孔子廟と赤嵌楼/Confucius Temple and Chihkan Tower

さてさて、今回は台南市内の旅だ。先週、他の華語中心の生徒と一緒に出かけて、台南の象徴に成っている二つの名所を見に行って来た。途中で他のところにも沢山寄って行った。

Last week, I went to two of Tainan's most famous buildings: Chihkan Tower and the Confucius Temple.

 日本と同じく、台湾の女性は出来るだけ日差しを避ける。又、日本と同じく、日傘が流行っている。でも日本と違って、バイクの駐輪はやりたい放題みたいなものだ。

 On our way to the Confucius Temple, we stopped at this other temple whose name I stupidly did not get tattooed into my forearm so that I would not forget.  I don't think it's a particularly major temple--there are lots of small temples all over Tainan--so I couldn't find it on a map just now either.
写真の前方に有る物は線香入れのやつ。日本のお寺と同じ様な感じだ。（でも日本の建物からすれば、かなり派手だろう。）

 PROTECT LIFE BIG EMPEROR

 The mother goose morning market.  This is where you go to get your vegetables, etc. if you are a legit Taiwan grandma.  You have to go at like 6-7 in the morning though, so you gotta be legit.

 日本のポップ文化はアジアの隣国でも流行っている。台湾でも。ポップ文化で日本の経済をもっと行かせるかな。

 日本でも馴染みの有る漢字だ。

 Here's the Chihkan Tower from the outside.  The Chihkan Tower was originally called Fort Provintia. It was the second settlement made by the Dutch.  Their first one was what is now called "Anping Fort", which I wrote about visiting previously.  They settled on an island at the outside of the semi-lagoon that was where much of west Tainan is now.  They decided at some point that they wanted a more inland settlement as well, so they made Fort Provintia on the mainland inside the lagoon.  It was named "Provintia" in reference to the union of the 7 provinces.  (If you remember your Dutch history, the Netherlands was not initially formed as a single nation state, but rather as a collection of semi-independent provinces of Spain who decided to rebel against the Spanish King's government.  There were matters of taxation and religious freedom.  The USA was basically the same deal done a couple hundred years later, and done towards England instead of Spain.)

 赤嵌楼の外姿。赤嵌楼はオランダ人が二番目に作った砦だ。私は此の間、最初の砦の「安平」に訪問した。安平は島で作られた。今は埋め立てによって島じゃなく成ったけど、当時は大きな湾が安平の島と台湾本土の間に有った。オランダ人は本土でも植民地作りたいと思って、赤嵌楼を作った。「プロビンチア」と呼んだ。「プロビンス」と言うのは、「州」って意味だ。今はオランダが王国に成っているが、元々は７つのスペインが支配した州が反乱して、合衆国を作った。「プロビンチア」は其の７つのプロビンスを因んで名前が付いた。

 美味しいらしい。まだ行っとらんけど。

 シーサー！

 ガオ〜！

 The main building of Chihkan Tower.  It doesn't look very Dutch, does it?  Admittedly, we are currently 400 years post Dutch control of Taiwan, and there have been a couple different governments since then, so I'm not 100% clear on how much of this current building is original, or at least resembles the original, but I was told that even the original building that the Dutch commissioned looked rather Chinese in style.  This was because the Dutch had to use the local help to build it, which for them was mostly Chinese laborers.
中華式の建物だが、私が聞いたのは、オランダ人が元々作ったプロビンチアもこういう感じだった。なぜなら、オランダ人が数人しか居なかったから、作るのは基本的に中国人の移民労働者だった。まあ、確かに、オランダ時代は既に４００年前位で、其の間、鄭成功支配、清朝支配、日本支配、中華民国支配も有ったから、建物が１００％オリジナルじゃないと思うけど。

 鄭成功はオランダ人の負けを認める風景だ。鄭成功はオランダ人を台湾から出して、赤嵌楼を自分の主都にした。
Zheng Cheng Gong accepts the surrender of the Dutch.  This building became his capital after he expelled the Dutch.

