The history of the island of Taiwan dates back tens of thousands of years to the earliest known evidence of human habitation. The sudden appearance of a culture based on agriculture around 3000 BC is believed to reflect the arrival of the ancestors of today's Taiwanese indigenous peoples. Han Chinese gradually came into contact with Taiwan starting in the late 13th century and started settling there by the early 17th century. Named Formosa by Portuguese explorers, the south of the island was colonized by the Dutch in the 17th century whilst the Spanish built a settlement in the north which lasted until 1642. These European settlements were followed by an influx of Hoklo and Hakka immigrants from Fujian and Guangdong across the Taiwan Strait.
Taiwan Province is a nominal administrative division of the Republic of China (ROC). The province remains a titular division as a part of the Constitution of the Republic of China, but it is no longer considered to have any administrative function practically.
State Shintō was Imperial Japan's ideological use of the Japanese folk religion and traditions of Shinto. The state exercised control of shrine finances and training regimes for priests to strongly encourage Shinto practices that emphasized the Emperor as a divine being.
The Taiwan Grand Shrine was the highest ranking Japanese Shinto shrine in Taiwan during Japanese colonial rule. It was located in Taihoku, Taiwan. Among the officially sanctioned Shinto shrines in Taiwan, Taiwan Grand Shrine held the highest rank of them all. The Grand Hotel stands at the shrine's former site.
Religion in Taiwan is characterised by a diversity of religious beliefs and practices, predominantly those pertaining to the continued preservation of the ancient Chinese culture and religion. Freedom of religion is inscribed in the constitution of the Republic of China (Taiwan), and ranks high at 9.2 on the Freedom Scale in 2018 according to the World Bank. The majority of Taiwanese people practice a combination of Buddhism and Taoism often with a Confucian worldview, which is collectively termed as Chinese folk religion.
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 short-lived Republic of Formosa resistance movement was suppressed by Japanese troops and quickly defeated in the Capitulation of Tainan, ending organized resistance to Japanese occupation and inaugurating five decades of Japanese rule over Taiwan. The entity, historically known in English as Formosa, had an administrative capital located in Taihoku (Taipei) led by the Governor-General of Taiwan.
Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa of Japan, was the second head of a collateral branch of the Japanese imperial family. He was formerly enshrined in Tainan-Jinja, Taiwan, under the name Kitashirakawa no Miya Yoshihisa-shinnō no Mikoto as the main and only deity.
Karahafu (唐破風) is a type of curved gable found in Japanese architecture. It is used on Japanese castles, Buddhist temples, and Shinto shrines. Roofing materials such as tile and bark may be used as coverings. The face beneath the gable may be flush with the wall below, or it may terminate on a lower roof.
The Tainan Confucian Temple or Quan Tai Shou Xue, is a Confucian temple on Nanmen Road (南門路) in West Central District, Tainan, Taiwan.
Japanization or Japanisation is the process by which Japanese culture dominates, assimilates, or influences other cultures. According to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, "To japanize" means "To make or become Japanese in form, idiom, style, or character".
The Government-General of Taiwan was the government that governed Taiwan under Japanese rule between 1895 and 1945.
The territorial conquests of the Empire of Japan in the Western Pacific Ocean and East Asia began in 1895 with its victory over Qing China in the First Sino-Japanese War. Subsequent victories over the Russian Empire and German Empire expanded Japanese rule to Taiwan, Korea, Micronesia, southern Sakhalin, several concessions in China, and the South Manchuria Railway. In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria, resulting in the establishment of the puppet state of Manchukuo the following year; thereafter, Japan adopted a policy of founding and supporting puppet states in conquered regions. These conquered territories became the basis for the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere in 1940.
Taiwan Prefecture or Taiwanfu was a prefecture of Taiwan during the Qing dynasty. The prefecture was established by the Qing government in 1684, after the island came under Qing dynasty rule in 1683 following its conquest of the Kingdom of Tungning. The Taiwan Prefecture Gazetteer documented it as part of Fujian Province. The Gazetteer was completed by Gao Gonggan in 1695, the 34th year of the reign of the Kangxi Emperor. With the development and population growth of Taiwan during the Qing Era, the scope of Taiwan Prefecture was also varied over time. Following the establishment of Fujian-Taiwan Province in 1887, the prefecture correspondingly became a subdivision under the newly founded province.
Karenkō Prefecture was one of the administrative divisions of Taiwan during the Japanese rule. The prefecture consisted of modern-day Hualien County.
Admiral Seizō Kobayashi was a Japanese naval commander, commander of the Combined Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy (1931–1933) and the 17th Governor-General of Taiwan (1936–1940).
The architecture of Taiwan can be traced back to stilt housing of the aborigines in prehistoric times; to the building of fortresses and churches in the north and south used to colonize and convert the inhabitants during the Dutch and Spanish period; the Tungning period when Taiwan was a base of anti-Qing sentiment and Minnan-style architecture was introduced; in Qing dynasty period, a mix of Chinese and Western architecture appeared and artillery battery flourished during Qing's Self-Strengthening Movement; During the Japanese rule of Taiwan, the Minnan, Japanese and Western culture were main influencers in architectural designs and saw the introduction and use of reinforced concrete. Due to excessive Westernization as a colony, after the retrocession of Taiwan to the Republic of China in 1945 from Japan at the end of World War II, Chinese classical style became popular and entered into international mainstream as a postmodern design style. Today, Taiwanese architecture has undergone much diversification, every style of architecture can be seen.
The Taiwanese Resistance to the Japanese Invasion of 1895 was a conflict between the short-lived Republic of Formosa (Taiwan) and the Empire of Japan. The invasion came shortly after the Qing dynasty's cession of Taiwan to Japan in April 1895 at the end of the First Sino-Japanese War.
Gaoshi Shrine, formerly known as Kuskus Shrine, 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 era, following the end of the island's Japanese rule. The current shrine is not affiliated with the Shinto religion but serves as a memorial for the Taiwanese population lost in wars such as World War II.
Kunci Temple is a Taoist temple located in Longtian Village, Luye Township, Taitung County, Taiwan. The temple grounds contain a reconstructed Shinto shrine known as Luye Shrine.
