Shuraku 1 & 2

50sSNIPES on February 26, 2026 at 7:32 am

On April 3, 1955, the Shuraku was rebuilt as a three-story building with steel-framed reinforced concrete, reopening that day with Edmund Purdom in “The Student Prince” in CinemaScope. As of that time, it originally housed 850 seats as a single-screener. The renovation lasted two months between February 1 and April 2, 1955 with an estimate cost of 35 million yen ($224,305 in USD).

This was also a replacement of an earlier theater called the Shurakukan that opened in 1920, and yes it was the exact theater that got destroyed by the Gifu Air Raids of July 9, 1945. The original building when it reopened in November 1945 is wooden.

The Jiyugekijo auditorium (also known as Free Theater in English) was also a popular first-run house that also runs American blockbusters as well, including “E.T.”, which attracted 100,000 moviegoers over a three-month period between Late 1982 and Early 1983. The Jiyugekijo name lasted until renovation on March 8, 1999, when the auditorium was renamed “Shuraku 2”.

Exactly one day after its final April 10, 2006 closure, it was demolished hours later on April 11.