The house that wax built
The Honhaga Family Residence (本芳我家住宅, Honhaga-ke Jūtaku) stands in Uchiko Town, Kita District, Ehime Prefecture, and its four buildings, the main house, kitchen block, birthing-room-and-bath block and storehouse, were designated an Important Cultural Property on 11 September 1990.
Uchiko owed its wealth to mokurō, a vegetable wax pressed from the berries of the sumac tree and used for candles, cosmetics and medicine. From the late Edo period into Meiji the town ranked among the leading producers in Japan. The Haga family entered the trade late in the Edo period and, by the Meiji era, was shipping abroad under the trademark Asahizuru, the Rising-Sun Crane. The Honhaga were the senior line of that family; thirteen branch households, among them the Kamihaga, came out of this one house.
The residence sits inside the Yōkaichi-Gokoku Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings, a nationally protected townscape. The main house and storehouse face the old highway on its western side, the kitchen block stands behind the house, and a garden occupies the northern part of the plot. The street is lined with Machiya townhouses standing shoulder to shoulder; the Honhaga house is conspicuously larger than its neighbours, and far more heavily ornamented.
The four buildings
The designation treats four buildings as a single property. The main house is dated 1884 and the other three to around the same year, so the compound went up as one campaign rather than accumulating over generations.
Main House
13.9 metres by 12.7 metres, two storeys, roofed in the Irimoya-zukuri hipped-and-gabled form with eaves on the east and west faces and Sangawara-buki pantiles above. An entrance is attached on the north and a linking section to the storehouse on the south. The elevation facing the highway is sealed in Shikkui lime plaster, which turns the whole street front into one continuous white plane.
Storehouse
Built in Dozo-zukuri, 11.8 metres by 7.9 metres over two storeys, with a Kirizuma-zukuri gabled roof in pantile. It adjoins the main house on the street and carries just as much decoration on its road-facing side.
Kitchen Block
12.2 metres by 3.6 metres, partly two-storeyed, with a stepped gabled roof in pantile and a lean-to attached on the north. This is the working building, set behind the main house, and its long narrow plan is a good index of how deep these plots run back from the street.
Birthing Room, Privy and Bath
A hipped-and-gabled block of 6.5 metres by 3.8 metres with the bath projecting west, that projection measuring 4.7 metres by 5.5 metres under a gabled roof, joined to the main house by a covered passage and tiled throughout in pantile. Childbirth, washing and the privy were all functions kept out of the main house, and here they are gathered into one structure. The earthen wall enclosing the compound was added to the designation as a Tsuketari subsidiary item.
Why it was designated
The Agency for Cultural Affairs gives three grounds: the elaborate treatment of the street-facing parts of the main house and storehouse, using plaster relief among other techniques; the quality of the reception rooms inside; and the importance of the house, together with the Kamihaga residence, within the Uchiko townscape.
Two things are being valued at once. One is the craftsmanship, where the money made from wax went straight into the surface of the building. The other is the role the house plays in a protected streetscape that is itself a designated heritage. The Honhaga Family Residence was not listed as a fine mansion in isolation, but as the point where an industry and a townscape meet.
Sources disagree on two figures. The Agency for Cultural Affairs dates the main house to 1884 and counts four designated buildings; Uchiko Town's own page gives 1889 and two buildings. This article follows the Agency's database, which is the authoritative national record.
Reading the front wall
Stand on the old highway and the white wall turns out to be full of incident. Around the lower part runs Namako-kabe, flat tiles laid in a hexagonal tortoiseshell grid with the joints raised into thick plaster ridges. The technique sheds rain and slows fire, and the pattern it leaves is a bonus that the builders clearly enjoyed.
Up in the gable, the Gegyo pendant is carved as a crane. It is worked in kote-e, a technique in which lime plaster is built up with a trowel into relief, and cranes, tortoises and waves turn up in plaster across the compound. The Onigawara ridge-end tiles are equally worked.
On the storehouse wall is the Asahizuru trademark, again in plaster relief. This was the mark the family used through the Meiji period, and Uchiko Town records that wax carrying it was shipped overseas. Putting a trademark on a signboard is ordinary commerce; building it permanently into a wall says something else about how the household saw its business.
Follow the decoration and your eye climbs. Tortoiseshell tiling at waist height, plaster relief across the middle of the wall, the pendant and ridge tiles up at the roofline. Somebody thought carefully about what a person walking down this street would see, and at what height.
Visiting
The Honhaga Family Residence is still a private home and the interior is closed to the public. What can be seen is the exterior and part of the garden, with the garden open from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The street front is visible at any hour.
