武德

Erlin Martial Arts Hall (二林武德殿)

I can be a patient person, but in some cases, enough is enough.

I’ve had a skeleton of a post about the Erlin Martial Arts Hall in Changhua sitting in my blog queue since 2017, waiting to be published. With little more than a dozen of these historic buildings remaining in Taiwan today, I figured that I’d hold off on publishing anything about this one until it was fully restored and reopened to the public.

My patience though, has sadly worn quite thin.

It got to the point that I thought if I keep waiting for Changhua County to get its act together, I’d likely be a senior citizen by the time they actually get around to restoring this building.

When I originally wrote an article about this Martial Arts Hall more than six years ago, I was still quite new to this whole blogging thing, and was likewise still new to my exploration of Taiwan’s historic buildings from the Japanese era. So, if I compare what I originally wrote years back to what I’m publishing today, it’s not even close.

This article should prove to be a much more well-rounded one that benefits from my years of experience and research on the topic.

That being said, while all of the text has been completely updated, I’m sad to say that the photos I’m sharing right now are the going to be the same as those I had prepared five years ago due to the fact that myself, nor anyone else has really been able to get many photos of the building in recent years.

Essentially, I’m publishing this article today to simply have the information in place for (what I sincerely hope) what will eventually become an updated version, which will be complete with photos of the fully restored building.

Until that happens, I’ll make use of some of the blue prints and designs of the building that have been published by the Changhua County Government to better illustrate some of the things I’m talking about. The work they have done researching the building and it’s architectural design is incredible, and without it, we would know very little about the building, so cheers to them for that!

For those of you who have been following my writing for a while, especially with regard to my Urban Exploration-related work, barriers don’t usually prevent me from getting the photos I need - Sadly though, in the case of this Martial Arts Hall, several factors that have combined to ensure that people like me aren’t snooping around. The most obvious is that building is completely locked up and a barrier has been erected around its perimeter to prevent anyone from getting too close to the historic building.

The other reason is that it is located next door to the Erlin Police Station, which has cameras watching the grounds. So, even though I found a way of getting around the barrier, I wasn't about to go snooping around while the police would be able to see me in plain sight from the police precinct.

So what exactly is the problem with the Erlin Martial Arts Hall and why have we had to wait for so long for it to get fixed up? Well, that’s a bit of a complicated issue, but I’ll do my best to explain it as briefly as possible.

To keep things simple, it’s all about money. Isn’t it always, though?

However, that’s a bit of a simplistic argument as to what’s going on here. As I mentioned earlier, the situation is a lot more complicated than that, and there is an ample amount of blame to be thrown around.

It would be easy to focus our indignation at the Changhua County Government, which as one of the nation’s most cash-strapped municipalities, has had trouble coming up with funding for the restoration of the heritage buildings within its borders - With so little cash to throw around, the county tends to spend it restoring buildings in the coastal town of Lugang (鹿港), one of the areas’s most popular tourist attractions - Obviously hoping that there will be a trickle-down effect that will help bring tourist dollars into the county.

The focus on Lugang obviously has been of great benefit to the people of Lugang, and its tourism sector, but the other townships within the county have more or less been left behind.

The blame here though cannot be placed solely on the local government as there are land ownership issues taking place here that have complicated the matter. Currently there are six land owners, who, in addition to the government own pieces of the land where the Martial Arts Hall is located.

Several years ago, the landowners got together and made an offer to sell the land to the government for NT $850 million (about $2.5 Million USD), which is an outrageous amount of money for the 400 square meter plot of land.

Link: 恢復二林武德殿風采 地主開價8500萬 (自由時報)

Unable to fork over so much of the public’s funds for the land, the Martial Arts Hall’s designation as a 'protected historic site’ ensures that the land owners are also handcuffed, and are unable to do any sort of construction on the land, making the issue a contentious one for all parties involved.

The only option at this point is for the landowners to sell the property to the government, but with the government refusing to pay the asking price, both parties have decided to just wait the other out to see who concedes first.

The most dangerous aspect of this financial stalemate is that if the landowners eventually get tired of waiting for the government to pay up, they may just enlist the assistance of local gangs to have the buildings burnt to the ground, which is something that has sadly become far too common as of late when it comes to historic and protected properties.

For those of us who care about these heritage buildings, the only thing we can do is continue being patient. However, as I mentioned earlier, I’ve grown tired of seeing this article sitting in my blog queue.

With all of that being said, on May 18th, 2023, a ceremony was held in front of the Martial Arts Hall marking the start of the restoration of the building, with several local figures in attendance. It seems like the saga of the Erlin Martial Arts Hall’s status has been resolved, and work will soon get underway to have it opened up as a cultural park, and tourist destination within the downtown core of the historic village.

Link: 彰化文化資產容積轉移首例 二林武德殿等20年今動工整修 (lian he聯合新聞網)

I will make sure to keep up with any of the updates regarding the hall’s restoration, and when it’s opened, I’ll be sure to make my way down to visit.

Before I start explaining the history of the Martial Arts Hall, it’s important to note that I’ve streamlined the way I write about these spaces.

In this article, I’m only going to focus about the history and architectural design of this specific building - So, in order to keep it shorter, I’ve removed some of the original elements that focused on the ‘general purpose’ of these Martial Arts Halls - Even though it should be fairly obvious that this building was once a space for practicing Martial Arts, the original intent and the significance of these buildings requires a bit more reading to understand the role that they played in communities across Taiwan.

To better explain all of that, I’ve put together a general introduction to Taiwan’s Martial Arts Halls, detailing their purpose, their history and where you’re still able to find them today.

If you haven’t already, I highly recommend reading that article before continuing. 

Link: Martial Arts Halls of Taiwan (臺灣的武德殿)

If you’re up to date with all of that, let’s just get into it!

Erlin Martial Arts Hall (二林武德殿)

Unlike many of the other Martial Arts Halls that I have written about in the past, the Erlin branch is probably one of the few remaining Martial Arts Hall that requires an introduction to the town where it was constructed; Even for most locals, if you bring up the name ‘Erlin’ (二林), it’s unlikely that they’ll know where it is, and even more unlikely that they’ve ever been there. So, allow me start by explaining a bit of the geography of the area, which should shed a bit of light as to why a Martial Arts Hall was constructed there.

Known these days as Erlin Township (二林鎮), it’s the largest of Changhua County’s administrative districts, with an area of 92.8578 square kilometers. Erlin features a relatively small urban sprawl surrounded mostly by farmland, which is where the town’s economy has historically been focused. With massive rice, grape and dragonfruit fields, the area isn’t particularly known for its tourist crowds, so most people tend to pass through on their way to other destinations in the area.

Originally settled by the Tackay Tribe (二林社), a group of Taiwan’s Plains Indigenous peoples (平埔族), known as the Babuza (巴布薩族), the area is and always has been an important farming community throughout the history of human settlement on the island.

During the Dutch period, a considerable amount of trade between the Dutch and the Indigenous people took place between the two groups, resulting in the Dutch constructing berths for ships along the coast. However, after the expulsion of the Dutch by Koxinga’s forces, the situation remained more or less the same for the Babuza people, who maintained their control over the land from the late 1600s until 1895, as they continued their trade with the Han people.

All of that came to an end with the arrival of the Japanese, who quickly got to work at ensuring that they maintained complete control over the island, often with violent means of suppression, especially when it came to the indigenous people.

By the 1920s, ‘Jirin (二林街 / じりんがい), as it had become known to the Japanese was designated a township within Hokuto County (北斗郡 / ほくとぐん) within greater Taichu Prefecture (臺中州 / たいちゅうしゅう).

It was during this period that the Japanese had constructed numerous Sugar Plantations (糖廠) around the island, with the vast majority of them located within central and southern Taiwan where the temperate climate allowed for massive fields of sugar cane to be cultivated.

With over 3000 kilometers of sugar-railways across the island, Erlin just so happened to find itself located in one of the geographic hot-spots, and even though the factories were somewhat of a distance away, the town benefitted economically through the industry.

Japanese-era map of Erlin with the location of the Martial Arts Hall marked in red.

Much of Erlin’s urban development started during this period with the colonial government constructing a number of large administrative buildings, schools, hospitals and clinics, and modern markets within the ever-expanding downtown core of the town. In 1928, construction started on the Erlin Police Precinct (北斗郡警察課二林分室), located within the administrative district of the town, close to Erlin Public School (二林公校).

Located on a corner that shared an intersection with a hospital, the town hall and a long row of administrative housing, the police precinct would have been situated within what would have been considered the ‘Japanese’ area of town, with some separation from the local farming community.

In 1900 (明治33年), a few years after the Japanese took control of Taiwan, the first Martial Arts Halls on the island started being constructed, with the first branches in Taipei, Taichung and Tainan. Over the years, the ‘Taiwan Butokuden Branch of the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai’ (大日本武德會臺灣支部) slowly expanded across the island, but one of the key developments with regard to these buildings came in 1920 (大正9年), when the organization was given a directive (and more importantly funding) from the government to start construction on these buildings within each of Taiwan’s prefectures towns, villages and boroughs.

