A Different Place and Time:

These Japanese colonial era structures range from as large as the Presidential Office, the Control Yuan, and Building 1 of the Tainan Art Museum, to smaller buildings like Taipei’s Qingtian 76 restaurant and Lepu Lounge, Taichung’s Natural Way Six Arts Cultural Center (formerly the Martial Arts Hall of the old Taichung Prison), Chiayi’s Hinoki Village, and Hualien’s Jiang Jun Fu 1936. Many were neglected for years before being renovated and put to new uses. 

The start of modern life

We meet up with Fred Huang, an expert in architecture and cultural heritage, at the pavilion on the lake in Tai­chung Park, in Taichung’s Central District. 

Built during the early part of the Japanese era, Taichung Park was born out of an urban reform movement that emphasized the health benefits of sunlight. In marked contrast to the traditional local social structure, which lacked the concept of public spaces, the Japanese built the park for public use, making it a symbol of progress and modernity. Interestingly, the pavilion on the lake was originally meant to be temporary. Built in 1908 for Prince Kan’in Kotohito to relax in while hosting the celebration held in the park to mark the completion of Taiwan’s Western Trunk Line railway, it was converted into a permanent structure after reports of it reached the imperial household and piqued the interest of Prince Michi, the future Emperor Showa (Hirohito).

With changing times and changing political leadership, more and more Japanese-era buildings are being restored and reopened all over Taiwan. Huang has been involved with a number of these projects and tells us that they owe much to the Ministry of Culture’s program for regenerating historic sites. Completed one after another after years of work, the buildings are now back in the public eye and attracting visitors from Taiwan and around the world.

“The street scenes that stir nostalgia in us Japanese ­aren’t located in Japan, but in Taiwan,” says Yoshitaka Watanabe, a top Japanese architect. An admirer of the progress Taiwan has made on cultural conservation policy, and of the public’s support for these buildings’ preservation, Watanabe says, “Taiwanese are committed to discovering the value of these old buildings, and then preserving and renovating them, giving them new life. Young people, seniors with memories of the colonial era, and intellectuals who want to preserve Taiwan’s history… there’s an energy here that Japan can’t match.”

Watanabe first traveled to Taiwan in 2016 and has visited more than 20 times since. A professional architect, he has sketched and documented innumerable Japanese-era buildings all over our island, and even published two books on the subject in Taiwan. 

Interestingly, Watanabe says that the buildings seen by Taiwanese as “Japanese-style” aren’t really Japanese-style at all. Traditional Japanese architecture refers to structures with tatamis and screens, like shrines, temples, castles, and machiya (wooden townhouses). These colonial-era structures instead have traits copied from the West following the 1868 Meiji Restoration. 

Huang says that the Taichung Park pavilion is a case in point. The exterior is clearly proportioned according to the Renaissance’s golden ratio, which helps explain why it remains so visually appealing. And the Taichung Prefectural Hall, also located in Central District not far from the pavilion, has a blue-gray slate roof that emulates a European Mansard roof—a bit of retro gorgeousness that gives the building an almost Parisian feel. 

Built during the reign of Emperor Meiji, the proportions of the exterior walls of the pavilion on Taichung Park’s lake adhere to the golden ratio. The lines of its decorative buttresses lend a sense of solidity, adding to its enduring good looks. 

The magnificent and dignified Taichung Prefectural Hall was built during the Meiji period. Designed by Japanese architect Matsunosuke Moriyama, a student of Kingo Tatsuno, it includes a Mansard roof reminiscent of Paris. 

photo by Mars Chen, courtesy of Yoshitaka Watanabe

Japanese architect Yoshitaka Watanabe has visited Taiwan more than 20 times to document our island’s Japanese colonial era buildings. (courtesy of Yoshitaka Watanabe)

Modernization and experimentation

Based on his study of buildings from that era, Huang thinks that the Japanese government was unstinting in its efforts in Taiwan, its earliest colony. The imposing scale of its governmental buildings demonstrates the power of the colonial authorities, while the frequency of Western-influenced experimentation, and of innovative methods and materials, shows an intention to project national prestige. Setting aside the underlying political objectives, there’s no question that the Japanese of that period left Taiwan with many outstanding structures. 

