10 October 2021
It was during the COVID period when I first started to do urbex (urban exploration). During the lockdown period, the nature parks were all jammed packed with people, it was as if hiking became everyone's hobby overnight?? In a bid to avoid the crowd, I started looking for more off-trail hikes and that was when I became exposed to the world of urbex. Unknown to many, there are actually plenty of forgotten historic sites hidden from plain sight, and the thrill of discovery and adventure led me to search for these places.
The Syonan Jinja shrine almost felt like an urban legend to me - an abandoned jinja shrine hidden deep in the forest of MacRitchie, a popular nature park. It was a place I had always wanted to visit. Of course there were also incidents where people had gotten lost in the forest in search of this shrine. While I embarked on my urbex adventures, I had almost forgotten about the Syonan Jinja shrine until years later. Determined to finally visit it, I found a new friend who was willing to go with me (he of course did not know what he was getting into, and definitely regretted it lol)
History
The Syonan Jinja meaning 'Light of the South Shrine' was a Shinto shrine built to commemorate the Japanese soldiers who died in Malaya during WWII. Designed based on Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, the construction of Syonan Jinja started in April 1942, two months after the fall of Singapore. Almost 10,000 British and Australian prisoners-of-war were forced to carry out the hard labour of constructing the shrine. Syonan Jinja was dedicated to Amaterasu Omikami, the goddess of the sun in the Shinto religion and whom the Japanese emperors were said to be direct descendents of.
The defeat of the Japanese in 1945, saw with it the destruction of Syonan Jinja, out of fear that the British would commit sacrilege on their sacred shrine. What is left today are only the granite steps, a purification tub and a pump house. (Adapted from: https://remembersingapore.org/2017/07/16/macritchie-reservoir-syonan-jinja/)
This was how the shrine looked like, back in the day:
Exploring Syonan Jinja
1100 | Start our hike from Windsor Park |
1215 | Found the pump house |
1230 | Found the purification tub and granite steps |
1345 | Out of the forest and to Bukit Timah |
1100 | Start our hike from Windsor Park
We begin our hike from Windsor park in the direction of MacRitchie park. The crowds began to thin as we walked further into the forest trails of MacRitchie. The entrance was along the Terentang trail, a forest trail in MacRitchie, and unlike earlier accounts of this trail, there were no longer any clear markers to mark the entry point (there used to be a big rock). But having done prior research, I knew where the trail likely started and a couple of metres into the forest, we spotted a slightly overgrown, but still relatively clear trail that lead into the forest.
It seemed like not many people still come in search of the Syonan Jinja, as the trail was starting to become overgrown. The trail led deep into the forest, with the surrounding scenery remaining the same throughout, endless forest everywhere we looked. It was as if we barely made any progress, which somehow made me feel very uneasy (I was comfortable with forest exploration so this was odd). Parts of the trail were blocked and we had to do a few walk arounds, which was quite common. We were almost midway through when I noticed the sky turning dark. Since we had already came so far, so we made the decision to take the risk and continue, all the time praying that it was just a passing dark cloud
1215 | Found the pump house
About 30-40 mins in (although it honestly felt alot longer) we saw the first sign of the Syonan Jinja, an old pump house that used to pump water from the reservoir into the purification tub. While the pump house looked dilapidated, it still seemed pretty sturdy after all these years, beside the pump house was a canal where water would flow through. We did not linger for long for fear of the rain, and continued to look for the next structure.
1230 | Found the purification tub and granite steps
It was not too far along the trail, when we spotted the purification tub. This tub was used for cleansing at the entrance of the shrine before entering. The purification tub felt quite unnerving to me as it looked like a stone coffin. Going in for a closer look, I saw flat round stones around the tub that were shaped like old coins. The tub itself was filled with water and debris - leaves and twigs.
Close by was the granite steps, this was where worshippers will enter from the river after crossing a bridge. It was a long flight of steps that looked very out of place deep in the forest. Although we wanted to go down the steps and to the river bank, the ground was very waterlogged and our shoes sank into the thick mud with every step. We eventually decided not to take the risk.
Now this was the oddest part of our exploration - there was a canvas on an easel right at the bottom of the flight of steps. The canvas was completely burnt with only some indiscernible red markings visible at the corners. Why did someone carry this bulky thing so deep into the forest? Why was it placed there and what was it used for? Was it used for a ritual or did someone decided to paint in the middle of the forest? My friend was visibly disturbed by this, as he kept himself far from it while I went down the steps to take a closer look. Unable to think of a likely explanation for this odd sight, we decided to hurry back out as it was already raining at this point.
1345 | Out of the forest and to Bukit Timah
The forest looked completely different from before, as the drizzle very quickly became a heavy downpour. It was dark in the forest, as if it was already nightfall and the trail became even more faint and indiscernible than before with the rain heavily pelting down. There was yet another added challenge that I did not expect from the heavy rain. My phone screen became unresponsive because of the wet surface, and it became increasingly hard to check the map for navigation. At one point, we had deviated from the trail and took awhile to navigate back. After what felt like forever, we finally reached the end of the off-trail. We were completely drenched by then, dripping wet from head to toe. My friend was unusually quiet throughout, and I could tell he was panicky (apparently, he sent our live location to a friend in case we got lost lol, that won't happen on my watch though).
Soon after we left the forest, the rain stopped as if a sign that we were not welcomed at the Syonan Jinja. We continued along the flooded trails of MacRitchie and then back out through Bukit Timah. It was definitely more than enough of an adventure for the day and I am not sure if my friend will still want to join me on another exploration haha.
My Thoughts
Although the rain was not part of the plan, it definitely made a lasting memory having to run out from deep in the forest. The trail to the Syonan Jinja shrine was also a lot longer and deeper in the forest than I thought, and I would not recommend going if you are someone inexperienced with forest trails. All in all, I was definitely happy to have finally ticked off a place that I had always been curious of, though there were still unexplained mysteries surrounding what we had seen deep in forest.
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