This resulted in the construction of about two hundred of them across the island (and in Penghu, too) between the 1920 and the early 1940s.

Of those two-hundred halls, thirty were constructed within Taichu Prefecture (臺中州), an area that spanned modern day Taichung City (臺中市) Changhua County (彰化縣) and Nantou County (南投縣). They consisted of two Prefectural Branches (支部), eleven town branches (支所), twelve borough branches (分會), two prison branches (刑務所) and three school branches (學校分會).

That being said, the area we know today as ‘Changhua County’ was only home to five branches: Lugang Martial Arts Hall (鹿港武德殿), Changhua Martial Arts Hall (彰化武德殿), Yuanlin Martial Arts Hall (員林武德殿), Beidou Martial Arts Hall (北斗武德殿) and Erlin Martial Arts Hall (二林武德殿). With the exception of the Martial Arts Hall in Lugang, which was constructed in 1911 (明治44年), the rest were constructed between 1930 (昭和5年) and 1933 (昭和8年).

However, one of the important things to remember is that even though a number of Martial Arts Halls were constructed across Taiwan during the early 1930s, not all of them were equal. As I noted above, the halls adhered to a hierarchical organizational structure which helped to determine their size, depending on their location and their function.

The Changhua Martial Arts Hall, for example was classified as a ‘city-level’ hall as it was constructed within Shoka (Changhua City / 彰化市 / しょうかし). A bit lower on the ladder would have been the Yuanlin and Beidou Halls, both of which were county-level (郡市級 / 支所), while the Erlin Martial Arts Hall would have found itself at the lowest level as a village-level branch (街庄級 / 分會).

Not only did these classifications help to determine the size of the buildings, but also the amount of money that would have been invested in their construction. According to historic records, the Changhua Martial Arts Hall was afforded a budget of ¥27,000, while the Erlin Martial Arts Hall had a budget of ¥7500. If we were to calculate these figures in the rates of the day, the construction costs would would be approximately ¥40.2 million ($290,000 US), and ¥11.1 million  ($80,000 US) respectively.

Note: Calculating pre-war Japanese currency against today’s standards is somewhat of a difficult process given that most records only date back to the restructuring of the Japanese economy and inflation in the post-war period. To calculate the number above, I used the following formula: In 1901, corporate goods price index was 0.469 where it is currently 698.6, meaning that one yen in then is worth 1490 yen now. (217,000 x 1490 = 323,330,000)

Link: 昔の「1円」は今のいくら?1円から見る貨幣価値·今昔物語

Suffice to say, with a considerable amount of economic development taking place within Erlin in the early 1930s, the construction of the town’s Martial Arts Hall was a no-brainer for the local authorities. Construction on the building started in 1932 (昭和7年), at a time when the neighboring police precinct was still under construction.  Located to the side of the police station, and close to the Erlin Public School, the hall, like many of its contemporaries was tactically located in a neighborhood where it could have the most effect. The building would serve as a training centre for the local police as well as providing instruction to the children as well.

Interestingly, despite both buildings being constructed almost simultaneously, the police station took a modernist approach to its architecture with an Art-Deco Baroque design. The Martial Arts Hall however, was a no-fuss traditional Japanese style building - and even though it is the smallest of all of the Martial Arts Halls that remains in Taiwan today, its architectural beauty is on par with the rest of them.

On August 4th, 1933 (昭和8年), the Jirin Budokuden (二林武德殿 / じりんぶとくでん), otherwise known as the ‘Erlin Martial Arts Hall’, officially opened for the instruction of Judo (柔道) and Kendo (劍道).

Initially the hall served as a space for the local police to hone their martial arts skills. However, as the Japanese became engaged in the Pacific War and the expansion of their empire, the colonial government in Taiwan instituted a policy of forced assimilation, known as kominka (皇民化運動), which forced the people of Taiwan to take Japanese names, speak only Japanese, and contribute to the empire through military service.

Taking effect in 1938 (昭和13年), the nearly two-hundred Martial Arts Halls across Taiwan played a major role in the assimilation process by promoting ‘Japanese Spirit’ (大和魂), ‘Martial Arts Spirit’ (尚武的精神) and ‘Patriotism’ (愛國的精神) and from then on, the scope of the instructors at the Martial Arts Hall expanded from simply training the police to providing classes to the general public and the nearby Public School as well. They were also tasked with planning speaking events that were meant to promote nationalist sentiment through the propaganda that was disseminated by the colonial government.

Nevertheless, the Second World War came to a conclusion less than a decade later, and as part of their surrender, the Japanese were forced to give up control of Taiwan (and any other territory gained through militarism).

Control of Taiwan was ambiguously awarded to the Republic of China, who sent a governor and military forces to Taiwan in 1945 (昭和20年) in order to set up shop. However, even though the Second World War had come to an end, the Chinese Civil War between the Nationalists and the Communists raged on. It was during this time that administrative control of Taiwan had become an authoritarian mess, resulting in an infamous event that would become known as the 228 Incident (二二八件事).

With the Communists establishing the People’s Republic of China in 1949, President Chiang Kai-Shek (蔣介石) was forced to flee to Taiwan with the remnants of his army, and anyone still loyal to the Republic of China.

The sudden influx of around two million foreign refugees created a housing crisis in Taiwan, and even though the Japanese had left all of their infrastructure intact, the first few years were a nightmare of governance.

Nevertheless, for the next half century, the Erlin Martial Arts Hall maintained its role as a Martial Arts training center with the Republic of China’s police taking over.

One of the areas that wasn’t entirely clear with regard to my research about the Martial Arts Hall is what happened when the Erlin Police Precinct was expanded in the early 1970s. What is clear is that when the expansion project took place, the lack of space in front of the hall caused some issues, so they ended up removing the ‘hafu porch’ that lead to the front door of the hall.

Digging a bit deeper, I discovered that the police station essentially expanded into an ‘L-shaped’ structure that completely blocked the Martial Arts Hall from view.

Even though the Martial Arts Hall remained as a training center for the police, it had essentially disappeared from the view of the general public for the next few decades after the expansion.

By 1999 (民國88年), the buildings utilized by the police in town were being reconstructed, so for a short time time, the Martial Arts Hall was used as an office space prior to their migration to a new building.

With the buildings that surrounded the Martial Arts Hall abandoned, it took a few years before the were demolished, thankfully, with careful consideration taken to preserve the condition of the hall, which had been recognized as a protected heritage property a few years earlier.

After being hidden from sight for almost four decades, the Martial Arts finally made its reappearance in 2008 (民國97年), but as mentioned earlier, its status remains a contentious one as it is a protected heritage property that just so happens to sit on land that is considered part private and part public.

This has understandably frustrated all of the parties involved, and is the main reason why the hall has yet to be restored, like so many of its contemporaries across the country. While I may be accused of a bit of bias on the subject, it really does come across as a missed opportunity for Erlin as the town has recently restored several other historic Japanese-era properties in the downtown area in addition to the promotion of its links to the historic sugar railway. These days there is more and more for tourists to see when the visit the area, so one would hope that at some point there will be a favorable solution to this stalemate.

Before I move onto the architectural design of the Martial Arts, I’m going to provide a brief timeline of events detailing the history of the hall.

Erlin Martial Arts Hall Timeline

  • 1895 (明治28年) - The Japanese Colonial Era begins in Taiwan and the ‘Dai Nippon Butoku Kai was formed in Japan in order to instruct ordinary citizens in the various Japanese Martial Arts disciplines.

  • 1900 (明治33年) - The first Martial Arts Halls start to appear in Taiwan with branches in Taipei, Taichung and Tainan.

  • 1920 (大正9年) - A governmental directive is made to construct Martial Arts Halls in each of Taiwan’s prefectures, towns, villages and boroughs.

  • 1920 (大正9年) - Due to the Colonial Government’s administrative redistricting plan, Erlin is upgraded into Jirin Town (二林街 / じりんがい), part of Hokuto County (北斗郡 / ほくとぐん) in Taichu Prefecture (臺中州 / たいちゅうしゅう).

  • 1928 (昭和3年) - Construction on the Erlin Police Precinct (北斗郡警察課二林分室) officially starts with a budget of ¥17,000.

  • 1932 (昭和7年) - Construction on the Erlin Martial Arts Hall with a budget of ¥7500 and is located next door to the police station.

  • 1933 (昭和8年) - Construction on the hall is completed in July and the munafuda (棟札 / むなふだ) raising ceremony is held a month later on August 4th, marking the opening of the hall.

  • 1936 (昭和11年) - The Colonial Government’s “Japanization” or ‘forced assimilation’ Kominka (皇民化運動) policy comes into effect in Taiwan.

  • 1938 (昭和13年) - Jirin Public School’s Auditorium (二林公學校禮堂) is constructed and a number of ‘kominka’ events take place within, including Judo classes provided by the instructors from the Martial Arts Hall for the students of the school.

  • 1945 (昭和20年) - The Second World War comes to a conclusion and Japan is forced to surrender control of Taiwan.

  • 1949 (民國38年) - Chiang Kai-Shek and the government retreat to Taiwan and bring with them several million refugees displaced by the Chinese Civil War.

