Nippon Kan Theatre

The Nippon Kan Theatre (日本館劇場, Nippon-kan Gekijō) is a former Japanese theater in Seattle, Washington, United States. Built in 1909 as a hotel, it was boarded up in 1942 during the Japanese American internment, but reopened in 1981 through the restorative efforts of Seattle architect Edward M. Burke and his wife Betty. It is located in the Kobe Park Building at 628 S. Washington Street, in the former Japantown section of Seattle's International District. In 2005 it was sold to ABC Legal Services and was used as converted office space. A replica of the curtain hangs on the wall along with several historic photographs. Its original closure has been attributed to the decreasing number of people of Japanese descent in Seattle.[2]

Nippon Kan
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
The Nippon Kan building, seen from the southeast (2007)
Location	Seattle, Washington
Coordinates	47.601027°N 122.325387°W
Built	1909
Architect	Thompson & Thompson
NRHP reference No.	78002754 [1]
Added to NRHP	May 22, 1978

The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Nippon Kan's 1909–1915 stage curtain is now used in the Tateuchi Story Theater, Wing Luke Museum.

The theater's original stage curtain (used 1909–1915) survives, and now serves a similar purpose on the stage of the Tateuchi Story Theater of the nearby Wing Luke Museum. The curtain covered with advertisements was rediscovered in the 1970s. Because it used an asbestos material, it is now encased in a resin.[3]

See also

• History of the Japanese in Seattle

Notes

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
2. "Seattle loses icon of Japanese heritage" by Cecilia Kang, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, November 26, 2005, retrieved March 28, 2006.
3. Marc Ramirez, Nippon Kan's long-lost curtain back on stage, Seattle Times, May 19, 2008; online version modified May 20, 2008. Accessed online 29 December 2008.