Songshan Brick Kiln (Taiwan Renga Co. Matsuyama Factory)

The Taiwan Renga Co. Matsuyama Factory (台灣煉瓦株式會社松山工場) was one of the principal brick manufacturing facilities in colonial Taiwan. The Taiwan Renga Company (Taiwan Brick & Tile Co.) was established in 1913 by Ushiroku Shintarō (後宮信太郎), a Kyoto Prefecture-born entrepreneur who arrived in Taiwan in 1895 and recognized the vast demand for building materials in the rapidly developing colony. The company was capitalized at 3 million yen and headquartered in Taipei.

The Songshan factory site was originally developed by the British Samuel & Samuel Company, which established a brick works in the Songshan area in 1914 using advanced dry-press technology. Taiwan Renga acquired this facility in 1918, consolidating its dominance over the island's brick industry. At its peak, the company operated factories at 16 major locations across Taiwan — including Songshan, Yuanshan, Banqiao, Hsinchu, Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung — with 19 additional branch factories, producing over 90 million bricks annually.

The factory employed Hoffmann kilns (known in Chinese as 八卦窯, Bagua kilns, after their octagonal resemblance to the Eight Trigrams). This continuous-firing kiln design, patented by Friedrich Hoffmann in 1858, allowed for uninterrupted brick production and was the most advanced kiln technology of the era. The TR-branded bricks (台灣煉瓦 / Taiwan Renga) produced here became synonymous with quality construction and were used in landmark buildings throughout Taiwan, including government offices, railway stations, schools, and commercial buildings.

During World War II, the factory continued to supply building materials for military construction projects. After Japan's surrender in 1945 and the handover of Taiwan to the Republic of China, Taiwan Renga's operations were taken over as state property. The Songshan factory area was gradually redeveloped in the postwar decades.

The former factory site at Shangtayou (上塔悠) in the Songshan area now lies within Guanshan Riverside Park along the Keelung River. While the original Songshan kiln structures no longer survive, the legacy of Taiwan Renga's industrial operations is preserved at the Former Tangrong Brick Kiln (中都唐榮磚窯廠) in Kaohsiung — the company's Takao factory — which was designated a national monument in 2005. The Hoffmann kiln technology introduced by Taiwan Renga also survives at the Huatan Hoffmann Kiln (花壇八卦窯) in Changhua County.