A townscape of the Meiji period (Honai Machinami Museum)

The “Honai Machinami Museum” is an area in Honai where the streets are lined with buildings from the Meiji to the early Showa periods. A stroll around the town offers a vivid image of the life and industry of those days. The town of Honai prospered from maritime trade in the Meiji period, and was a leading area of civilisation and enlightenment as a result. This is the birthplace of the first bank in Ehime, the first spinning factory in Shikoku and in 1889 was where the first electric lamp was lit in Shikoku. You can see some of the remains of the civilization in the buildings such as the “Ehime-Sanshu”, the red brick warehouse of the former Toyo Boseki factory, the former western-style house of Wataro Shiraishi and the “Akarenga-dori” street. The historic townscape offers a nostalgic look at this bygone era.