Theater Location 
Entering the 20th century, "theater" to most Tokyo-ites still meant Kabuki and Noh plays, both mainstays of the Asakusa theater district. However, Japan's onward Westernization, firmly entrenched in Japanese politics and society at the onset of the Russo-Japanese War, challenged local playwrights to mount Western-style operatic and musical productions that had appeal to growing middle- and upper-class sophistication. The Teikoku Gekijo Kaisha (Imperial Theatre Company) was founded in 1910 with the purpose of building Japan's first Western-style theater and producing the country's first non-Japanese theater 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.
(Above:) The Imperial Gekiziyo Tokyo. The theater was built in the Gallic style, with Italian Renaissance influences that were common to opera houses of the time. As originally built, the theater's dome (see above) was topped with a statue of a Kabuki player. It was lost during the 1923 earthquake.
(Above:) Imperial-theatre. Many of the Imperial Theatre's earliest productions were translations of foreign operas, plays and musicals. A translation ofHamlet, written by Tsubouchi Shoyo and produced by the Bungei Kyokai (Literary Arts Society) in 1911, was the theater's first complete work performed on the theater's stage. The Magic Flute, produced in early 1912 with an all-Japanese cast, was the theater's first operatic performance.
(Above:) Empire Theatre and Metropolitan Police Board, Tokyo. One of the Imperial Theatre's earliest benefactors was Shibusawa Eiichi, a Meiji-era financier who had already helped organize the Bank of Japan, the NYK shipping company, and the private railway company that put through the links to Japan's far north. Members of the Imperial household, including Prince Saionji and Prince Ito, were also benefactors of the theater.
(Above:) Imperial Theatre. The Teikoku Gekijo, operated originally by Toho Kabushiki kaisha (later to become the famous movie company), had seating for 1700 theater-goers. A Kabuki troupe was among the theater's earliest performance companies but the Imperial never seriously competed with the city's more well-known Kabuki theaters, especially those in Asakusa and Nihonbashi.
(Above:) Imperial Theatre. In January, 1914 [Gilbert and Sullivan's] "Madame Butterfly," controversial at the time for its depiction of East-West relations, colonialism, and Westernization, was performed for the first time at the theater. Among the uniquely Japanese elements included in the performance that were not in the original was a medley of folk songs (e.g. O-Edo Nihonbashi) and the singing of the Kimigayo, the national anthem.
(Above:) Imperial Theatre. G.V. Rossi, a choreography and director of light opera, was hired in 1912 to be the theater's first permanent repetory troupe manager. Rossini would be forced to resign in 1916. His legacy at the Imperial survived, though. Many of the performers he trained became leading actors and actresses in the Asakusa theaters and opera houses.