Shuraku 1 & 2

Despite the original building being burned down by the Gifu Air Raids of July 9, 1945, the Gifu Land Development Company began recruiting employees on August 24 of the same year, and opened the Shurakukan Theater in a barracks building in November 1945 as the city’s first “steam-heated” motion picture house after the war. Prior to its opening, there are three movie theaters in downtown Gifu City, which were the Midonokan Theater, Seiunkan, Theater and the Shochikukan Theater.

By 1957, the number of movie theaters expanded to 11 in the heart of downtown. After subsequent renovations, the Shurakukan was converted into a 1,252-seat twin, and 70mm projection was installed in one of the auditoriums. This marks the names “Shuraku 70mm Theater” (752 seats) and “Jiyugekijo” (500 seats, later renamed New Shuraku), showcasing numerous hit foreign and Japanese films.

Since the late 1990s, the auditoriums names were unified as “Shuraku 1 & 2”. Unfortunately due to the multiplex rise comes to the fallout of the Shuraku. During its final two days of operations, both audoitoriums played a number of classics, including “Kramer Vs. Kramer”, “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind”, and “The Barefoot Contessa”.

The Shuraku closed for the final time on April 10, 2006, with Screen 1 screening Al Pacino’s “The Godfather” and Screen 2 screening Gene Kelly’s “Singin' In The Rain” as their final farewell films. Screen 1 last operated with 452 seats while Screen 2 last operated with 180 seats. It was demolished immediately afterward and the Gifu Takashimaya Annex was built on the site of the former building in December of that same year, with the MUJI Gifu Takashimaya store being located inside the building.

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