  • 1972 (民國61年) - Due to the reconstruction of the Erlin Police Precinct, and a lack of space caused by a number of buildings constructed around the perimeter of the Martial Arts Hall, the traditional front porch in the front of the building is removed.

  • 1976 (民國65年) - The ceiling within the building is reconstructed and modern lighting is installed within the interior.

  • 1999 (民國88年) - Due to a lack of office space within the Erlin Police Precinct, the Martial Arts Hall starts being used as an administrative space for the local police.

  • 2004 (民國93年) - The Martial Arts Hall is officially recognized as a Changhua County Protected Heritage Site (彰化縣歷史建築)

  • 2007 (民國96年) - All of the buildings that were constructed around the Martial Arts Hall are carefully demolished, allowing the hall to be viewed by the general public for the first time in decades.

  • 2023 (民國112年) - Restoration of the building is set to get underway with public funds allocated for the creation of a culture park with a focus on the Martial Arts Hall.

Architectural Design

Over the year or two, I’ve written about two of Taiwan’s other smaller Martial Arts Halls, the Taichung Martial Arts Hall (臺中刑務所演武場) and the Hsinchu Prison Martial Arts Hall (新竹少年刑務所演武場), which share a number of similarities with this hall with regard to its architectural design. Each of the three buildings were constructed in the early 1930s, and although two of them were used as extensions of the Japanese-era prison system, in a lot of ways the other two restored halls offer a glimpse into how the Erlin Martial Arts Hall might appear when it is restored. So, today I’ll start by describing their similarities and end with their subtle differences.

One of the defining characteristics of the early Showa-era, the architectural design of these Martial Arts Hall was at heart, traditionally Japanese, but there were also considered east-west fusion-style buildings (和洋混合風格). Constructed with a mixture of brick, wood and reinforced concrete, the hall was constructed during a period of the colonial era where the colonial government had learned through trial and error that any building constructed in Taiwan would have to be able to withstand earthquakes, typhoons and termites. This approach led to traditional Japanese-style buildings having to adapt to a bit of modernity in order to ensure their longevity.

Nevertheless, keeping with tradition, the hall was designed using the irimoya-zukuri (入母屋造 / いりもやづくり) style of architectural design. I’m sure not a lot of you are very familiar with the term, so what that means is that the design features a variation of the ‘hip-and-gable’ roof. Similarly, the base of the building, known as the ‘moya’ (母屋) was constructed in a way that even though it is much smaller than the roof, it is easily able to support its massive weight.

Suffice to say, if you’ve ever seen a Japanese building with a roof that eclipses the size of the base by quite a bit, it’s very likely designed in the irimoya-style, or at least in one of its variations.

Similar to the two buildings mentioned above, the exterior of the building consists of washed stone, giving each of them their beige-like color. Likewise, given that these halls required bouncy floors, it was constructed with elevated footings that featured an intricate system of springs below the floor (彈簧地板), which allowed it to better absorb the shock of people constantly being thrown around while practicing Judo.

The original network of springs installed beneath the floor of the building.

The elevated base featured a number of covered ventilation holes, which would have allowed people to climb under to repair any broken springs, while also keeping animals and termites out.

Despite being considerably smaller than the two halls mentioned above, another one of their design similarities is that the mixture of brick and reinforced concrete allowed for a number of large wooden-panel glass windows on every side of the building.

Even though access to the building has been blocked off, blue prints show that its design is essentially the same as every other Martial Arts Hall in Taiwan. The interior space was partitioned into two sides, with the west side reserved for Judo and the east side for Kendo.

Located in the center-rear of the room (directly facing the front door) you would have found a small space reserved for a shrine (神龕), and likely some decorative additions in addition to any trophies or awards won by members of the dojo. 

Interior floor space of the Martial Arts Hall

Now, let’s talk about two of the most important design differences from this hall, and the two mentioned above. Both of which, I’m sure you’ll agree make this one considerably more beautiful than the other two.

First, let’s start out with the piece that’s missing, the front porch. Known in Japan as a ‘kurumayose porch’ (車寄 / くるまよせ) porch, it was essentially a beautifully designed covered-porch that opened up to the front door of the hall. This particular design feature is a popular style of design indicative of Japanese architecture dating back to the Heian Period (平安時代) from 794-1185. While these porches are more commonly associated with Japanese castles, temples, and shrines, its inclusion makes the building stand out a lot more thanks to its addition.

As is the case with this style of porch, it blended in really well with the roof, creating a beautiful 3D-like curvy design. Sadly, as I mentioned earlier, it was removed in 1972 to make way for the construction of a building in front of the hall. On the other hand, we’re actually quite fortunate (compared to the Hsinchu Prison Hall) in that there are both well-preserved blue prints and photos of this hall, which should make reconstructing the porch relatively easy when the time comes.

The most obvious design difference between the Erlin Martial Arts Hall and the other two is with the design of the roof - In this case, the roof is the more traditionally designed and aesthetically-pleasing of the three, giving the building a lot of character. Amazingly, after almost a century, and the demolition of the buildings that surrounded the hall in 2008, the roof remains in pretty good shape.

Expanding on my explanation of irimoya-design earlier, the iconic ‘hip-and-gable roof’ that comes with this design doesn’t necessarily mean that the roof of each building constructed in this style will always appear the same. Introduced to Japan in the sixth century, a number of variations have appeared over the years, making the specific shape of the ‘hip’ and the ‘gable’ important.

Link: Irimoya-zukuri (JAANUS) | East Asian Hip-and-Gable Roof (Wiki)

In this case we have a combination of kirizuma-zukuri (切妻造) and yosemune-zukuri (寄棟造), which is essentially a fusion of a ‘two-sided’ upper ‘hip’ section and a four-sided’ lower ‘gable’ section.

Looking directly from the front, the two-sided hip section of the roof, which is designed to look like the Chinese character “入,” or an ‘open book’, rises to its apex, and extends beyond the base of the building at the bottom. Supporting that part of the roof is the four-sided gable section below, which covers the base of the building and is where you’ll find the majority of the roof trusses that help to distribute the weight of the upper section and keep everything stabilized.

The shape of the roof however is not the only complicated part of its design. There are also a number of decorative elements that also play a very functional role. Using a diagram provided below, I’ll explain each of these important pieces and their purpose.

  1. Hiragawara (平瓦 / ひらがわら) - A type of arc-shaped clay roofing tile.

  2. Munagawara (棟瓦 / むながわらあ) - Ridge tiles used to cover the apex of the roof.

  3. Onigawara (鬼瓦 / おにがわら) - Decorative roof tiles found at the ends of a main ridge.

  4. Nokigawara (軒瓦 / のきがわら) - The roof tiles placed along the eaves lines.

  5. Noshigawara (熨斗瓦 / のしがわら) - Thick rectangular tiles located under ridge tiles.

  6. Sodegawara (袖瓦 / そでがわら) - Cylindrical sleeve tiles

  7. Tsuma (妻 / つま) - The triangular-shaped parts of the gable on the roof under the ridge.

  8. Hafu (破風板 / はふいた) - Bargeboards that lay flat against the ridge ends to finish the gable.

Link: 台灣日式建築的屋瓦 (空間母語文化藝術基金會) 

Finally, two of the special features with regard to the roof and its decorative elements are the ‘onigawara’ end tiles, which are beautifully decorated with the Chinese character for ‘budo’ (武), which is a bit of a deviation from tradition, but makes the building more easily identifiable.

Likewise, within the triangular ‘tsuma’ (妻) on the east and west ends of the roof, you’ll find what is known as gegyo (懸魚 / げぎょ), which are simply decorative wooden boards in the shape of a ‘hanging fish’ that are used as charms against fire, similar to porcelain dragons you’ll find on the roofs of Taiwanese temples.

Unfortunately, with the restoration of the building yet to take place, the missing front porch, and the inability to gain access to the interior, it’s difficult to say much else with regard to the buildings architectural and interior design.

I might be beating a dead horse here, but I’m eagerly anticipating visiting the area again in the relatively near future to check out the fully restored building. Fortunately, as I mentioned earlier, the original blueprints and designs for the hall have been well-preserved, and there are also a number of historic photos of both the exterior and interior that will greatly assist the restoration team when the time comes. So I’m very much looking forward to the future of this hall, which should be a bright one!

Getting There

 

Address: No. 110, Section 5, Douyuan Rd, Erlin Township, Changhua County (彰化縣二林鎮斗苑路五段110號)

GPS: 23.899570, 120.369830

Erlin Village (二林鎮) is located in south-western Changhua County (彰化縣), close to the border with Yunlin County (雲林縣). Considered a relatively rural town, getting there through public transportation certainly won’t be as convenient as it would be for somewhere like Lugang (鹿港).

It is not impossible though, so if you don’t have access to your own method of transportation, you still have some options.

If you have your own method of transportation, I’m not going to spend too much time offering directions here. Simply input the address or the GPS coordinates provided above into your GPS or Google Maps, and you’ll have your route mapped out quite easily for you.

