Honhachiman Hata Cinema

The Ichikawakan Hall opened its doors in 1924 as the second movie theater to open in Ichikawa, with the Sanmatsu Hall being its first one, which opened one year prior in 1923. It was originally managed by Yatoyoshi Nakamura and was originally operated by Shochiku who operated the theater until the early stages of World War II when a chain called Aki Entertainment would take over. It originally housed 438 seats as of that time.

Its original manager Yatoyoshi left in 1929 and was replaced by Kunihei Shimazaki. That same year, Ichikawa would open its third movie theater known as Kasuga Kaikan. Shortly after the original town name of Ichikawa Town was changed to Ichikawa City as well as talkies coming into the film industry in Japan, there was a strike that happened in 1935, though I cannot find any details about it.

Shortly after Aki Entertainment took over the house, war restrictions happened. Those restrictions were introduced on February 1, 1942, which forced all movies in Japan to be distributed by the Film Distribution Company, and all movie theaters in Japan were incorporated into two systems, which were named red and white. The war also led a lot of changes to movie theaters across Japan, including policies and theater name changes. However, there’s a strange issue on the Film Yearbook Showa 17 Edition, showing that the theater is not listed. This is likely an error as it also happens in U.S. yearbooks as well almost all the time. Very notably enough, Aki Entertainment, also known as Eikichi, was the representative of Akikogyo Company Limited that was established in 1928, and served as the chairman of the board of directors of the company after the war despite the hard losses of several movie theaters because of air raids including the Gotanda Theater and Komatsugawa Electric Museum elsewhere in Chiba.

Despite the hall surviving the bombs and fury, Eikichi had no choice but to close the Ichikawakan Hall in 1949 when reconstruction happened nearby, relocated right in front of the north exit of Honhachiman Station, constructed a new two-story rebar and wooden theater called the Hachiman Theater, and opened in December 1949. It was the first movie theater in the Yawata area, and two more theaters were added in the same building known as the Ichikawa Shochikukan and the Nikkatsu Sanmatsukan. The main theater was renamed the Yawata Cultural Theater in 1953 and remained operating until 1969.

All three theaters closed in 1969 and were demolished for a completely renovation, and after a whole year in 1970, the Hachiman Hata Building opened its doors as a 70mm house, screening first-run smashes over the years, including “How The West Was Won” and “Tick… Tick… Tick…”, and three more screens were added in 1975, bringing a total to four screens. The main auditorium also changed its name to Hachiman Scala Theater.

As of the late-1970’s and continuing into the 1980’s and 1990’s, the theater housed a total of 1,250 seats under different auditorium names. The main auditorium, the Hachiman Scala Theater (or Screen 2) was located on the third floor, had the most capacity with a total of 600 seats, and ran foreign films and a lot of first-run American smashes over the years. Also located on the third floor is the Yawata Bunka Theater (or Screen 1), housing 320 seats and screened Toei films. The Yawata Cinema 1 and 2 (or Screens 3 and 4) housed 165 seats each on the second floor, with the Yawata Cinema 1 screening Toho films while Yawata Cinema 2 screened Shochiku films. The building itself is made of reinforced concrete with seven floors above ground and one basement floor.

In its later years, all four theaters are OMC card member theaters, which offers a moviegoer a 300-yen discount on admission fees. All four auditoriums were renamed Honhachiman Cultural Theater, Honhachiman Scala Theater, Honhachiman Cinema 1 and Honhachiman Cinema 2 during its final years. The main reason why being final, unfortunately, is because of the theater became another one of these multiplex victims. Following the 1999 launch of the nearby Warner Mycal Cinemas Ichikawa Myonori that April and the nearby Virgin Cinemas Ichikawa Colton Plaza that November that would eventually become AEON and TOHO theaters, the four screens of the Honhachiman Hata Cinema are immediately losing the battle.

Moviegoers fled to the multiplexes, leaving the then-52-year-old theater with a small number of moviegoers remaining. After 9/11 comes the loss of the Honhachiman Station attraction, as all four theaters closed on separate days. The Honhachiman Cinema 1 and Honhachiman Cinema 2 closed on September 23, 2001, and the Honhachiman Cultural Theater and Honhachiman Scala Theaters remained open until the following month, closing on October 21, 2001.

As of 2026 and the era of Punch the Monkey, the Hachiman Hata Building still stands with six floors above ground and the basement ground. On the site of the former quad cinema is the Handmade Izakaya Kantaro Honhachiman Store and the Court d'Azur Honhachiman Station Store on the third-to-fourth floors, the Geragera Honhachiman Store on the third floor only, and on the second floor containing the Yamauchi Farm Honhachiman Kitaguchi Station Store and Laugh Honhachiman North Exit Station Store. Also on the second floor contains the Cando Honhachiman North Exit Store, Mitsuru Dentistry, and the Sushiro Honhachiman North Exit Store. The fifth floor originally housed a 28-lane bowling alley called the Ikebukuro Hata Bowling Center but was closed on April 4, 2016 for unknown reasons.

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