踏溯台南

踏溯台南

文學院 通識教育課程

Ginza: Commercial tracks from harbors to modern streets

Route Introduction

Hayashi Department Store

  Older Tainan people called it a “five-story building,” once abandoned, in 2014, Tainan City Committee commissioned it with people to strategically run a culturally creative department store as the business strategy so far. On December 5, the 7th year of Showa (1932), the "Hayashi Department Store" ( ハ ヤ シ Department Store, 林 デ パ ー ト ) founded by a Japanese man Hayashi Houichi was officially opened, making the district the most prosperous area in Tainan City at that time, and the name "Ginza" became popular. Hayashi Department Store was the first department store in southern Taiwan and the only department store with a rooftop shrine. It was the tallest building in Tainan when it was completed, and it was equipped with modern equipment such as elevators and rolling metal doors, which was a symbol of the prosperity of the Suehirocho area in Tainan during the Japanese occupation. And all this began in the late Showa 2nd year (1927), some people in this area established a “storefront residence rapid constructing association” and decided to build continuous shop houses. The project began in 1931 by then Tainan Prefecture local technician Umezawa Shōjirō, and was completed the next year, and make obvious the urban correction plan of Suehiro Street was the first city street in Tainan designed with overall planning. Therefore, even though the cityscape is different today while walking into or walking past the Hayashi Department Store, you can still feel the splendor of Tainan Ginza in the 1930s, and you can still experience the significant spatial changes and characteristics of the Tainan urban area in the process of modernization.

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