Installation of a Deity in a New Dairen Shrine Commemorative Medal/大連神社正遷座記念章

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Table commemorative medal from 1933.

Size 54.4 mm.
Thickness 6 mm.
Weight 128.8 g.

Obverse

正遷座記念 - Installation of a Deity in a New Shrine Commemorative

正遷座 = 正遷座祭 = 遷宮/Sengū - construction of a new shrine and transfer of the enshrined object from the old to the new (occurring at a regular, preordained time)

大連神社 - Dairen Shrine

Reverse

昭和八年五月八日 - May 8, 1933

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Original case.

正遷座記念 - Installation of a Deity in a New Shrine Commemorative

大連神社 - Dairen Shrine

Inside

大連 - Dairen/Dalian
金華號謹製 - made by Jinhua
新京 - Hsinking/Changchun

Badges, medals, labels and marks of Jinhua workshop/金華號本店大連市

This manchurian workshop was active (at the very least) since 1933. Had main office in Dairen/Dalian. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalian Three variants of workshop labels are known today. 1st variant.

asiamedals.info

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Construction of the temporary shrine was completed two years after the end of the Russo-Japanese War in September 10, 1907 (many sources mistakenly indicate 1933 as the date of construction of the temple, apparently confusing/incorrectly translating information about its renovation that year) but officially shrine was established only in 1910. The purpose of the construction is obvious - Japanese diaspora of Dairen.

Let's take a close look at this Dairen Jinja.

Road to the shrine.

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Postcard with a typo. Instead of

Temple Dairen

we observe

Tmple Tairen.

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Original black and white photo.

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Torii.

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On the 1st and 15th day of each month Japanese residents of Dairen gathered in the shrine for services.

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Western tourists.

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After 1945 Dairen was occupied by soviet troops. The temple became popular with soviet military and civil administration officials as a local landmark. By early 1947 Japanese diaspora started to return to Japan. The soviet administration allowed to take the sacred objects and elements of the decoration of the temple. On March 31, 1947 they left China for good. In 1980 shrine was moved to its current location in the Japanese city Shimonoseki.