Public Transportation

While getting to Erlin might be a bit confusing for some, one of the best things about taking public transportation to the area is that the local bus station is located directly next door to the Martial Arts Hall.

There are, of course a number of options for getting to the area, but you’re probably going to have to use a combination of train and bus to get there more conveniently. Below, I’ll provide explanations for how to get to Erlin from each of the closest train stations.

Link: Erlin Bus Station Timetable (員林客運)

Changhua Train Station (彰化車站)

From Changhua Train Station you’ll transfer to Yuanlin Bus (員林客運) bus #6713 or #6714. The shuttle bus doesn’t come that frequently, so you’ll want to be mindful of the time when you go.

From Changhua Station you also have the option of taking Changhua Bus #19 (彰化客運) directly to Erlin, but there are only ten departures per day, so, once again, you’ll want to keep track of the schedule, especially when you’re in Erlin so you won’t miss your bus back to wherever you’re headed.

Link: Yuanlin Bus #6713/6714 schedule | Changhua Bus #19 (彰化 - 二林)

Yuanlin Train Station (員林車站)

Located to the south of Changhua Train Station, your next option is to take the train to Yuanlin Train Station (員林車站) and from there taking Yuanlin Bus #6707 to Erlin. There are only a few shuttles every day, though, so this is probably not your best option.

Link: Yuanlin Bus #6707 (員林 - 二林)

Tianzhong Train Station (田中車站)

If you’re traveling north into Changhua, stopping at Tianzhong Train Station (田中車站) is one of your first options for getting to Erlin. From the station you’ll transfer to Yuanlin Bus (員林客運) bus #6709. However, the shuttle bus comes even less frequently than the option above, so you’ll want to be mindful of the time when you go.

Link: Yuanlin Bus #6709 (田中 - 二林)

Changhua High Speed Rail Station (彰化高鐵站)

Despite being named “Changhua” Station, the High Speed Rail station isn’t actually located within Changhua City, it’s located within Tianzhong Village (田中鎮). If you’re coming from a much further distance, the High Speed Rail is a pretty good option for getting to the area, but you’ll have to transfer from the HSR Station to a shuttle bus that takes you Tianzhong Train Station, and then you’ll follow the directions above and take Bus #6709.


Obviously, as it stands right now, I can't really recommend a trip all the way out to Erlin to see the Martial Arts Hall. There are of course a few other interesting tourist destinations in Erlin, but if you find yourself in Changhua, there are probably some better places for you to spend your time.

Hopefully though, at some point the ownership issues will be resolved and the government can start restoring the Hall to its original condition. When that time finally arrives, I'll make another trip down to check it out and will quickly update this article.

References

  1. 二林武德殿 (Wiki)

  2. 臺灣的武德殿 (Wiki)

  3. 二林鎮 | 彰化縣 (Wiki)

  4. 武德會與武德殿 (陳信安)

  5. 二林武德殿 (國家文化資產網)

  6. 彰化-二林 武德殿 (Just a Balcony)

  7. 二林武德殿:日本武士精神的遺跡 (京築居)

  8. 失而复得的大唐建筑-台湾武德殿 (Willie Chen)

  9. 台灣武德殿發展之研究 (黃馨慧)

  10. 武德殿研究成果報告 (高雄市政府文化局)

  11. 二林武德殿調查研究暨修復計畫 (黃俊銘 / 中原大學)


Qishan Martial Arts Hall (旗山武德殿)

Over the past few months I've posted a few times about some of the beautiful remnants of Taiwan's Japanese Colonial Period. The colonial era lasted only five decades but in the short time that the Japanese controlled Taiwan, they helped to modernize the islands infrastructure and education and helped foster the importance of democratic governance all of which has had a lasting effect on the people of this tiny island nation.

It has been more than seven decades since the Colonial Era ended and while there are still quite a few well preserved examples of Japanese architecture left in Taiwan, most of the remaining buildings are in a state of decay and are in desperate need of not only recognition for their historical significance but some much needed maintenance and renewal.

So far I've posted several blogs about two of the remaining Shinto Shrines (Taoyuan and Tungxiao) while also posting about several Butokuden (武德殿) or "Martial Arts Halls" (Daxi, Longtan, Changhua, Tainan) as well as the soon-to-be restored Japanese Police Dormitories in Zhongli and the Timber Industry Dormitories in Jhudong.

These Martial Arts Halls, Shinto Shrines and former dormitories were quite common in almost every city in Taiwan during the colonial era but few are left remaining today and that is why their preservation and telling their story are so important.

If you haven’t already, I recommend stopping here and first reading my introduction to Taiwan’s Martial Arts Halls, which provides an overview of the purpose of the buildings, their history and where else you’re able to find them around the country!

Link: Martial Arts Halls of Taiwan (臺灣的武德殿)

If you’re up to date with all of that, let’s just get into it!

Qishan Martial Arts Hall (旗山武德殿)

Kaohsiung is home to two Martial Arts Halls with one in the city near the harbour and the other on the outskirts of the city in Qishan District (旗山區).

Qishan is a popular area within Kaohsiung that is renowned for its bananas and its Old Street (旗山老街). The district was once an economic powerhouse thanks not only to its successful banana production but also because of the sugar industry which became an important part of the Sugar Monopoly during the Japanese Colonial Era.

Like a lot of the other places where you find "old streets" in Taiwan, the area had to find new ways to make a living due to sudden changes in the economy. The town is now a tourist attraction for people who want to enjoy a carnival-like atmosphere while walking through a historic town.

Today while walking through the old street you'll be able to find banana-related products which include amazing drinks, cakes, cookies, etc. The sugar industry was what made the town most successful though and is what attracted the Japanese Colonial government most as the production and distribution of sugar was important and was an industry that had to be modernized so that the valuable product could be distributed throughout the Japanese empire.

The government began to re-develop the town and the urban planning that you see today while walking the streets of Qishan is quite indicative of Japanese urban planning of that era. The old-street portion of the town is beautifully designed and like a lot of other old streets in Taiwan, the buildings were designed in the baroque architectural design.

The town is also full of buildings of Japanese origin whuch most notably include former police dormitories and teachers dorms in addition to the schools and the Martial Arts Hall which were all a product of that era.

Like every other Martial Arts Hall in Taiwan, the Qishan Hall is conveniently located next to the former police station and dormitories as well as Qishan Elementary School (旗山國小) - which was built in 1898 shortly after the Japanese took governing control of Taiwan.

The location was a a key factor to the Japanese as the stated purpose of the Martial Arts Halls was to help train the police and military, offer martial arts classes to children and instill a sense of Japanese-spirit within the youth of Taiwan.

Today the Martial Arts Hall sits between the school and the former police station and is on the grounds of the elementary school's athletic track.

The Martial Arts Hall was constructed in 1934 (昭和9年) and offered Martial Arts education until the end of the colonial era when it was then repurposed for usage by the local police precinct. Like the other remaining Martial Arts Halls in Taiwan today, the incoming government found a usage for the building which was ultimately the reason why it wasn't destroyed by the Kuomintang during their 1970s campaign to rid Taiwan of Japanese cultural influence.

Originally built with a mixture of wood and concrete, the Martial Arts Hall and the administrative office behind it survived until 1994 when it "caught fire" and burnt down. The frame of the building sat there for several years until the local government could amass the funds and make plans to restore the hall to its original condition.

The reconstruction of the Hall started in 2000 and was completed a year later in 2001. The reconstruction of the Martial Arts Hall however led to public discontent with regard to the design which saw the design of the original roof being replaced by some odd-looking glass monstrosity.

The glass roof remained for almost a decade before public pressure led to the government caving in and returning the roof to its original state.

People power for the win!

The Qishan Hall was originally built with a combination of Japanese and Western construction techniques mixing brick, concrete and beautiful Taiwanese cypress and the reconstruction stayed true to that design. What we typically consider as traditional Japanese architecture was historically influenced by the architecture of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and the roof of this building is very characteristic of the architecture of that era.

While some people may identify the building as one that is very 'Japanese' in design, its important to note that the architectural style is a nod to Japan's historic relationship with China in the early stages of its development.

The wooden roof has four sides and rises to resemble a mountain-like structure known as a "hip-and-gable roof" (懸魚) with "owl's tail" (鴟尾) decorations on each end. The most interesting thing I noticed about the the roof though (and is something that differs from some of the other Martial Arts halls that I've seen thus far on this little project of mine) is that the various roof trusses and gables are adorned with the words Budō "武德“. This is the same with the case of the Martial Arts Halls in Changhua, Erlin and Kaohsiung but not of those in the north.

The interior of the Hall is open to the public and looks a lot like that of the Martial Arts Hall in Daxi and Tainan. The reconstructed hardwood floor is beautiful and shines from the windows that surround the building giving it beautiful natural light.

The Interior of the Martial Arts Hall with a local Art exhibition taking place. 

On the day I visited the hall the doors opened around 1pm and had a display of the art of local artists who contributed to an exhibition. I suppose the space is likely a pretty good one to be used for local exhibitions which is great for the people living in Qishan.

