Photograph Album of THE IMPERIAL THEATRE, TOKIO, JAPAN.

Title + 7 Original photographs, Image size 10 1/2 x 8 ins, creasing to the bottom right corners. Held in a folding portfolio with ties and bone fastener. All edges gilt. Local playwrights were encouraged to mount Western-style operatic and musical productions that had appeal to a growing middle- and upper class sophistication. The Teikoku Gekijo Kaisha (Imperial Theatre Company), had seating for 1700, was founded in 1910 with the purpose of building Japan's first Western-style theatre and producing the country's first non-Japanese theatre programs. The result was the Teikoku Gekijo (Imperial Theatre, also known as the Imperial Garden Theatre), completed in 1911 on land in the Marunouchi district across from the Imperial Palace plaza. Many of the Imperial Theatre's earliest productions were translations of foreign operas, plays and musicals. A translation of Hamlet, written by Tsubouchi Shoyo and produced by the Bungei Kyokai (Literary Arts Society) in 1911, was the theatre's first complete work performed on the theatre's stage. The Magic Flute, produced in early 1912 with an all-Japanese cast, was the theatre's first operatic performance.