Small 70-pp. volume on Japanese theaters, comprised of approximately 20 pp. of text and the rest chiefly illustrations and full-page plates, with floor plans, elevations, sketches, and reproductions from photographs. Octavo (7 1/8 x 4 7/8 inches). Original printed wrappers illustrated to front cover with an elevation and a floor plan. Some mild toning and foxing to wrappers, light wear to base of spine, rusting around staples to interior, first two pages separated from staples, overall very good. Tokyo: Kenchiku Kenkyusha, Showa 11 (1936).

This slim volume opens with an overview of Japanese theaters, many designed by prominent Japanese architects, including the Tokyo Takarazuka Theater, the Nippon Theater, the Osaka Kabuki Theater, the Kabuki-za in Tokyo, and the Yuraku-za Theater.

The second section discusses theaters around the world, including the New Southtown Theater in Chicago; the Paramount Theater in Oakland, California; the Cape Cinema in Dennis, Massachusetts; the Capitol Theater in Detroit; the Titania-Palast in Berlin; the Trans-Lux Cinema in New York; and the Emelka Palast in Hamburg. Section three contains entries for the 1930 Ukrainian State Theater Competition, with entries from Kawakita Renshichiro, Walter Gropius, Norman Bel Geddes, Hans Poelzig, Marcel Breuer, and other noted architects.

This profusely illustrated volume represents the 4th in a series of 6 total volumes from the architectural planning series, with the other volumes covering topics such as housing, stores, restaurants, and apartments. Very scarce; as of January 2026, OCLC locates only a single holding in a Japanese library of the second volume of this series focusing on shops, and no holdings of this volume anywhere in the world.

Book ID: 53623

Price: $675.00