Takashi Jinja (高士神社) in Taiwan
Taiwan’s relationship to Japan is a rather complicated one. From 1895 to the end of WWII, Taiwan was a Japanese colony, often refered to as “gaichi” (outer lands) in contrast to “naichi” (inner lands) which refered to the three main islands of Japan. Because of this, you might think Taiwan would feel a similar way to China and Korea about Japan, ie, feel very anti-Japanese after the war. While I am sure there are some people in Taiwan who feel that way, a lot of people in Taiwan, especially indigenous Taiwanese have much friendlier feelings towards Japan.
Japan put a lot of effort into modernizing its colonies in the early 20th century and treated the indigenous people with comparatively high amount of equality. Taiwan had administrators like Nitobe Inazo who really were dedicated to improving the life of all people in Taiwan. Also, Taiwan was invaded by mainland Chinese fleeing from the communists after WWII, and these new Chinese did not treat the indigenous people very well in the beginning. This isn’t to say there weren’t any injustices committed by the Japanese against Taiwanese people (for example, the Musha Jiken comes to mind), but in relation to how other countries treated Taiwanese people, Japan was comparatively kind.
Anyway, a Taiwanese friend of mine recently posted an article about a shrine called Takashi Jinja* in Mudan Town in Pingtung Prefecture. By the way, Mudan Town is mostly inhabited by indigenous Taiwanese of the Paiwan tribe, it seems. Takashi Jinja was built in the Meiji period and while the shrine was originally dedicated to Amaterashimasu Sume Ohmikami, soon the local village kami were honored at the shrine. During the war, many Taiwanese people volunteered to fight for the Japanese Empire and those locals who died in battle were also venerated at this shrine.
After WWII, the shrine fell into disrepair, but recently some of the local people of the village and Japanese supporters helped rebuild the shrine and start rituals at it again. This hasn’t been entirely uncontroversial. A politician criticised the rebuilding of the shrine and then some local people criticised the politician for criticising the shrine! But putting that aside, I think this shrine’s rituals can serve as a demonstration of international Shinto. Look at these pictures taken from the shrine’s website.
You can see that not only are traditionally Shinto traditions are used, but local traditions of the indigenous people also have a part of the ceremony. This is not uncommon in Shinto. In prewar Korea, Confucian style customs at shrines were showcased by the Japanese government to demonstrate the international nature of Shinto, and even today it is very common to see hula dance hounou (dedicatory performances) at shrine festivals. In this way, I think that Shinto should not be seen as something limited to Japan, but rather a type of morality that can embrace different cultures across the world.
*The pronunciation of Japanese characters depends on the context, so I am not certain how to spell this shrine’s name in English. Normally, the characters would be read “Takashi”, but I have been given the impression they might actually be read “Kusukusu”, perhaps based on the indigenous language?
天地間に 