Former Sanbankyo Japanese Cemetery (now Linsen Park & Kangle Park)

The Sanbankyo Japanese Communal Cemetery (三板橋共同墓地) was the principal burial ground for the Japanese community in Taipei during the fifty-year colonial period (1895–1945). Located in what was then Sanbashichō (三橋町), the cemetery occupied a large tract of land bisected by what is now Linsen North Road, in present-day Zhongshan District.

The cemetery's origins trace to October 1896, when the mother of Taiwan's third Governor-General Nogi Maresuke fell ill and died shortly after arriving in Taipei. Her burial at this site established it as the de facto Japanese cemetery. In 1900, the colonial government formally developed the grounds into a communal cemetery spanning 6,000 tsubo (approximately 19,800 square meters), with 4,000 tsubo allocated to burial plots and the remaining 2,000 tsubo for gardens and pathways. The cemetery could accommodate approximately 8,000 interments.

The most historically significant burial was that of Akashi Motojirō, the seventh Governor-General of Taiwan, who died in Fukuoka in October 1919 while still in office. Akashi had initiated major infrastructure projects including the Sun Moon Lake Hydroelectric Power Plant and the Chianan Irrigation Canal. Per his dying wish to remain in the land he governed, his remains were interred at Sanbankyo with full military honors. In 1920, the eighth Governor-General Den Kenjirō erected a large granite torii gate at the entrance to Akashi's grave. A smaller torii was later built in 1935 (Shōwa 10) to mark the grave of Akashi's loyal aide, Kamata Masatake.

Following Japan's surrender in August 1945 and the subsequent repatriation of Japanese residents, the cemetery fell into neglect. Beginning in 1949, Nationalist soldiers and their families, along with civilians who had come to Taiwan from places such as the Zhoushan Islands and Hainan, occupied the cemetery grounds. They demolished tombstones and repurposed the stone as building materials for makeshift dwellings. Over the following decades, the illegal settlement grew into a sprawling community of more than 1,000 households with a bustling market of approximately 170 stalls — Taipei's largest unauthorized settlement.

In March 1997, Taipei Mayor Chen Shui-bian ordered the forcible demolition of the settlement despite strong local resistance. During clearance, the two torii gates were salvaged and temporarily relocated to 228 Peace Memorial Park. The western portion was redeveloped as Kangle Park (康樂公園, 13,385 m²), completed in March 2002, while the eastern portion became Linsen Park (林森公園, 29,331 m²), completed in October 2003, with an underground public parking facility.

In late 2010 the two torii gates were returned from 228 Peace Memorial Park to their current location within Linsen Park. A trilingual commemorative plaque (Chinese, Japanese, and English) was installed explaining the site's history. The torii gates now serve as the principal surviving physical evidence of the vast cemetery that once occupied these grounds.