The Japanese Character That's Been on This Keelung Wall for 130 Years
On Yi'er Road in Keelung, there's a Victorian-style building with a Japanese katakana character carved into its gable. Most people walk past without looking up. But that 「キ」was carved in 1895 by the great-grandfather of Japan's 100th prime minister — the same year Japan took control of Taiwan. The building has since housed a colonial clothing shop, a gold rush restaurant, and a bookshop bought with a wedding ring. The 「キ」is still there.
The Character on the Gable
Walk down Yi'er Road in Keelung's Zhongzheng District — past the red brick arcades, the shuttered storefronts, the vendors setting up for lunchtime — and at the corner of Xin'er Road, you'll see a building that stops you if you bother to look up.
The facade is Victorian: red brick with white decorative bands, arched flower windows, a tall gable that rises above the roofline. Carved into that gable, legible if you know what you're looking at, is a single Japanese katakana character: 「キ」.
Most people keep walking. The ones who do stop usually assume it's leftover signage from the Japanese colonial period (1895–1945). That's technically true — but it misses what actually sets this building apart.
The man who had that character carved there was Kishida Ikutaro, the great-grandfather of Kishida Fumio — Japan's 100th prime minister. The 「キ」is the first character of the Kishida family name, carved as a shophouse mark when Ikutaro built the place in 1895. That was also the year the Treaty of Shimonoseki transferred Taiwan from the Qing Empire to Japan — Ikutaro had just crossed from Hiroshima and was opening a clothing shop. When Kishida Fumio became prime minister in 2021, Taiwanese media ran the connection as genuine news. The building had been sitting there for 126 years with nobody paying much attention to it.
A Building That Three Eras Couldn't Change
1895: A Hiroshima man's gamble on Taiwan's new order
The Japanese colonial government was building Gijucho (義重町, the name for what is now Yi'er Road and the surrounding blocks) into the commercial heart of Keelung, deliberately modeled on Tokyo's Ginza: red brick arcades, European classical facades, lily-shaped street lamps. Kishida Ikutaro arrived at the right moment and built a shophouse selling fine kimono and imported goods — the Kishida Gofukuten. He opened a tea house next door. He returned to Hiroshima in 1899, leaving partners to run both businesses. By the 1930s, Gijucho was at its commercial peak: people came from across northern Taiwan to buy Western suits, pick up eyeglasses, and eat pastries from the bakeries on the same block.
1945: Gold mine money meets a changed flag
Japan surrendered in August 1945. The Kishida family, like all Japanese nationals, was repatriated. A Taiwanese cook took over the second floor and opened the Xiao Shanghai Restaurant. The timing worked out well: the final lucrative years of the Jiufen and Jinguashi gold mines were underway in the hills above Keelung, and mine owners with money to spend needed somewhere to go. For a few years, in a building that still looked exactly as the Japanese had left it — the 「キ」unchanged on the gable — Taiwanese people sat at Taiwanese-run tables, the conqueror's family mark still hanging above the door. The Xiao Shanghai closed in 1951. The gold rush was winding down too.
1947: A bookshop bought with a wedding ring
Just months after the February 28 Incident — a brutal crackdown by the incoming Nationalist government that killed thousands of Taiwanese — a demobilized soldier named Chen Shanghui and his wife decided to open a Chinese-language bookshop in Keelung. Under Japanese rule, there had been almost no Chinese-language bookshops anywhere in Taiwan. They had no capital. Chen sold his wife's dowry jewelry and raised 100,000 old Taiwan dollars — enough for the first month's rent and an initial shipment of books. The Zili Bookshop opened on the ground floor. Chen eventually bought the building outright in 1963. The shop ran for over 70 years. Customers who first visited as children came back as grandparents.
Getting There & Practical Info
The building is at the corner of Yi'er Road and Xin'er Road, Zhongzheng District, near No. 290-1 Xin'er Road. The exterior is the point — the ground floor is currently a restaurant and the building is not open as a museum or heritage site. When you arrive, look up at the gable.
Getting there from Keelung Train Station:
- On foot: 10–15 minutes, heading toward Zhongzheng Park
- By bus: Routes 101, 104, and 105 stop at Zhongzheng Park, a short walk from Yi'er Road
Cost: Free (exterior only)
While you're in the area: Yi'er Road has several other colonial-era arcade buildings from the same Gijucho period worth a look as you walk. The Miaokou Night Market is about 15 minutes' walk north — worth visiting if you're spending the evening in Keelung. There are lunch options near Zhongzheng Park.
One practical note: English signage in this part of Keelung is limited. It helps to save the address in Chinese (基隆市中正區義二路／新二路口) or use the coordinates near No. 290-1 Xin'er Road in Google Maps before you go.
