Taipei Asahi Theater

The site of Taipei’s first theater, Naniwa-za (浪花座), which opened in 1897 as a venue for performing arts and public assembly. In 1907 entertainment entrepreneur Takamatsu Toyojirō (高松豐次郎), a pioneer of early Taiwanese cinema, took it over and rebuilt it as Asahi-za (朝日座). A second reconstruction followed, reopening at the end of 1910 with seating for around 600 as one of the city’s first venues given over to longer cinema runs. An Inari shrine (朝日座稻荷社) was added to the grounds in 1912. The wooden building fell into decay and did not survive beyond the early decades of Japanese rule, and nothing remains at the site today.