Tainan Shrine
{{Short description|Shinto shrine in Taiwan}}
{{Infobox Shinto shrine
| native_name = 台南神社
| religious_affiliation = Shinto
| image = File:Tainan Shrine.JPG
| deity = Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa
| municipality = Tainan
| country = Taiwan under Japanese rule
| coordinates = {{coord|22|59|22.7|N|120|12|9.7|E|display=inline,title}}
| consecration_year = 1920
}}
Tainan Shrine ({{Langx|ja|台南神社|translit=tainan jinja}}) was a Shinto shrine built in Tainan, Taiwan by the Empire of Japan.{{Cite book |last1=Shimizu |first1=Karli |title=Overseas Shinto Shrines: Religion, Secularity and the Japanese Empire |last2=Rambelli |first2=Fabio |date=2022-10-06 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |isbn=978-1-350-23498-7 |location=London New York (N.Y.) Oxford |pages= |language=English}}{{rp|101}} It was linked to imperialism and State Shinto rather than local support for Shintoism.{{Cite journal |last=Nakajima |first=Michio |date=2010 |title=Shinto Deities that Crossed the Sea: Japan's "Overseas Shrines," 1868 to 1945 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27822898 |journal=Japanese Journal of Religious Studies |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=21–46 |jstor=27822898 |issn=0304-1042}}{{rp|30}} It was established in 1920 and upgraded in 1925 and its main deity was Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa{{rp|38}} who died during the Japanese invasion of Taiwan{{Cite book |last=Operations |first=United States Office of the Chief of Naval |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YOcdAAAAMAAJ&dq=Tainan+jinja&pg=PA61 |title=Taiwan (Formosa).: Tainan Province |date=1944 |publisher=Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, Navy Department |language=en}}{{rp|107}} from malaria.{{cite news |author1=Han Cheung |date=26 May 2019 |title=Taiwan in Time: The prince who became a god |work=Taipei Times |url=http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2019/05/26/2003715796}}{{rp|107}} He was enshrined in most shrines in Taiwan including the Taiwan Grand Shrine.{{Cite web |title=台南神社及其外苑（現成功橋）-國立成功大學文學院-踏溯課程 |url=http://exptainan.liberal.ncku.edu.tw/index.php?option=module&lang=cht&task=showlist&id=610&index=1 |trans-title=Flowing Konishi. Route introduction. Tainan Shrine and its outer garden (currently Successful Bridge)|access-date=2023-04-12 |website=National Cheng Kung University}} This was seen as a beginning of a new Taiwanese Japanese civilization.{{rp|101}}
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.{{rp|107}}
Koxinga Shrine was built by the followers of Koxinga and the Japanese converted it into a Shinto shrine after their invasion. {{ill|Isogai Seizō|ja|磯貝静蔵}} requested it be a national shrine but it ended up only being ranked quite low as a prefectural shrine.{{rp|108}}
Tainan Shrine was built on the site of the death of the prince, a few blocks away from Koxinga Shrine.{{rp|110}} It was unique in being granted permission to worship only the prince and no other deities, as almost all other shrines would worship the {{Nihongo|Three Pioneer Kami|開拓三神|Kaitaku Sanjin}}, {{ill|Ōkunitama|simple|Kunitama Omikami}}, Ōkuninushi, and Sukunabikona.{{rp|112}}
People were forced to visit shrines at this time by the government rather than going of their own volition.{{rp|38}} It held an elaborate festival every January.