Kokura Showakan

Isamu Higuchi opened the Kokura Showakan on August 20, 1939 as both a playhouse and a movie theater, but would eventually become a full-time movie theater after World War II screening Japanese films from Toei and Shochiku, but would also add Nikkatsu adult movies in the 1970’s as well.

In 1982, the site of an abandoned pachinko parlor was renovated into an auditorium, and the theater became a twin. As of 1990, Kitakyushu City had a dozen other theaters including their own Toho, Toei, Shochiku, and SY theaters. The Kokura Showakan at the time was a foreign roadshow theater, which attracted many theatergoers. Unfortunately because of other multiplexes expanding towards the area, roadshow films were dropped in 2004 and began screening classic movies under the ownership of Higuchi Akimasa.

The theater did considered closing at one time during the early-2010’s, but in 2012, Akimasa’s daughter, Tomomi Higuchi, became its third owner, and the theater began to screen art films as well. At this point, the Showakan was the only art house theater in Kitakyushu, and also had a variety of special events, including special features with Japanese actor Takakura Ken, talk events with cultural and film figures, and events in collaboration with local businesses and government.

The twin-screener originally housed 370 seats, with 270 green seats in Screen 1 and 100 red seats in Screen 2. In August 2020, 42 seats inside Screen 1 were replaced with Mitsuishi Ken sofas which led to Screen 1’s downgrade of its seating capacity to 228 seats. The Coronavirus pandemic also closed one of its auditoriums for safety reasons at one time.

In the early hours of April 19, 2022, a large-scale fire broke out at the neighboring Tanga Market, burning a total of 1,924 square meters and 42 stores. The Kokura Showakan narrowly missed the fire, and in order to maintain the liveliness of the affected area, restaurants renovated the lobby of Screen 2 to create a “gathering place” and opened the building as a rest area for disaster victims. It suspended operations for a while, but resumed regular screenings on April 30 of that same year.

Unfortunately, however, on August 10 of the same year, another fire broke out at Tanga Market, and the entire theater was completely burned down to the ground. The films that had been entrusted to the theater by the distributor and a handwritten letter that actor Takakura Ken had sent to Tomomi were also damaged in the fire. Higuchi initially said that he “did not have the financial resources to rebuild it”. However, after receiving encouragement from local residents, including regular moviegoers, he attempted to have Tomomi visit the area and hold regular film-related events, starting with a silent film event planned for November 27 of the same year at the Rihga Royal Hotel Kokura as a tribute. Efforts to support the reconstruction and reopening of the theater have also grown, and in November 2022, 17,000 signatures from volunteers both in Japan and abroad were submitted to the mayor of Kitakyushu. In addition, approximately 40 million yen was raised through crowdfunding and approximately 10 million yen was donated to cover the 90 million yen required for reconstruction. said that he carried a copy of Takakura Ken’s reply to a fan letter in his notebook and read it from time to time for encouragement. On November 10 of the same year, the anniversary of Takakura’s death, he announced his determination to rebuild the theater at Takakura’s monument in Fukuoka Prefecture, saying, “Let me dream together with you”.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held at the site on April 12, 2023, and construction work began the following day on the 13th. The aim was to reopen in time for the Kitakyushu International Film Festival in December, and the plan is to reduce the number of screens to one and create a public space that can be freely accessed. The theater reopened on December 8, 2023 with a special screening of the 1988 Italian film “Cinema Paradiso”, as a 134-seat single-screener.

As of 2025, the Kokura Showakan was one of a handful of Japanese theaters left to have 35mm projection which was used in rare occasions as well as both DVD and Blu-Ray projection.

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