日治時期臺灣的紀念碑建設與日本近代雕塑家：以大熊氏廣〈臺灣警察官招魂碑〉(1908) 為中心

Abstract

In 1908, during Japanese colonial rule, The Monument for the Police Officers of Taiwan was constructed near the shrine atop Jiantan Mountain. The sculptor, Okuma Ujihiro (1856– 1934), was one of the most important western-style sculptors of early modern Japan. In the Meiji Era, the new categories of "sculpture" and "sculptor" in modern art gradually emerged in Japanese society. The exemplars of these newly developed categories attempted to create new works that embodied the spirit of the modern age, including bronze statues standing in public spaces, or monuments for those who died for their country. Focusing on The Monument for the Police Officers of Taiwan, this paper attempts to analyze its original state and examines the details and background of its construction. Moreover, it explores why such a work emerged in Taiwan, the first overseas colony of Japan.

Even after 1895, battles between Japan and anti-Japanese guerrillas continued in Taiwan. Soldiers who fell in these battles were generally enshrined at the Yasukuni Shrine; however, police officers serving the Governor-General of Taiwan, who likewise perished, were not considered candidates for enshrinement at Yasukuni Shrine. The Monument for the Police Officers of Taiwan was constructed to memorialize such officers who died on duty in Taiwan. Okuma, the sculptor, had experience creating bronze statuary for Omura Masujiro at the Yasukuni Shrine (1893) and The Monument for the Fallen Soldiers of the First Army in the Sino–Japanese War in Nagoya and Hiroshima (1903). This monument in Taiwan is an important example of modern Japanese sculptures overseas, and speaks to how closely such works were linked to Japanese modernization and expansion in East Asia.