Yokaichi and Gokoku is the reason most travellers come to Uchiko. The preserved district runs for about 600 metres, with merchant houses from the Edo, Meiji, and Taisho periods standing close to the old road. The yellow plaster walls are the detail that stays with you; they make the street feel warmer and earthier than the white-walled towns elsewhere in Japan.
This was the heart of Uchiko's wax trade. Walk slowly, because the pleasure is in the rhythm of latticed windows, tiled roofs, narrow shopfronts, and small workshops rather than one single monument. The district is at its best in the morning, before the day-trippers arrive from Matsuyama.