Uchikoza

Uchikozawooden theatrekabukiUchikoTaisho

Ehime · Uchiko

33.5512°N, 132.6503°E

Uchikoza was built in 1916 by eighteen local businessmen who had made money from wax and wanted somewhere to watch kabuki. It is a two-storey wooden playhouse with a revolving stage, a trap lift, sunken box seating on tatami and a hanamichi walkway through the audience — the full Edo apparatus, put up in the Taisho period by a town that could afford it.

It was nearly demolished in 1982, restored instead, and it still works: touring kabuki, bunraku, rakugo and local performances run through the year. When nothing is on you can walk in for ¥400 and go anywhere — onto the stage, under it to see the hand-turned revolve, up into the boxes. Very few historic theatres let you do that. It is five minutes from the preserved wax-merchant street.

Essential Information

Opening Hours

Viewing during opening hours when no performance is scheduled

Closed: Confirm the performance schedule before travelling

Entrance Fee

¥400 for viewing | Performances ticketed separately

Best Season

Year-round

Visit Duration

45–60 minutes

Getting There

Access Information

2102 Uchiko, Uchiko, Kita District. About 10 minutes on foot from JR Uchiko Station on the Yosan Line. Admission ¥400 for viewing when no performance is scheduled, which allows access to the stage, the understage machinery and the seating. Performances run through the year and are ticketed separately — confirm the schedule before travelling.

Insider Guide

Premium

**Go under the stage.** The revolve and the trap lift are hand-operated and the space beneath is open to visitors on a viewing ticket. That is the best ¥400 in Ehime. **Check whether a performance is on.** Viewing access is only available when the theatre is not in use. If something is scheduled you either buy a ticket for it or come back. **Stand on the hanamichi.** The walkway through the audience is walkable on a viewing ticket, which almost no other historic theatre permits. **It was nearly demolished.** The 1982 decision to restore rather than clear it is why the building exists, and it started the whole preservation movement in Uchiko. **Combine with the wax street.** Yokaichi-Gokoku, the preserved district, is a few minutes away and is where the money that built this came from.

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