These buildings can be classified into roughly three stylistic periods, corresponding to the reigns of the Emperors Meiji, Taisho and Showa, that clearly delineate an architectural evolution from classical to modern. 

Under the Westernizing trend of the Meiji period (1895–1912), architects utilized a classical Western vocabulary, creating brick structures that often incorporated decorative plant motifs shaped from stucco, and went all in on fine decorative details. The aforementioned Taichung Park pavilion, Taichung Prefectural Hall, the Presidential Office, the Red House theater, and the Control Yuan are all typical examples of the style. 

During the Taisho period (1912–1926), Bauhaus-­influenced modernist architecture began to take root in Taiwan. This style stressed functionality and efficiency, giving rise to buildings constructed in simple geometric shapes. 

During the late Taisho through the end of World War II (1926–1945), the Japanese took note of Taiwanese temple architecture’s jiannian (“cut-and-paste”) technique, started employing skilled local stucco workers, and began experimenting in Taiwan with tiling techniques. Rectangular, tile-faced concrete structures began to emerge, with famous examples of the style including National Taiwan University’s (NTU) History Gallery and College of Liberal Arts, both of which are faced with ribbed tiles, and Tainan Art Museum’s Building 1. 

Originally designed by the Japanese, Taichung’s Central District retains many buildings from that era. The photo shows the Taichung Shiyakusho (former city government office), across the street from the Taichung Prefectural Hall. 

The Japanese weren’t the only ones to draw on Western architectural vocabulary during the colonial era; Taiwanese did, too! Built in 1938 by a group of local gentry, the former head office of Chang Hwa Bank in Taichung’s Central District is still in use today. 

The practice of facing buildings with ceramic tiles was introduced to Taiwan during the Japanese colonial era. The use of specially made angled tiles for corners showed the craftsmen’s attention to detail.

A fan of historical buildings, Fred Huang has taken part in restoration projects such as the Taichung District Court’s old staff quarters and the No. 1 Barn in Taichung’s Xitun District. 

Adapting Japanese construction methods

There are large numbers of Japanese-style buildings located throughout Taiwan that were constructed as staff quarters for various organizations. At first glance, they appear to be cookie-cutter wooden residences meant to quickly meet people’s housing needs. “They were put up using standardized, modular construction methods,” explains Huang. “No matter where they were built, each residence was the same height, but the floor area corresponded to the rank of the official they were intended to house.”

Surrounded by much taller buildings, the homes that remain exude a serene nostalgia, their largely natural building materials, low height, and gardens offering passersby a moment’s green respite from the urban bustle. To Huang, their underlying concept differs from the modern focus on efficient use of space, demonstrating the people of that time’s understanding and attention to the residential environment, and revealing their original life aesthetic. 

As an expert on Japanese architecture who has closely studied and documented these homes, Watanabe notes that they have been adapted to Taiwan’s climate and ­environment. 

To better cope with Taiwan’s hot, humid climate and to resist termites, the floors were raised much higher than in Japan, while the struts supporting the floor, and the stone bases they stood upon, were replaced by piers built of bricks. Air vents were often provided below exterior windows to improve ventilation, and the roofs projected outwards above the end walls to help keep out the rain. Wooden sections of the homes were further protected from water intrusion by covering the sawn ends of the rainscreen siding with copper strips at the corners of the buildings. 

These details make clear that the buildings aren’t simply transplants, but have their own character. “The forms, methods and techniques from Japan took root in Taiwan, and bloomed here in their own unique way,” says Watanabe. 

The Japanese-era buildings still standing in Taiwan demonstrate our respect for cultural heritage and history. Converted into commercial spaces, they have become points of interest for foreign tourists, like Huashan 1914 Creative Park and Songshan Cultural and Creative Park before them. 

Japanese building designs were adapted to conditions in Taiwan with the addition of raised floors, roof overhangs to protect gable walls from rain, and underfloor air vents to increase airflow.