Taiwan Church News
3882 Edition
20 ~ 26 July, 2026
Weekly Topics
Celebrating the 150th Birthday of Masataro Kaneko, dubbed as Father of Taiwan Sugarcane, Kin and Friends Convened to Witness His Extraordinary Legacy in Taiwan
Reported by Dalul from Tainan
Celebrating the 150th birthday of Masataro Kaneko, dubbed as “Father of Taiwan’s sugarcane”, the eldest grandson of Masataro, Mr Ryoshke Kaneko in his 80s and his wife led their daughter, son-in-law and three granddaughters to visit their ancestor’s footprints in Hsin-Hua district, Tainan City, on July 19. Officials of Cultural Affairs Bureau of Tainan City Government, research specialists of Taiwan Sugar Company, and a group of historians versed in local affairs enthusiastically received the descendants of Masataro.
Masataro is a sugarcane expert served in former Taiwan Sugar Company from 1924 to 1927. His book, The Agriculture of Sugarcane, is an acclaimed classic study of Taiwan sugar industry in the early 20th century. His mentor is Dr Nitobe Inazo, dubbed as “Father of Taiwan’s sugar industry.” Masataro ran a laboratory farm of Tavocan Sugar Company at Tainan, developed new species of sugarcane, proposed to set up local agricultural schools to train talents, and personally witnessed an unprecedented voting of Hutoupi Scenic Area (near Hsin-Hua) as one of Taiwan’s famous scene.
When the Tapani incident broke out in 1915, Masataro stood up and begged the Japanese governor to spare the lives of male residents in Hsin-Hua area from a possible military purge. Especially when his friend, Liang Dao who was appointed as a street officer in Hsin-Hua town, carried out an order to relocate a Mazu temple resulting into a strong opposition from local residents, Masataro did help Liang Dao to settle down the conflicts and donated money to Mazu temple afterwards to quench angers from native people.
However, it’s a pity that Masataro had never been shown up in the extant Hsin-Hua historic photos taken during the Japanese ruling period. Mr Kang Wen-rong, director of Church History Museum of Hsin-Hua Church of Tainan Presbytery, mentioned some little-known Christian inheritance and influence on the life of Masataro.
He pointed out that Masataro and his staff members in the laboratory farm of Tavocan Sugar Company were a group of agricultural experts who were deeply influenced by the “No-Church Movement” of Japanese thinker Kanzo Uchimura, who stressed a study of the Bible, the practice of retreat, and a refrain from the money or power. “Masataro lived a humble life. After retirement, he returned to Japan and worked as a farmer. He farmed every morning, studied the Bible in the afternoon, and refused any public award or financial donation.”
Kang said that Masataro’s dedication to a new life as Christian also witnessed love of Christ in his daily lives. After Masataro’s rescue of male people after the Tapani incident, people of Hsin-Hua started to change their attitude towards Christian as they were grateful to his great favor to save lives. In 1916, Chong Tian-de, mayor of Hsin-Hua town, pledged to build a church. When that church was built in 1922, five big families of Hsin-Hua town who had not yet believed in the Lord offered a quarter of funds for building the church. In addition, Masataro also humbly cultivated many Taiwanese young talents, such as Elder Fu Hsiang-luh, founder of the
new church then, and Mr Liu Chu-rong, the first chief of youth fellowship in that church.
In addition to visiting the sites where Masataro used to work and live, his descendants also dined at the renown Humanities Restaurant established on the very laboratory farm, where Masataro worked during his most productive career. Kang stressed, “Kaneko Masataro is an excellent scientist in Hokkaido and the pioneering founder of Taiwan sugarcane agriculture and industry, and his humble life, generous characters and outstanding contribution to Taiwan sugarcane agriculture makes an amazing witness to God!”
Through a memorial visit from the fourth and fifth generation of Masataro’s descendants, together with so many heartfelt warm records and relics, it not only comforted his kin’s wish to find their ancestor’s footprints in Taiwan, but also polished a shining story of Christian faith and led people re-discover a long-missing puzzle of mosaic picture in the golden history of Hsin-Hua town.
Translated by Peter Wolfe