The administration hall that sits behind the main hall was also completely restored and is a beautifully designed Japanese-style office/home that is used as a place for locals to sit and enjoy some coffee or tea. The doors are open on both sides and there is a nice breeze, so I can imagine it would be a great place to go and read a book. On the day I visited there were a few models dressed up in Cosplay uniforms with photographers taking their photos as well as a few couples enjoying some tea. The interior has quite a few kimonos as well as several Japanese decorations which makes it a nice place to visit.

The Qishan Martial Arts Hall is wonderfully reconstructed and is in excellent shape. If you find yourself in Qishan visiting the beautiful Old Street I highly recommend a stop over at the Martial Arts Hall which is only a short walk from the street. If you have some extra time you can even cross the street behind the hall and take the short walk up the hill behind it to check out one of the largest Confucius Temple's in the whole of Asia


Getting There

 

Changhua Martial Arts Hall (彰化武德殿)

If you’ve been following this blog for any period of time, you’re likely aware that one of the areas where I’ve focused quite a bit of my time and attention over the past few years has been on historic sites in Taiwan dating back to the fifty year period of Japanese colonial rule. More specifically, I’ve focused a lot that research on the handful of remaining Martial Arts Halls that you’ll find scattered across the country. Spending all these years researching the history and architectural design of these buildings, I’ve learned quite a lot, especially when compared to when I first started publishing articles about them. So, even though I’ve yet to complete the project (I still have a few more left to visit), I’ve taken some time to do complete overhauls of my older articles.

Suffice to say, when I first wrote about the Changhua Martial Arts Hall, it would have only been my second or third attempt to write about one of these historic buildings, and the lack of detail provided about the building has become somewhat of an embarrassment over the years. So, just like my articles about the Daxi Martial Arts Hall, Longtan Martial Arts Hall and Tainan Martial Arts Hall, I’ve also updated this one as well in order to better tell its story. There are of course other reasons why I feel like it’s important to update these articles as (especially in this case) a number of changes have taken place at the hall in the years since I published the original article, and because there is renewed interest as of late in their existence, since the number of Martial Arts Halls that have been restored and opened up to the public continues to grow.

Widely regarded as one of the most beautiful and largest of Taiwan’s remaining Martial Arts Halls, the nearly ninety year old Changhua Martial Arts Hall conveniently sits in the downtown core of Changhua at the base of Bagua Mountain (八卦山). It is located close to not only the local government buildings and police precincts, but also a number of tourist attractions, most notably including the Changhua Confucius Temple (彰化孔廟), the Jieshao Shrine (節孝祠), and a number of other temples and Japanese-era buildings. Like all of its contemporaries that remain in Taiwan today, the Changhua Martial Arts Hall was constructed in a strategic location close to local government and police buildings as well as Changhua High School (彰化高中), Zhongshan Elementary school (中山國小) and Changhua Girls Senior High School (彰化女中), all of which were constructed by the Japanese during the colonial era. While it was considered ‘strategic’ for the colonial powers at the time, today the location of the hall is quite convenient for any of us who’d like to visit as it is located within the downtown core of Changhua City, within walking distance from both the Changhua Train Station and Changhua Bus Station. Visiting the historic city today, you’ll be able to easily walk around town enjoying quite a few of its tourist attractions, all of which are a short distance from each other, all the while snacking on some of the amazing cuisine that the city is known for.

That being said, despite the ever increasing number of historic attractions within the city, Changhua itself unfortunately fails to attract as many tourists as its neighbor, Lukang (鹿港), which is something that the local government has tried to change in recent years. Like many places around Taiwan, the Changhua City Government has invested quite a lot in the city’s heritage structures in recent years in order to increase the number of tourists visiting the area. The Martial Arts Hall has benefitted from some of that investment as there have been some significant changes to the building in the years since I originally wrote about it, most of which have been positive developments that make it a more attractive tourist destination!

As usual, before I start detailing the history of the building, if you haven’t already, I recommend stopping here and first reading my introduction to Taiwan’s Martial Arts Halls, which provides an overview of the purpose of the buildings, their history and where else you’re able to find them around the country!

Link: Martial Arts Halls of Taiwan (臺灣的武德殿)

If you’re up to date with all of that, let’s start!

Changhua Martial Arts Hall (彰化武德殿)

Similar to the other remaining Martial Arts Halls in Taiwan, the Changhua Martial Arts Hall only has about a one hundred year history, but don’t its age fool you, it has been an eventful century, and in order to better tell you about it, I’ll have to start with a bit of a backstory.

In my article about the Martial Arts Hall of Taiwan linked above, I explained that in 1895 (明治28年), the same year that the Japanese took control of Taiwan, the ‘Dai Nippon Butoku Kai’ (大日本帝國大日本武德會) was formed in Japan. Translated literally into English as the “Greater Japanese Martial Arts Society,” the organization held strong ties to Japanese government, and many of its instructors were former samurai who were dispersed around the empire, tasked with bringing martial arts training to the general public.

These days, taking up any Martial Arts discipline is pretty cool hobby, and part of my personal interest in the subject is due to my many years of studying Tae Kwon Doe back in Canada. During the reign of Emperor Meiji (明治天皇) in Japan however, the political climate was entirely different than it is today, and martial arts education was meant more as a propaganda tool to fuel nationalism and militarism.

With its headquarters located in the Japanese cultural capital of Kyoto (京都), Martial Arts Halls, known as ‘Butokuden’ (武德殿) or ‘Butokai’ (武德會) slowly started popping up all over the country, and by 1900 (明治33年), they started appearing here in Taiwan, as well. The first three of the halls constructed in the empire’s new colony were located in the northern capital of Taihoku (臺北), Taichu (臺中) in central Taiwan, and Tainan (臺南) in the south.

Over the first few decades of the Japanese era, a number of Martial Arts Halls were constructed around the island, coinciding with the development of Taiwan’s cities and towns. In 1920 (大正9年), the colonial government instituted a redistricting policy for the island that coincided with what was happening back in Japan. The newly established Taichu Prefecture (臺中州 / たいちゅうしゅう), consisted of more than 7000km² that encapsulated much of what we know today as Taichung City (臺中市), Changhua County (彰化縣) and Nantou County (南投縣). As the redistricting was taking place across Japan, the political climate was also becoming increasingly nationalistic, which led those in charge at the ‘Dai Nippon Butoku Kai’ in Kyoto to send a directive to the brass in Taipei (as well as the Governor General’s Office) to speed up the construction process of these halls throughout each of Taiwan’s prefectures, towns, villages and boroughs.

1945 US Army map of Changhua with the Martial Arts Hall labelled ‘Athletic Hall’

Thus, the 1920s and 1930s became an important period of time with regard to the construction of these buildings around Taiwan, with a total of about two hundred constructed across the island prior to the end of the Second World War. Prior to being upgraded into a city in 1933 (昭和8年), plans were made for a Martial Arts Hall to be constructed in Changhua, which was then known as Shōka-kai (彰化街 / しょうかかい). Construction started on the ‘Shoka Branch of the Taiwan Branch of the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai’ (大日本武德會彰化支所武德殿) in late 1929 (昭和4年), and was officially opened a little under a year later on October 18th, 1930 (昭和5年).

Classified as a town-level branch (支所 / ししょ) under the auspices of the Taichu Prefectural Martial Arts Hall (大日本武德會臺中支部武德殿), the Changhua Martial Arts Hall was one of the largest halls constructed within the prefecture, and today remains one of the largest remaining halls in the entire country, second only to the prefectural level Tainan Martial Arts Hall (大日本武德會臺南支部武德殿). As one of the halls constructed during the Showa-era, architects benefitted from a high level of development and infrastructure that earlier halls missed out on; In this case, the building was able to constructed with a fusion of Japanese architecture design and Western construction techniques that helped to ensure its longevity.

As is the case with all of the Martial Arts Halls constructed in Taiwan, the floor space of the hall was essentially split into two, with one side reserved for Judo (柔道場), while the other was for Kendo (劍道場). One of the cool things about these buildings is that they featured springs (彈簧地板) installed under the hardwood floor, which would have allowed the floor to better absorb the shock of people constantly being thrown around. Included with the construction of the hall was an administration building that either doubled as a residence reserved for the instructors who worked there or a clubhouse for members (more on that debate later) as well as a space at the rear of the building where members could practice Kyudo (弓道), the traditional Japanese martial art of archery.

In 1933 (昭和8年), shortly after the Martial Arts Hall was completed, Changhua was upgraded from a ‘town’ (彰化街 / しょうかかい) to a ‘city’ (彰化市 / しょうかし), ensuring that the Martial Arts Hall served a greater role, overseeing the operation of several smaller halls in the area, including the Erlin Martial Arts Hall (二林武德殿), one of the only other remaining halls in Changhua today. These plans were likely all years in the making as Changhua’s development allowed it to transform into a major hub for industry in central Taiwan.

