Senbon Nikkatsu, Movie theatre in Kamigyō-ku, Japan
Senbon Nikkatsu is a three-storey reinforced-concrete cinema at 172 Gobancho, Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto, in the Nishijin area. Its flat facade carries a large white sign with red characters reading 千本日活 above a balcony with a black metal railing; the lower wall is plain, with narrow vertical windows above and a recessed entrance at street level.
Senbon Nikkatsu opened on 15 July 1961 as Gobangai Toho, a Toho first-run cinema built by Nishijin Shinchi Land and Building on the site of the former Gobancho pleasure quarters' union office. It was renamed Senbon Nikkatsu in 1963, the year Toho's lease ended. Around 1968 management passed to Miyazaki Kogyo, and in 1971 it switched to adult films.
The name refers to the Nikkatsu chain, though the cinema became an adult venue after Nikkatsu began its Roman Porno series in 1971. It stands on the site of the former Gobancho pleasure quarter, the setting of Mizukami Tsutomu's 1962 novel Gobancho Yūgirō, filmed by Tasaka Tomotaka in 1963. Today it screens three adult films per programme.
The cinema stands at 172 Gobancho, Uenagaocho, Senbon-nishiiru, Kamigyo-ku, just southwest of the Senbon-Nakadachi bus stop where the former Senbon and Horikawa tram lines crossed. City buses serve that stop, so the venue can be reached without a long walk. The entrance is recessed at ground level beneath the balcony.
The building stands on the site of the former office of the Gobancho pleasure quarter's guild, the setting of Mizukami Tsutomu's 1962 novel Gobancho Yūgirō, filmed by Tasaka Tomotaka in 1963. The quarter was abolished under the 1958 anti-prostitution law, and the land company built the cinema here.
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