Qualla: Gaoshi Shrine

Gaoshi Shrine: Introduction

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Suomi888, CC BY-SA 4.0. A Japanese man named Satō decided to rebuild a Shinto shrine in a Paiwan village on Taiwan's southern mountains because Taiwan had sent help after an earthquake. That logic — gratitude across the complicated history of colonizer and colonized — is the thread that runs through Gaoshi Shrine, and it is not a simple one to follow.

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Image: Suomi888 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Gaoshi Shrine: Built Under Colonial Rule

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Suomi888, CC BY-SA 4.0. The original Gaoshi Shrine — then called Kuskus Shrine, after the Paiwan community's name for the village — was constructed in 1939. Taiwan was then under Japanese colonial rule, which had begun in 1895 following the First Sino-Japanese War. The Japanese built Shinto shrines acro...

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Image: Suomi888 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Gaoshi Shrine: An Unexpected Reconstruction

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Koika, CC BY-SA 4.0. More than six decades later, in 2011, the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami devastated northeastern Japan, killing nearly 16,000 people. Taiwan's response was one of the largest outpourings of international disaster aid Japan received — a fact that carries its own weight given the tw...

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Image: Koika | CC BY-SA 4.0

Gaoshi Shrine: What the Shrine Means Now

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 葉又嘉, CC BY-SA 4.0. The rebuilt Gaoshi Shrine is formally unaffiliated with the Shinto religion or any other deity. It functions instead as a memorial for Taiwanese people lost in wars, including World War II — a framing that deliberately opens the shrine to a broader community of remembrance rather...

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Image: 葉又嘉 | CC BY-SA 4.0