Day 272: Uchida Coffee Farm, Kealakekua, Hawai’i
📌APIA Every Day (272) - The Uchida Coffee Farm, located near Kealakekua on the Big Island of Hawai’i, is a historic site that highlights the development of the Kona coffee district during the early 20th century. Established in 1913 by Daisaku Uchida, an immigrant from the Kumamoto region of Japan, the farm was representative of a larger agricultural shift occurring in Hawai’i. While coffee and sugar plantations dominated the economy in the late 19th century, by the early 1900s, coffee prices had declined, and many plantation owners pivoted to sugarcane cultivation. Uchida and other immigrants, given small parcels of land, started small-scale coffee farms—a practice that would define the Kona region's agricultural landscape for generations.
Uchida was one of over 100,000 Japanese immigrants who arrived in Hawai’i during this era. In 1906, he came under a three-year contract to work on a sugar plantation. After fulfilling his contract, he worked various jobs around the island before marrying his cousin, Shima Maruo, in 1912. The following year, the Uchidas leased seven acres of land from Greenwell Ranch in Kona and began cultivating coffee. By 1925, as their farm prospered, the Uchidas expanded five acres and built a new home, two water tanks, and a Japanese bathing tub (called a furo) on their property. The Uchida house, a single-story building with six bedrooms, combined vernacular Hawai'ian architecture with Japanese tradition. In 1926, facilities to help expedite the coffee growing process, including a kuridana (cherry processing mill) and hoshidana (Kona-invented coffee drying platform), were added to the site.
The Uchida family, including Daisaku and Shima's five children, lived and worked on the farm for 81 years, until 1994. In 1999, the Kona Historical Society acquired the property and transformed it into the Living History Farm museum. Today, visitors can explore the well-preserved property and learn about early coffee farming in Kona and the Japanese residents who helped to spearhead the business. Through its preservation, the farm serves as a reminder of the lasting impact of immigrant labor on Hawai’i’s agricultural development and underlines the island’s diverse cultural heritage.
Written by Avneet Dhaliwal
LEARN MORE:
Kona Historical Society: Uchida Farm House
Historic Hawaii Foundation: Uchida Coffee Farm
therebychance: Gourmet Kona Coffee Roots Reach Deep Into Japan
SAH ARCHIPEDIA: Kona Coffee Living History Farm (D. Uchida Coffee Farm)
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