Kashino Immigrant Village Ruins (Longtian Village)

Kashino Immigrant Village (鹿野移民村), located in present-day Longtian Village (龍田村), Luye Township, Taitung County, was one of the most important Japanese government-sponsored immigrant settlements on Taiwan's east coast during the colonial period (1895–1945). The village's origins date to 1915, when the Taiwan Governor-General's Office approved a plan to develop the Luye area for Japanese agricultural settlement, with the Taito Sugar Company (台東製糖株式會社) taking the lead in recruiting settlers and developing infrastructure.

The sugar company laid out the village on a high terrace on the northern bank of the Luye River between 1912 and 1915, adopting a distinctive checkerboard street grid that remains visible today. The initial wave of settlers consisted of 223 short-term immigrants from Niigata Prefecture, recruited to cultivate sugarcane. In 1922, management was transferred to the Taito Development Company (台東開拓株式會社), and the settlement policy was expanded to accept both Japanese and Taiwanese farmers. Some accounts put the Japanese settler population at about 2,000, but a Government-General survey recorded 53 households and 283 people in 1933.

The settlers faced significant challenges, including harsh tropical conditions and persistent wild boar incursions from surrounding indigenous hunting grounds. In 1928, the Taiwan Governor-General allocated 33,000 yen for boar-proof fencing to protect farmland. Community institutions included the Shikano Village Office (鹿野庄役場), which served as the administrative center, a Shinto shrine (later reconstructed as the Luye Shrine/鹿野神社), an elementary school, and various agricultural cooperatives.

Following Japan's surrender in August 1945, all Japanese settlers were repatriated. The vacated homes and farmlands were taken over by Hakka and Minnan Chinese migrants from western Taiwan, as well as small numbers of indigenous Amis and Puyuma peoples. In 1961, the original Luye Village was administratively divided into Luye Village and Longtian Village. Despite this transformation, Longtian Village has preserved a remarkable array of colonial-era structures: the former Shikano Village Office building, the Japanese-style principal's residence and childcare facility at Longtian Elementary School, shrine foundations, and the original street layout.

The Shikano Village Office (鹿野區役場/庄役場) has been restored and serves as a cultural heritage site, offering visitors a window into the administrative architecture of Japan's colonial settlements. The site collectively represents one of the best-preserved examples of Japanese colonial urban planning and immigrant village life in eastern Taiwan, and has become an important cultural tourism destination.