|
Nippon Kan
|
|
|
The Nippon Kan building, seen from the southeast (2007)
|
|
| Location: | Seattle, WA |
|---|---|
| Built: | 1909 |
| Architect: | Thompson & Thompson |
| Governing body: | Private |
| NRHP Reference#: | 78002754 [1] |
| Added to NRHP: | May 22, 1978 |
The Nippon Kan Theatre (日本館劇場 Nippon-kan Gekijō) is a former Japanese theater in Seattle, Washington, USA. Built in 1909 as a hotel, it was boarded up in 1942 during the Japanese American internment, but reopened in 1981. 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 converted into a messenger office. Its closure has been attributed to the decreasing number of people of Japanese descent in Seattle.[2]
The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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]