That being said, as the political climate in Japan continued to shift into an even more militaristic one, just a few years later in 1936 (昭和11年), the infamous “Kominka” (國民精神總動員運動) policy came into effect in Taiwan. Often referred to in English as ‘Japanization’, the basic translation of the policy’s name meant to “make people become subjects of the empire”, which was essentially just forced assimilation. After the policy came into effect, the government enforced strict language policies, required citizens to take Japanese names, instituted the “volunteers system” (志願兵制度), drafting Taiwanese into the Imperial Army, required locals to take part in Japanese cultural and religious activities, including visiting Shinto Shrines, and of course, learning Martial Arts.

Link: Japanization | 皇民化運動 (Wiki)

Nevertheless, while the Japanese were attempting to brainwash Taiwanese citizens into becoming full-fledged and proud citizens of the empire, they ultimately found themselves on the losing side of the Second World War, bringing not only death and destruction to the main Japanese islands, but Taiwan as well, with bombing campaigns concentrated on military and civic institutions all over the island. In 1945 (昭和20年), the Japanese surrendered to the allies, and part of the conditions of their surrender was that they return any territory that they gained through war, which obviously included Taiwan. Shortly thereafter, control of Taiwan was (ambiguously) awarded to the Republic of China, one of the allied states, under the control of the Chinese Nationalists and Chiang Kai-Shek (蔣介石).

Some may argue that it was likely the result of the successful brainwashing of the Japanese, but the arrival of the Chinese Nationalists in Taiwan wasn’t exactly met with jubilation, and the heavy handed methods that the regime used to take control of Taiwan rubbed people the wrong way. On the other hand, other could argue that the people of Taiwan had more or less just had enough of being the colonial subjects of a foreign regime, instead wanting to achieve their own national self-determination. Whatever the case, the Chinese Nationalists weren’t very popular and a number of violent incidents took place leading up to the infamous 228 Incident (二二八事件). Making matters worse, the Chinese Nationalists were busy fighting a losing battle against the Chinese Communists in the Chinese Civil War that would just a few years later result in several million refugees fleeing China and coming to Taiwan. For the next few decades, the treatment of the Formosans worsened over what would become one of world’s longest periods of Martial Law, known in Taiwan as White Terror (白色恐怖).

Links: White Terror (Wiki) | White Terror Period (National Human Rights Museum)

Resenting anything to do with the Japanese, the Chinese Nationalists systematically destroyed pretty much anything in Taiwan related to Japanese culture or religion, which meant that almost all of the island’s Shinto Shrines and Martial Arts Halls were destroyed over the last half century. The few Shinto Shrines that were lucky enough to be saved, Taoyuan Shinto Shrine and Tungxiao Shinto Shrine, for example, were converted into Martyrs Shrines (忠烈祠), war memorials for fallen members of the Republic of China’s Armed Forces. In some cases, in lieu of a Shinto Shrine becoming a Martyrs Shrine, they may have converted one of the nicer Martial Arts Halls into one, and this is precisely what happened to the Changhua Martial Arts Hall, and is very likely one of the main reasons why it remains standing today.

Converted into the Changhua City Martyrs Shrine (彰化忠烈祠) in 1949 (民國38年), the Martial Arts Hall was saved from destruction, but over the years, a number of changes to the interior and exterior of the building made it somewhat unrecognizable to the way it originally appeared. With the building closed to the public for most of the year, the only part of the original hall that remained active over the next few decades was the residence to the rear of the building, which was used as housing for the staff working at the nearby police station.

For the next half century, not much changed with the building, but early in the morning on Tuesday, September 21st, 1999, disaster struck Taiwan - The 921 Great Earthquake (921大地震), the second deadliest earthquake in Taiwan’s recorded history caused massive damage around the country, with “2,415 deaths, 29 missing, 11,305 severely wounded, with 51,711 buildings completely destroyed, 53,768 buildings severely damaged, and a total of NT$300 billion (US$10 billion) worth of damage.” If you don’t really know all that much about the earthquake, I recommend taking a look at the link below as it is a subject that lingers in the collective consciousness of almost every Taiwanese citizen in their twenties or above today.

Link: 1999 Jiji earthquake (Wiki)

More specifically, given Changhua’s close proximity to the earthquake’s epicenter, the Martial Arts Hall suffered a considerable amount of structural damage. Fortunately, the local government applied for some funding from the national government’s earthquake rebuilding funds to have the building repaired. And in a move that still kind of amazes me, the proposal that was put together by the local government sought to have the building restored to its original condition so that it could become a historic tourist destination.

The funding request was ultimately approved and from 2002-2003, the Martial Arts Hall underwent a period of careful restoration that repaired all of the structural damage from the earthquake, and over seventy years of wear and tear. Shortly after the restoration of the building was complete, the Changhua County government registered the building as a Changhua County Heritage Building (彰化縣定古蹟), ensuring that the building would be preserved for the enjoyment of future generations.

Sadly, it seems that how the building should be ‘enjoyed’ is still an issue that the local government hasn’t really solved.

The former residence/clubhouse constructed to the rear of the building, and later used to house the police at the nearby police station was likewise restored in 2018, with plans to have it rented out to a private enterprise. Soon after the restoration of the building was completed, yet another debate arose within the Changhua County government with regard to the future usage of the building. For its part, the government planned to seek out private partnerships for an ‘Operate-Transfer’ scheme to recoup some of their losses during the restoration process. These partnerships between the public and private sector, especially with regard to heritage buildings have become quite common as of late in Taiwan, and was a topic that I’ve written extensively about in the past. In this particular case however, some county councillors took exception to the company that was awarded the operation agreement from the government, as it was thought that specific kind of restaurant (probably hot pot or shabu shabu) could pose a risk to the heritage building.

If you’re interested in the topic, I recommend checking out the link below.

Link: The role of Public-Private Partnerships in Conserving Historic Buildings in Taiwan

Finally, one of the last things I’ll mention about the history of the Martial Arts Hall prior to moving on is with regard to another debate that took place when the hall and the residence to the rear were officially reopened. I feel like it’s important to talk about this issue because it speaks to how much Taiwan has changed in the years since the Chinese Nationalists first came to Taiwan, and the maturation of the democratic society we enjoy here today.

With the buildings restored and ready to be opened on a more permanent basis as a tourist attraction, the local community started to question why the Spirit Tablets (牌位) from its days as a Martyrs Hall weren’t removed, especially since there was a more appropriate location to place them on the mountain behind the hall. Debate on the subject lasted for a while with many in the local community expressing their opinion, but eventually they came to a compromise where, instead of removing the tablets (which had been there for a lot longer than the Martial Arts Hall was officially a Martial Arts Hall), they would be covered up and out of sight except for on days of the year that are significant for the Armed Forces.

No matter what your opinion on the subject is, I can appreciate that civil society is able to come up with compromises like this.

Below, I’ll provide a brief timeline of events with regard to the Martial Arts Hall before I move on to describing its architectural design.

Changhua Martial Arts Hall Timeline

  • 1895 (明治28年) - The Japanese Colonial Era begins in Taiwan and the ‘Dai Nippon Butoku Kai’ (大日本帝國大日本武德會) was formed in Japan in order to instruct ordinary citizens in the various Japanese Martial Arts disciplines.

  • 1900 (明治33年) - The first Martial Arts Halls start to appear in Taiwan with branches in Taipei, Taichung and Tainan.

  • 1906 (明治39年) - The ‘Taiwan Branch of the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai is officially established’ (大日本武德會臺灣支部) with its headquarters (大日本武德會臺灣本部) located within the Taipei Martial Arts Hall.

  • 1920 (大正9年) - Taichu Prefecture (臺中州 / たいちゅうしゅう) is officially established as part of the colonial government’s redistricting plan. The prefecture combined much of central Taiwan or the areas we know as Taichung (臺中市), Changhua (彰化縣) and Nantou (南投縣) today.

  • 1920 (大正9年) - A governmental directive is made to construct Martial Arts Halls in each of Taiwan’s prefectures, towns, villages and boroughs.

  • 1929 (昭和4年) - Construction on the ‘Shoka Branch of the The Taiwan Branch of the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai’ (大日本武德會彰化支所武德殿) starts in December.

  • 1930 (昭和5年) - The munafuda (棟札) raising ceremony is held on June 22nd, with the official opening of the hall held later on October 18th.    

  • 1933 (昭和8年) - Shoka (Changhua) is upgraded from a ‘town’ (彰化街 / しょうかかい) to a ‘city’ (彰化市 /  しょうかし) according to another redistricting plan.

  • 1936 (昭和11年) - The Colonial Government’s “Japanization” or ‘forced assimilation’ policy comes into effect in Taiwan.

  • 1945 (昭和20年) - The Second World War comes to a conclusion and Japan is forced to surrender control of Taiwan.

  • 1949 (民國38年) - Chiang Kai-Shek and the Nationalist government retreat to Taiwan, bringing with them several million refugees displaced by the Chinese Civil War. 

  • 1949 (民國38年) - The Martial Arts is converted into the Changhua City Martyrs Shrine (彰化忠烈祠), a memorial hall for fallen members of the Republic of China’s Armed Forces.

  • 1999 (民國88年) - The Martial Arts Hall is considerably damaged after the devastating 921 Earthquake, Taiwan's second most powerful earthquake in recorded history.

