Theatre & culture
Shinjuku Suehirotei
- Mon
- 12:00–20:30
- Tue
- 12:00–20:30
- Wed
- 12:00–20:30
- Thu
- 12:00–20:30
- Fri
- 12:00–20:30
- Sat
- 12:00–20:30
- Sun
- 12:00–20:30
- Hours
- Day section: 12:00–16:15; evening section: 16:45–20:30. Closed December 30–31; special performances may change the schedule and conditions.
- Price
- Regular same-day ticket: ¥3,500; seniors ¥3,200; students ¥3,000; elementary school students ¥2,500.
- How to visit
- This is a theater for rakugo and other traditional performances; entry is by ticket with unreserved seating. Shoes must be removed in the tatami seating area.
- Hours
- Ticket required
- Hours
- Good after dark
- Hours
- About 225–255 min
Why it is worth the detour
This wooden rakugo theater became an unlikely angura venue in September 1967, when Shuji Terayama's Tenjo Sajiki presented its second production, "The Crime of Fatso Oyama," here. The collision of psychedelic experimental theater with a traditional vaudeville house captures the cultural disorder that made 1960s Shinjuku distinctive.
Shinjuku Suehirotei is a traditional wooden rakugo theater that became a hub for experimental theater in the 1960s. It offers a unique glimpse into the cultural history of Shinjuku.
The people behind this address
Documented connections, not celebrity trivia.
Shuji Terayama
Terayama's experimental company Tenjo Sajiki staged its second production at Suehirotei in 1967.
What else is close by
The nearest places we have written up, with straight-line distance from here.
600 m
Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building
Kenzo Tange's twin-towered city hall combines monumental late-modern architecture with free observatories overlooking the metropolis.
750 m
Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower
The Mode Gakuen Cocoon Tower is best known for its unique cocoon-shaped architectural design.
950 m
Omoide Yokocho
«Memory Lane» by Shinjuku's west exit: two alleys of tiny yakitori counters left over from the post-war black market.
1.0 km
Shinjuku Station West Exit Underground Plaza
In 1969, a handful of anti-Vietnam War singers with guitars grew into weekly gatherings of several thousand people here. Authorities countered by changing signs from "West Exit Underground Plaza" to "West Exit Underground Passage" and deploying riot police, turning a single word on a sign into an argument over who controlled public space.
1.2 km
Kabukicho
Japan's largest entertainment district, named after a kabuki theatre that was never built; the Godzilla head looks down from the Toho building.
1.4 km
Shinjuku Golden Gai
This maze of tiny two-story bars began with postwar black-market traders and later became an unlicensed red-light district. After prostitution was outlawed in 1958, its cramped rooms became refuges for writers, filmmakers and theater people; regulars Kenji Nakagami and Ryuzo Saki won the Akutagawa and Naoki prizes simultaneously in 1976, sealing the district's bohemian reputation.
Walk it with the stories
This address is one stop among many. Our routes and quests link them into a walk that makes sense on the ground.