然這是原本沒有的,戰後才加上的。

The symbol on top of the roof is the symbol of the Gwoah Mean Dong, Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist party that was the only legal political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan) until the early 90's.  Obviously, this mark was added to the roof after the war.

屋根の上に蒋介石の国民党のマークが載っている。これはもちろん戦後に付け加えられた物だ。


木頭的門是很日式,但是紅磚的牆並不是。日本的神社一定是木頭做的。我一看到紅磚我就猜建立當時為了按照本地的閩南方式這樣建。後來我知道,這個紅磚也是戰後才改的。原本應該都是木頭。

While the unpainted, wooden door is typical of a Shinto shrine, the red brick walls don't look Japanese at all.  They look like a typical Minnan-style building.  Japanese Shinto shrines are always made of wood; I've never seen one made of anything else.  At first I thought that maybe the architects just decided to adopt to local ways when they built this building, but after looking at the Chinese Wiki page about this shrine, I think that maybe the brick, Minnan-style wall was added later, probably as an effort to de-Japafy the structure.  All in all, it makes for a pretty cool, unique looking building.

木でできている玄関はとても神社らしいが、周りの煉瓦は何なんだ?って感じ。煉瓦でできている神社は初めて見た。この建築は台湾によくある閩南式だから、最初は建てた時地元に合わせてこういう風に建てたかなと思った。でも後で中国語の資料を読んで、この煉瓦は戦後に付け加えられた物だそうだ。このいかに日本らしい建物を中華化するために煉瓦を使ったのだろう。全然わからないが、もしかして煉瓦は外についているだけかもしれない。中に木が残っている可能性はあるだろう。
The roof thingies.

屋頂和鳥居

The gate and the roof done in black and white.

白黒で鳥居と屋根
More scratched out dates.

ここにも日付が消されている。


後面

From the back.

後ろから見た





Also from the back.

裏側の地面が盛り上がっているところから撮った写真。
在本館後有這個台子。看起來以前上面有東西,但是我不知道是什麼。

Behind the building is a pedestal where there apparently used to be something.  Whatever it was, it's gone now.

本館の裏にこの台があった。以前は何かあったが、何の物かわからない。

我把相機放進開開的窗戶,拍個照。裡面的樣子是這樣。

This is a poor photo, but I want to show you the inside of the building.  I stuck my camera in the window and took a photo with the flash.

この写真は品質があまり良くないが、神社の中を見せたかった。空いている窓にカメラを入れてフラッシュを使ってみた。
太黑了。回家吧。

Ok, now it's really getting dark.

暗くて写真はもう無理。

The stone lamps around the path leading up to the main building are also very Japanese.
電線桿和鳥

A streetlight and a bird.

電柱と鳥
通宵神社真的值得去參觀!還有若你比我早到,也可以逛街看老房子。老房子也很多。

Pretty cool, right?  Toang Shyau was kind of out of my way, but worth going to just for this shrine.  If I had arrived earlier, I might even have some photos of some of the other old buildings that were in town, but it was too dark at this point, so that's it.

わざわざこの神社を見るために通宵まで行くのかと思うかもしれないが、本当にすごいやつだから、そのぐらいの見る価値はある。また、昼間に通宵に行ってみたら、街の民家を見るのもいい。古くて面白い建物がたくさんある。

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