  • 2001 (民國90年) - With funding from the Taiwanese government’s earthquake rebuilding plans, the local government puts forward proposals to have the building restored to its original condition.

  • 2002 - 2003 (民國91-92年) - The building enters a year-long period of restoration.

  • 2007 (民國96年) - The Martial Arts Hall is registered as a Changhua County Heritage Building (彰化縣定古蹟).

  • 2018 (民國107年) - The auxiliary building, which was later used as dormitories for the police in the post-war era was restored and was opened up for bids by private enterprises to set up shop within the building.

  • 2023 (民國112年) - The Changhua Cultural Affairs bureau claimed that the whistling pine trees (木麻黃樹) planted on the left side of the Martial Arts Hall had to be cut down due to damage caused by termites, a move that resulted in quite a few angry residents who thought more could have been done to preserve the trees.

Architectural Design

\Even though the Changhua Martial Arts Hall shares similar design features with many of the other Martial Arts Halls that remain in Taiwan today, there are some pretty special decorative elements that help this building to stand out from the others. As I pointed out earlier, the building was constructed in 1930, early in the Showa-era, benefitting from several decades of development, and a well-established construction infrastructure which ensured that the building would be able to withstand the test of time.

The fact that the building was able to withstand both the 1935 Shinchiku-Taichū earthquake as well as the 1999 Jiji earthquake, the two more devastating earthquakes in Taiwan’s recorded history says a lot about the care that was taken in its construction.

For most, the date of construction speaks simply to the age of the building, but having spent a considerable amount of time researching Martial Arts Halls, it tells me quite a bit more - Having controlled Taiwan for nearly four decades by the time of the building’s construction, the Japanese had learned quite a bit about the hostile nature of Taiwan’s tropical environment and all of the buildings constructed during the latter stages of the colonial era were a reflection of that. Although the building was constructed in what would be considered ‘traditional’ Japanese architectural design, it was built with what is officially referred to as a ‘Mixed Japanese and Western Architecture with a combination of brick and wood’ (承重磚牆和洋混合風格) style of design. Essentially what this means is that it featured a mixture of reinforced concrete and bricks that helped to stabilize the building. The usage of modern western-style construction techniques differentiated the building from a lot of the earlier Martial Arts Halls which were constructed entirely of wood, and became a feast for the island’s notorious white termites (白蟻).

Side of the hall

More or less a fusion of Eastern and Western architectural design, it’s important to note that the ‘western’ elements of the design were mainly focused on modern structural construction techniques and not the actual appearance of the building. As I mentioned earlier, the earliest Martial Arts Halls in Taiwan were constructed in a style literally translated as ‘Traditional Japanese Temple-style Architecture constructed entirely of wood’ (傳統日本寺院建築式樣), and I’d argue that the design here is a fusion of that style with modern construction techniques expertly infused within what we’d consider to be ‘traditionally’ Japanese.

Fortunately, one of the saving graces of traditional ‘temple’ design was that it was an architectural style that was heavily influenced by the designs associated with the palaces from the Tang Dynasty (唐朝) in China, which possibly also contributed to saving the building from being torn down by the Chinese Nationalists.

Now, let’s get into some specifics, which I’ll try to my best to explain in an easy to understand manner: The building is 390㎡ (117坪) in size, and as I have already mentioned is one of the largest remaining Martial Arts Halls in Taiwan. For both functional and practical reasons, the building was constructed on a concrete base, which was elevated above the ground. Likewise, the exterior was constructed with reinforced concrete and brick while the interior featured beautiful Taiwanese cypress.

On all four sides of the building, the elevated base has ventilation grills that allows fresh air to allow for some circulation, and preventing Taiwan’s humidity from wreaking havoc on the springs installed below the floor. The ventilation grills were also convenient in that they prevented pests from sneaking in, while also allowing repairpeople to crawl in to solve any issues that might have arisen. One of the important design features was the installation of a springs (彈簧地板) located underneath the floor within the base of the building. The cool thing about the springs is that they allowed the hardwood floor to better absorb the shock of people constantly being thrown around as well as helping to prevent injuries.

As was the case with almost all of the other Martial Arts Halls around the island, this one was also constructed using the ubiquitous irimoya-zukuri (入母屋造 / いりもやづくり) architectural design. Taking inspiration from the architecture that became common during the Tang Dynasty (618 to 907 AD) in China, ‘irimoya’ became an essential part of what we regard today as ‘traditional’ Japanese design. When you think of a traditional Japanese place of worship, be it a Buddhist temple or a Shinto Shrine, it’s very likely that they were constructed with this style, which is most easy identifiable by its massive hip-and-gable roof.

Link: Irimoya-zukuri (JAANUS) | East Asian Hip-and-Gable Roof (Wiki)

With this particular style of design, the most important thing to remember is that the base, or the ‘moya’ (母屋 / もや), literally translated as “mother house” is almost always going to be considerably smaller than the roof above it. The genius of this style of design is that the weight of the massive roof above is stabilized by a network of pillars and trusses within the interior of the building, which helps to distribute its weight evenly.

Traditionally this is achieved through a network of pillars and trusses within the interior of the building, but taking into consideration that this particular building benefits from modern construction techniques, the reinforced concrete base and the western truss system, which combines steel and wood, plays a major role in the stabilization of the roof.

Another area where the concrete base assists with the decorative and functional elements of the building’s design is with regard to the large rectangular sliding windows that the designers were able to add to all four sides of the building. The windows allow for a considerable amount of natural light and fresh air into the space during the day. In addition to the windows, the building features entrances at the front and on both the eastern and western sides, offering convenient access to the building, and natural air to flow through it on hot days, which in Changhua are quite common.

While the base, pillars and network of roof trusses are important aspects of the irimoya style, the most important thing is that they all work together to provide support for the star of this architectural style, the hip-and-gable roof (歇山頂). Before I talk about that though, I need to take a moment to remind readers of an important fact.

As I mentioned earlier, the government was tasked with assisting with funding for the construction of Martial Arts Hall across the island. They were literally being constructed everywhere, so it’s important to keep in mind that not all of them received the same amount of attention to detail and (more importantly) funding. On the hierarchy of Martial Arts Halls, the Changhua Hall would have been considered relatively important within Taichu Prefecture, so funding was made available to ensure that the design of the roof and its decorative elements were on par with other significant buildings, such as those that you can still see at either the Taoyuan Shinto Shrine or the Puji Buddhist Temple in Taipei.

Within traditional Japanese architecture, there are a number of styles of roof design that fall under the ‘irimoya’ category, but those most commonly utilized in the construction of Taiwan’s Martial Arts Halls were a combination of the two-sided kirizuma-zukuri (切妻造 / きりづまづくり) and the four-sided yosemune-zukuri (寄棟造 / よせむねづくり), which work together to create a curvy 3D-like design.

To explain both of these terms in a simple way, the lower ‘yosemune’ section is the four-sided ‘hip’ part of the roof that both covers and extends beyond the base. The upper ‘kirizuma’ section is a two sided sloping ‘gable’, which is likened to an open book, or the Chinese character “入” which faces toward the front and rear of the building.

By this point most of you are probably already confused (or annoyed) by all of these terms, and now that I’m moving on to the roof’s decorative elements, I’m just going to make use of a diagram that I’ve designed to better explain each of the pieces I want to describe in what I hope will better assist you in understanding the complexity of the roof’s design.

  1. Hiragawara (平瓦 /ひらがわら) - A type of arc-shaped clay roofing tile.

  2. Munagawara (棟瓦 /むながわらあ) - Ridge tiles used to cover the apex of the roof.

  3. Onigawara (鬼瓦/おにがわら) - Decorative roof tiles found at the ends of a main ridge. In the case of this Martial Arts Hall, the decorations differ from what you’d typically find on a Japanese-style roof, which is something I’ll speak to below.

  4. Nokigawara (軒瓦/のきがわら) - Roof tiles placed along the eaves lines.

  5. Noshigawara (熨斗瓦/のしがわら) - Thick rectangular tiles located under ridge tiles.

  6. Sodegawara (袖瓦/そでがわら) - Cylindrical sleeve tiles

  7. Tsuma (妻/つま) - Triangular-shaped sections of the gable on the roof located just under the ridge on either side of the hip.

  8. Hafu (破風板/ はふいた) - Bargeboards that lay flat against the ridge ends to finish the gable.

  9. Gegyo (懸魚 / げぎょ) - decorative wooden boards on the ends of the ‘tsuma’ in the shape of a hanging fish. Used as a charm against fire, similar to porcelain dragons on Taiwanese temples.

One of the most interesting aspects of the roof of this building, and one of the reasons I mentioned earlier as to how it differentiates itself from (most of) the other Martial Arts Halls remaining in Taiwan is that the ‘onigawara’ end tiles on the roof are decorated with either the word “bu” (武 / ぶ) or “Budō (武德 / ぶどう). For a bit of context, while I generally translate these buildings as “Martial Arts Halls” in English, they’re also often referred to as “Butokuden” or “Budokuden” (ぶとくでん) depending on how you romanize the word. Here in Taiwan, they are known simply as “wu dé diàn” (武德殿), or “wu dào guan“ (武道館) in Chinese, both of which essentially translate into English as “Martial Arts Hall.” 

