Nippon Kan Theatre

The Nippon Kan Company was formed on January 30, 1908 by several leading businessmen of Seattle's Japanese community, including banker Tatsuya Arai and shipper Heiji Okuda, to fund the construction of a building that would serve as a meeting hall, theater and dormitory for new immigrants.[2] The building, had it been completed on time, would have also served as an information center and rest stop for Japanese tourists coming to the city to visit the Alaska-Yukon Exposition.[3] By the time construction finally started on the $80,000 building in 1909, the project was now under the control of the Japanese Association of Washington, with Charles T. Takahashi as president, Heiji Okuda as vice-president and S. Hyashi as treasurer.The Nippon Kan Theater served as a de facto Japanese community center in Seattle prior to World War II.The theater 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.
The Nippon Kan's 1909–1915 stage curtain is now used in the Tateuchi Story Theater, Wing Luke Museum.
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