Kamihaga Residence (Wax Museum)

The Kamihaga house stands at Uchiko, in the town that grew rich making wax from the berries of the wax tree. It is the largest surviving property of the trade, and the town runs it as a museum of wax making.

The Haga family laid the foundations of wax production at Uchiko and led its growth. The Kamihaga were a branch of them, who set up their own business on this site in 1861. The main line was known as the Honhaga, and this branch as the Kamihaga, which is where the house takes its name. The main house was built in 1894, when the trade was at its height.

What makes the property unusual is that the working buildings were not cleared away. The boiling sheds, the store for the branch business and the outbuildings all stand with the house, so that the place shows how a trade and a home shared one plot of ground. Ten of the buildings together are an Important Cultural Property.

An exhibition building in the grounds holds models of the stages of wax making, and a selection from a collection of 1,444 tools used for the work in Uchiko and the country around it. The tools are designated an Important Tangible Folk Cultural Property in their own right.