The address is 2888 Uchiko, Uchiko Town, Kita District. From Uchiko Station on the JR Yosan Line the walk takes about 20 minutes, uphill once you enter the preservation district. Drivers use the townscape car park. Enquiries go to the Yōkaichi-Gokoku Townscape Preservation Centre on 0893-44-5212.
Ordinary photography of the exterior and the open part of the garden presents no problem. Since people live here, avoid pointing a camera through the gate or in at the windows. For commercial shoots, clear it with the preservation centre first.
If you can choose your hour, come in the morning. The main house and storehouse face west onto the highway, so morning light strikes the front wall directly and throws the tortoiseshell tiling and the plaster relief into sharp relief. By late afternoon the same wall has flattened into a blank white sheet.
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Q&A
- Can you go inside the Honhaga Family Residence?
- No. The house is still lived in and the interior is closed to the public. Visitors can see the exterior and part of the garden, which is open from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The street front can be viewed at any time.
- How do you get to the Honhaga Family Residence, and where do you park?
- The address is 2888 Uchiko, Uchiko Town, Kita District, Ehime Prefecture. It is about a 20-minute walk from Uchiko Station on the JR Yosan Line, uphill through the preservation district. Drivers should use the townscape car park. Enquiries: Yōkaichi-Gokoku Townscape Preservation Centre, 0893-44-5212.
- How many buildings at the Honhaga Family Residence are designated?
- Four: the main house, the kitchen block, the birthing-room-privy-and-bath block, and the storehouse. They were designated on 11 September 1990, with the enclosing earthen wall added as a subsidiary item. Uchiko Town's own page states two buildings, so the sources differ on this point.
- What should you look for on the outside of the Honhaga Family Residence?
- The street-facing walls of the main house and storehouse. Look for tortoiseshell-patterned tiled plasterwork at waist height, plaster reliefs of cranes, tortoises and waves across the wall, and a crane carved into the gable pendant. The storehouse wall carries the family's Asahizuru trademark in relief.
- How is the Honhaga Family Residence related to the Kamihaga residence?
- The Honhaga were the senior line of the Haga family and the Kamihaga were one of thirteen branch households that came out of it. Both houses stand in the same preservation district, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs cites the pair together when explaining the importance of this house within the Uchiko townscape.
Basic Information
| Name | Honhaga Family Residence (Uchiko Town, Kita District, Ehime Prefecture) / 本芳我家住宅 |
|---|---|
| Location | 2888 Uchiko, Uchiko Town, Kita District, Ehime Prefecture |
| Designation | Important Cultural Property (structure) |
| Year Designated | 11 September 1990 |
| Quantity | 4 buildings (main house, kitchen block, birthing room with privy and bath, storehouse), with the earthen wall as a subsidiary item |
| Dimensions | Main house 13.9 metres by 12.7 metres. Storehouse 11.8 metres by 7.9 metres |
| Owner | Privately owned; no owner name is recorded in the Agency for Cultural Affairs database |
| Public Access | Interior closed. Exterior and part of the garden only; garden open 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. |
References
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Honhaga Family Residence, Main House
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/102/3406
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Honhaga Family Residence, Kitchen Block
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/102/3407
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Honhaga Family Residence, Birthing Room, Privy and Bath
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/102/3408
- Agency for Cultural Affairs, National Cultural Properties Database: Honhaga Family Residence, Storehouse
- https://kunishitei.bunka.go.jp/heritage/detail/102/3409
- Uchiko Town: Honhaga Family Residence, Important Cultural Property
- https://www.town.uchiko.ehime.jp/site/hozonsenta/honhagake.html
- Cultural Heritage Online: Honhaga Family Residence, Main House
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/191243
- Cultural Heritage Online: Honhaga Family Residence, Storehouse
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/187556
- Cultural Heritage Online: Honhaga Family Residence, Birthing Room, Privy and Bath
- https://online.bunka.go.jp/heritages/detail/157945
Last verified: 2026.09.04
Cultural Treasures in the Same Area
All are within walking distance in the same area, so we recommend visiting them together.
- Motoyoshiga Family Residence (Uchiko Town, Kita District, storehouse 0.00 km
- Motoyoshiga Family Residence (Uchiko Town, Kita District, Main house 0.02 km
- Motoyoshiga Family Residence (Uchiko Town, Kita District, kitchen 0.02 km
- Motoyoshiga Family Residence (Uchiko Town, Kita District, Birthing room, toilet and bath 0.03 km