 亀だ。

 子供が魚に餌を与えている。可愛い。

 赤嵌楼の「楼」がちょっと違うね。元々の漢字は此れだ。数字の「数」も同じ様に「數」に成る。

 凄いドア！何が出るかな？

 From the roof of the building.

 Look at this happy guy!

 The ceiling inside.

 上記の人は日本支配時代に長く台湾で務めた一人だ。最終的に台南の市長にまで成った。台湾の文化に興味と関心が有って、赤嵌楼と他の歴史的な場所の維持と復帰に力を入れた。彼のお陰で、今日も赤嵌楼がちゃんと残っている。此の記述の上に彼の頭銅像が乗っている。

 The view from on top of the building.

 This is a well for the building.  For a long time there was a rumor that this well connected through an underground tunnel to the well in Anping Fort.  Then some jerk went and looked into it and discovered that they are both just wells and that there is no secret passage.  Killjoy.

 Some of the original Dutch walls.

 踊っている此の神さん。

 占いで使う石（石か？）。投げて、落ち方によって神様とかご先祖とかの言う事が分かる。
There are stones like these in lots of temples around here.  Apparently, when you have a question on a matter of great importance, you throw these and interpret the answer based on how they land.

 日本愛国婦人会館。私は入ってはいない。今度しようと。
A building that housed the Japanese "Patriotic Housewives Association" back in the Japanese era.

 Next door to the Patriotic Housewives building is an old fruit restaurant.  They specialize in fresh fruit with or without shaved ice and syrup.
めっちゃ美味いかき氷屋さん。ここで止まったお陰で、色んな熱帯果物の華語名前を覚えた。

 Across the street from the fruit place is the Confucius Temple.
孔子廟はちょうど先程の果物屋さんの向こうに有る。

 何か、私が出来た友達は皆女性だ。わざとじゃないけど。でも花に囲まれた旅するのもいいばい。＾＿＾

 勉強に成りそう。孔子の精神がちょっと脳みそに入って来たかも。

 This tiger actually sticks out!

 3-D!!!

 I was told that this style of building, with the walled courtyard, and the red, green and blue everywhere, is a Fujian style.  Most of the ancestors of the Chinese Taiwanese came from Fujian, so that would make sense.

 This can spit water.

 There was a museum of old Chinese instruments in the temple.  A Sanxian!  This is the ancestor of the instrument I play, the Sanshin.
でも、三弦と言っても、今まで私が見た三弦より大分胴部が小さい。かなり琉球の三線に似ている。もしかして、昔の中国の三弦はもっと胴部が小さかったかも。琉球では其の昔のサイズが保存されている訳かな？

 此れも楽器だ！「ユ」ってやつ。「語」の右側が左側で、「教」の右側が右側に成っている。“敔”
This is a musical instrument!  I want one!

 This is kind of like a pan pipe.

 And this is kind of like an ocarina.

 デカい琴みたいな楽器。

 Look at these guys from the roof!

 Confucius is majorly important in Chinese culture, and since this is the oldest Confucius temple in Taiwan, there are plaques like this donated to the temple by each Qing Emperor, and by each Republic of China President who ruled over Taiwan.

 This shopping area is right across the street from the Confucius Temple.

 なんで車か分からんけど、可愛いなぁ。

 We went into this coffee shop with a hilariously thin entrance.  The shop itself is on the second floor of the building and is pretty normal, but to get there, you have to go through this thin little alley and up a thin set of stairs.  The Tainan Fire Department must be very accommodating.

 こんなところを通って此の珈琲屋さんに入る。マジで。これが玄関よ。

顔に成っている！

、、、という事で、台南ってこう言う所だ。めっちゃ歴史の有る町だ。適当に歩いて回るだけで面白い所が沢山見える。日本から遠くないよ。来て見らん？

I hope this post gave you all a bit more of an idea of what kind of place Tainan is.  It's the kind of place where you can just walk somewhere without planning ahead and probably run into something interesting.  (I did just that the other day, and I'll have more photos to post when I get around to it.)