Former Tainan Shrine (now Tainan Art Museum Building 2)

Tainan Shrine (台南神社, Tainan Jinja) was one of the most prominent Shinto shrines in colonial Taiwan, located in present-day West Central District, Tainan City, on the site where Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa (北白川宮能久親王) died of malaria on 28 October 1895 during the Japanese invasion of Taiwan.

The site was first laid out as the "Prince Kitashirakawa Memorial Site" (北白川宮御遺跡所), completed in December 1901 and placed under the administration of the Taiwan Shrine in Taipei from 1902. Construction of a full shrine complex, designed by Moriyama Matsunosuke, began in September 1920 (Taishō 9) and was completed in June 1923, and on 28 October 1923 the enshrinement ceremony (鎮座祭) was held. The shrine initially held no official rank but was elevated on 31 October 1925 to Kanpei Chūsha (官幣中社), making it one of only two government shrines (官幣社) in colonial Taiwan, second in rank to the Taiwan Shrine. Its sole enshrined deity (祭神) was Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa — unique among Taiwanese shrines, which typically also enshrined the "Three Pioneer Kami" (開拓三神).

The shrine grounds were expansive, comprising an inner garden (内苑) with the haiden (拝殿) and honden (本殿), and an outer garden (外苑) used for public events. The shrine office (社務所), completed in 1936, still survives today and is managed by Zhongyi Elementary School. Crown Prince Hirohito visited the site in April 1923 during his tour of Taiwan, shortly before the shrine was completed, and planted a banyan tree there, underscoring its political importance to the colonial government.

After Japan's surrender on 15 August 1945, the shrine was decommissioned as part of the sweeping "de-Japanization" (去日本化) of Taiwan. In 1946 the inner precinct was converted into the Tainan Martyrs' Shrine, while the outer garden became a school (today's Zhongyi Elementary School). The shrine buildings stood until 1969, when they were demolished to make way for a municipal gymnasium; the gymnasium was in turn pulled down in 1991 for a park and underground car park. In 2019, Tainan Art Museum Building 2 (台南市美術館2館), designed by Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, opened on the site of the inner precinct.

The Tainan Martyrs' Shrine (台南忠烈祠) — housed in the former shrine from 1946 — was relocated in 1969 to its current site on Jiankang Road Section 1, South District, Tainan. It continues to serve as a memorial to ROC military personnel and martyrs. The bronze horses and guardian lion-dogs (komainu) of the old shrine were moved with it, while the shrine office, a stone bridge and a spring survive within Zhongyi Elementary School, serving as quiet reminders of the colonial-era shrine.

The transformation from Japanese State Shinto shrine to Chinese Nationalist martyrs' shrine exemplifies the dramatic political and cultural shifts that swept Taiwan in the postwar period, and the site remains significant for understanding Japanese colonial religious policy and postwar Taiwanese identity.