In most cases, the ‘onigawara’ (鬼瓦) end tiles on buildings like this depict fearsome beasts or mythical creatures that are meant to help protect the building, but on this building the words essentially help to identify it in a creative way - It’s important to note however that these end-tiles are recent reproductions of the originals.

Link: Budo | 武道 | ぶどう (Wiki)

Working in tandem with the elaborate design of the roof, the Changhua Martial Arts Hall is one of the few remaining halls that features a Karahafu Porch (唐破風 / からはふ), which is more or less just an intricately designed ‘covered porch’ that opens up to the main doors of the hall.

The ‘hafu-style door’ is a popular addition among traditional Japanese architectural design, dating back to the Heian Period (平安時代) from 794-1185, but it’s important to note that these porches are most commonly associated with castles, temples, and shrines.

It’s inclusion here gives the building considerable more prestige in its decorative design, and works with the roof to make it even more grand.  The covered roof section of the porch was designed using the nokikarahafu (軒唐破風 / のきからはふ) style, which means that it flows downward from the top-center with convex-curves on each side.

Technical terms aside, if you look at the side of the Martial Arts Hall where the hip and the gable section of the roof meet, you’ll notice design similarities in the porch, which face outward, offering an even more complex 3D-like design to whoever is viewing the building from a distance.

Moving onto the interior of the building, as is the case with almost every Martial Arts Hall, the space is extremely basic as it is essentially just an open space that was evenly divided in two - one section reserved for Judo (柔道場) and the other for Kendo (劍道場). Located in the centre-rear of the room (directly facing the front door) you would have found a small space reserved for a shrine (神龕), and likely some decorative additions that would have been related to Martial Arts or the word “budo” (武道), in addition to any trophies or awards that were won by members of the dojo. Today that space is instead used to house the spirit tablets for the Martyrs Shrine.

Unfortunately, one of the changes that likely took place during the post-war era is that the ceiling was covered up to install electric lighting. In most cases within these buildings, the ceiling is completely open and we are treated to a view of the intricate network of trusses that help to ensure that the heavy roof is held in place. The sad thing about covering up the ceiling like this is that the windows installed within the triangular gables on the ends of the building have been rendered pretty much useless, but that’s modernity for you. Fortunately though, the Martial Arts Hall today (for the most part) keeps with tradition and remains mostly empty, which gives visitors a pretty good look at the simplistic interior design.

To the rear of the building you’ll find another Japanese-era building, which has also recently undergone a period of restoration, and is looking quite spectacular now that it’s opened up again. Oddly enough, within the resources that I’ve used for my research about the Martial Arts Hall, a number of terms have been used to describe the building, none of which really point to its original usage. Having researched these spaces for a few years now, it’s likely that it doubled as a residence and administration building provided to the staff of the Martial Arts Hall, and then later the police at the nearby police station. However, I’ve also seen it described as a member’s clubhouse which offered change rooms, restrooms, a classroom and meeting room.

Suffice to say, without solid confirmation from historic records, I can’t tell you for sure, but looking at the interior design of the house, both of these possibilities remain quite likely.

Floor plan for the auxiliary building next to the hall

The building is a traditional Japanese-style wooden home that has been elevated off of the ground to protect it from termites. Similar to the architectural design of the Martial Arts Hall, it follows the the irimoya architectural design, with a roof that features a mixture of the kirizuma and yosemune styles mentioned above. However, even though the roof has a hip-and-gable design, and is arguably a lot more decorative than most of the historic dormitories that you’ll find in Taiwan today, it is considerably more subdued in comparison to the larger building next door.

The roof also extends a little further beyond the base of the building in sections with an attached copper rain-guard (雨庇) covering the veranda, entrance and restrooms. Speaking of the veranda, one of my personal favorite spaces within these historic Japanese-era buildings are the beautiful ‘engawa’ (緣側/えんがわ) sliding door verandas. An essential aspect of traditional Japanese architectural design, most of the historic residences remaining in Taiwan feature at least one engawa facing the back yard or garden. In this case, the engawa features prominently on the front side of the building, making any visit to the interior quite enjoyable.

The building is currently leased out by the government and is home to a restaurant named ‘San Shih Gathering’ (三時之聚), which offers guests simple meals, snacks and beverages in a beautiful setting. Unfortunately, on my last visit, the restaurant wasn’t open, so I’ll have to update this space with more photos and information about the building once I have a chance to visit again. From the photos I’ve seen on social media, the interior space has been utilized in a careful way that allows guests to enjoy the sliding glass doors, which offer really nice views of the Martial Arts Hall and the (former) garden area to its rear. The interior space is almost completely lit by natural light during the day and makes for a great spot to enjoy a cool drink on a hot day.

Link: 三時之聚-彰化武德殿 (Facebook)

The restaurant is closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays, but open every other day of the week from 9:00am to 5:00pm.

The Martial Arts Hall itself however is a bit of an enigma as to when it is actually open as it seems like the local government can’t really figure out what to do with it. Nevertheless, even if the building isn’t open when you visit, you’re not really missing out on that much inside as the beauty of the building is mostly on the outside.

If you’re in the area, I highly recommend you stop by to check it out!

Getting There

 

Address: #45 Gongyuan Road, Changhua (彰化市公園路一段45號)

GPS: 24.077150, 120.546090

Located a short distance from both the Changhua Train Station (彰化車站) and the Changhua Bus Terminal (彰化客運站), the Martial Arts Hall, and many of the city’s other important tourist attractions are more or less a short walk from each other. In fact, every Chinese-language tourist article that I’ve seen regarding the Martial Arts Hall only provides walking directions.

The downtown core of the city is perfectly walkable and if you’re arriving by train or bus and want to visit some of the city’s historic sights, you’ll be happy to know that they are all quite close to each other. Much like Tainan, the beauty of Changhua is best experienced on two feet, and you will have most certainly missed out on most of it if you’re sitting in a car.

So, if you’re driving a car or a scooter, I recommend finding a parking spot and getting rid of your car for the duration of your visit.

The great thing about Changhua is that you’re able to experience it’s history (and more importantly amazing food) in every little alley in the city, so if you take the time and pay enough attention you’ll be able to learn quite a bit - and eat extremely well in the process.

Car / Scooter

If you’ve driven to Changhua and would like to visit the Martial Arts Hall and some of the other attractions within the downtown core of the city, getting there is quite easy if you input the address or the GPS coordinates provided above into your car’s navigation system or Google Maps.

However, I would caution that the downtown area of the city features quite a few narrow roads that makes traffic quite congested at times. As I mentioned above, you’re probably better off walking, so find a place to park your car or scooter nearby. Despite the traffic being quite notorious in the downtown area, there are more than a dozen parking lots in the area, so you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding a safe place to park.

I had considered listing each of the parking lots available here, but a quick look at Google Maps displays far too many to list, so I don’t think you’ll have much trouble finding a spot without a specific recommendation from me this time.

Public Bus

While I do highly recommend walking around the city when you’re there, you’ll also find that there is a bus stop next to the Martial Arts Hall where you’ll be able to make use of some of the city’s public transport. The number of routes that serve the area are limited, but if you don’t really feel like walking around, some of the routes linked below may help out.

County Council Bus Stop (縣議會站)

  1. Changhua Bus #18 (彰化客運18路) - Changhua Bus Station - Baguashan (彰化-八卦山)

  2. Changhua Bus #6911 (彰化客運6911路) - Changhua - Liugu Road (彰化-六股路)

  3. Changhua City Bus 2 (彰化市公車2路) - Changhua - Changhua Train Station Circle Route

The Changhua Martial Arts Hall is one of the largest and most beautiful of the remaining Martial Arts Halls left in Taiwan. The nearly ninety-year old hall sits conveniently within the downtown core of Changhua at the base of Bagua Mountain (八卦山), and is close to a number of the city’s other important destinations, including the Changhua Confucius Temple (彰化孔廟), Changhua Mazu Temple (彰化天后宮), etc. If you are visiting the city, there are quite a few interesting places that you’re able to check out within walking distance of the train station, so I recommend taking some time prior to your visit to map out a list of destinations, and places to eat as the city is also home to quite a few of its own famed dishes.

References

  1. 彰化武德殿 | Changhua Wude Hall (Wiki)

  2. 臺中州 | 彰化市 |

  3. 彰化市武德殿 (國家文化資產網)

  4. 彰化縣歷史建築 武德殿修復工程工作報告書 (彰化縣政府)

  5. 臺灣的武德殿 (Wiki)

  6. 武德會與武德殿 (陳信安)

  7. 失而复得的大唐建筑-台湾武德殿 (Willie Chen)

  8. 台灣武德殿發展之研究 (黃馨慧)

  9. 武德殿研究成果報告 (高雄市政府文化局)

  10. A Study of Spatial Hierarchy of Martial Arts Halls in Taiwan (Yu-Chen Sharon Sung, Liang-Yin Chen)