Minzoku Taiwan was a monthly publication on introducing and studying Taiwanese culture and customs founded by Japanese intellectuals during late Japanese colonial rule. From the founding issue published on 10 July 1941 to the last on 1 January 1945, there were 43 issues altogether (the February 1945 issue was never published due to the war). It was published by Toto Shoseki Kabushiki Kaisha Taihoku Shiten of Taipei, each issue had around 50 pages and the pricing was from 30 to 45 pennies. Sales of each issue were around 1,000 volumes, highest record was 3,000 volumes.

When "Minzoku Taiwan" was in print, there were two articles which were taken out due to the censorship. One was "The Miracle of Lord Youying" by Toshio Ikeda on page 21-24 of the founding issue; the other was chapter 2 of issue 8 by Su-Wei-Xiong, "Regarding Sex and Taiwanese Proverbs". After the war, Guting Book House and Wuling Publishing of Taipei and Shonando Shoten of Tokyo each published reprints, but they were incomplete versions. Under the joint efforts of Huang Feng-Zi (wife of Toshio Ikeda), Mana Ikeda (daughter of Toshio Ikeda), Kawahara Isao (Taiwan Studies scholar) and Wei-De-Wen (founder of SMC Publishing), the lost chapters described above were finally published and released in the complete 1998 reprint of "Minzoku Taiwan" (Customs of Taiwan) by SMC Publishing.

Special columns and features often found in "Minzoku Taiwan" include: introductions, descriptions of folk art, pictures of Taiwanese traditions, photographs and captions, literature introductions, book reviews, folk music, snacks, news and notices, folk interviews, afterwords by the editor. The subjects covered by the article included daily Taiwanese customs, folk art and crafts, folk belief and ceremonies, local history and geography, folk legends and tales, proverbs, songs, Taiwanese languages, and social systems. During the late Japanese colonial era, where resources and media were limited, the production and editing team were able to rely on Professor Kanaseki Takeo of Taihoku (Taipei) Imperial University as a central focus, to consolidate the forces of scholars and professionals such as scholar Toshio Ikeda, artist Tateishi Tetsuomi, photographer Matsuyama Kenzo, archaeologist Kokubu Naoichi and young female writer Huang Feng-Zi, and gathered close to 300 scholars to submit articles. It was one of the main active areas of Taiwanese and Japanese cultural figures.

This website uses the Guting version as the source for establishing this database. Due to copyright and intellectual property rights , full texts and images are only available for use at the National Chengchi University library.