Kaohsiung Wude Hall Audio Guide

Kaohsiung Wude Hall: what does the audio guide cover?

1. 01

   Welcome to Kaohsiung Wude Hall

   Welcome to Kaohsiung Wude Hall, a building that has spent a hundred years teaching people how to move, bow and keep their balance. You are in Gushan District, at the piedmont of Shoushan, in the old harbor quarter known as Hamasen. The hall was established in 1924, and it is the oldest surviving wude hall in Taiwan. That makes it a rare survivor. It is also more than a monument. It now works as a museum, and it has kept its original purpose as a place where Japanese martial arts are practiced. Its centennial arrived in 2024, and the building is a popular stop in the historic Kaohsiung port area. Over the next few minutes, we will look at where the idea of a wude hall came from, why this one looks the way it does, and how it was brought back to life. Take a slow look at the porch and the brick walls first. They have plenty to say.

2. 02

   From Kyoto Police Officers to Hamasen

   The story starts in Kyoto in 1895, when the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai was founded. The name is usually translated as the Greater Japan Martial Virtue Society. Most of its members were police officers, and that detail explains a lot about what you see here. That same year, the Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed with the Qing Dynasty. The Japanese brought their police system with them to Taiwan, and wude culture, the culture of martial virtue, came along with it. It was introduced and developed by the Japanese police. Halls like this one became part of the island's institutions. Kaohsiung Wude Hall was set up in 1924 by the Kaohsiung Branch of the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai. It was organized into zones, including areas for kendo, the way of the sword, and for judo. Police officers and young students trained in them. So when you stand here, you are looking at a building that was designed for practice and discipline, and it was meant to be used every day.

3. 03

   A Hall of Two Architectural Worlds

   Look closely at the walls. They are brick, built with Western masonry methods, and they carry reliefs shaped like arrows and targets. It is a quiet bit of decoration that tells you at a glance what the building is for. Then look at the porch. Its design strikes visitors as unmistakably Japanese, and some compare it to the shrines of Kyoto. Together, the brickwork and the porch show the hall's mixed character. Unlike a typical Japanese-style martial virtue hall, Kaohsiung Wude Hall combines both Japanese and Western architectural features. Inside, the building is a single room with a hardwood floor. It holds about 100 people, and a shrine stands at its center. The hall is also one of only two prefectural level martial arts halls still standing. That was once among the most important ranks of hall on the island, and it is why this one looks different from the others.

4. 04

   Restored and Back in Practice

   A building like this could easily have ended up as an empty relic. Instead, a restoration project was carried out, and the work was completed within a year, in December 2004. In April 2005, the Kaohsiung City Kendo Culture Advocacy Society was commissioned to operate and manage the hall. That decision matters. Kaohsiung Wude Hall is one of the few remaining Japanese-era martial arts halls that has been brought back to life and still serves its original function, as a venue for training in Japanese martial arts. The hall is regularly used for prayer festivals, kendo conventions and budō festivals, which makes it an important local cultural building in Hamasen. If you visit while a class is in session, you may see the hall doing exactly what it was built to do, with the polished wooden floor in use. A century after its founding, the hall is still a working part of the neighborhood.

5. 05

   Before You Head Off

   Before you move on, give the hall one more slow look. Compare the Western-style brick walls with the shrine-like porch, and try to spot the arrow and target reliefs. Each one points to a different part of this building's story. This whole area, Hamasen at the foot of Shoushan, rewards wandering. The hall is one of its most important cultural buildings, and Kaohsiung's Japanese-era history runs through the streets around it. Ask yourself what it would have felt like to train here in 1924, and what it feels like to watch a class here now. If the doors are open and a session is under way, linger a little. The sound of practice may tell you more than any plaque.