1895年フランスのリュミエール兄弟により、映写機の原形となる「シネマトグラフ投影機」が公開された。その8年後の明治３６年、東京浅草で電気仕掛けの器具類を並べX光線の実験などをしていた「電友館」が改称し、活動写真常設館「浅草電気館」が誕生した。日本に入ってきた活動写真を上映するにあたり、「国家のため電気知識の普及を意図し、電気の名をとどめるように」との条件があり、その名を「電気館」とした。浅草電気館の隆盛により、全国に「電気館」という名の劇場が次々と誕生していった。
明治4４年、窪寺喜之助が熊本で初めての活動写真常設館「電気館」を現在のシャワー通りに創設。その好況に刺激され新市街周辺は「世界館」「朝日館」「松竹館」「相撲館」などが立ち並び市民の娯楽の中心となっていった。
大正３年、現在地に2代目電気館が移転、開館。定員900人のまさしく活動写真ファンに応えた近代建築であった。松竹キネマ、帝国キネマ、ユニバーサル、パラマウント、フォックスなどの作品を上映し、映画ファンを熱狂させた。
当時の映画は洋画・邦画とも無声映画であり、スクリーンの脇の弁士が説明にあたり、観客席の前の和洋合奏団が場面に合わせて演奏をしていた。 |
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大正中期になり尾上松之助やチャップリン映画など名作として残り得たものがかなり現れてくる。この頃から活動写真を「映画」と呼ぶようになった。
時代は移り昭和３年、地下１階地上４階、物販や飲食店がテナントとして入り、２・３・４階が映画館、屋上には娯楽施設があり、エレベーターも設置された当時としては画期的な３代目の電気館が落成した。この後新市街一帯は映画館街として急速に近代化した。
第２次大戦中は地下室が人々の避難場所となるなど、戦前、戦中、戦後を通して活躍した建物も再開発のため平成７年に現在の電気館ビルへ改築され、平成11年にリニューアル、ホールロビーにカウンターバーを配置してくつろげる空間となっている。
"The cinematograph projector" which became the original form of the film projector was shown in 1895 by French lumiere brothers. "The electric friend building" which I displayed the instrumentations of the electric device in Asakusa, Tokyo in 1903 the eight years later, and did the experiments of X rays renamed it, and moving picture theater "Asakusa electricity building" was born. There was a condition that I "aimed at the spread of electric knowledge for a nation and seemed to leave the electric name" on showing the moving picture which was in Japan and did the name with "electricity building". By the prosperity of Asakusa Electric building, a theater named "the electricity building" was born in sequence in the whole country. |
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In 1911, KINOSUKE KUBODERA founds the first moving picture theater "electricity building" according to the current shower in Kumamoto. It was stimulated by the prosperous conditions, and "world building" "Asahi building" "Shochiku building" "sumo building" stood, and the new city outskirts played a key role of the civic entertainment.
Electricity building moves to the present location for the second generation and, in 1914, is opened. It was the modern architecture that affected a moving picture fan definitely of 900 capacity. Shochiku cinema, an empire cinema were universal and showed works such as Paramount Bed, Fox and intoxicated a movie fan.
The then movie was a silent film with a foreign film / a Japanese movie, and an eloquent speaker beside the screen dealt with explanation, and a Kazuhiro ensemble corps in front of the seat played it in total in the scene. The thing which it is the middle in the Taisho era, and was able to be left as masterpieces such as Matsunosuke Onoe or Chaplin movie considerably appears. I came to call a moving picture "a movie" from these days.
The times changed, and, in 1928, the first floor ground the fourth floor under the ground, and a restaurant entered as a tenant, and an amusement had 2.3.4 floors on a movie theater, the shop, and electricity building for the third generation when I was epoch-making for those days when the elevator was installed was completed. The new city whole area modernized rapidly after this as a movie theater street.
As for the whole World War II, a basement becomes the refuge place of people, and the building which played an active part through the round back in during the second World War is rebuilt for redevelopment in 1995 to a current electricity building building, and it is it before the war with the space that I post a counter bar in a renewal, the hall lobby in 1999, and can make itself at home. |
