Breeding of Japanese honey bee as a hobby has been keeping at everywhere in Japan except Hokkaido and Okinawa. An attention from ethnological view was paid on it as the traditional technology, and the investigation result was reported.
Modern breeding method of western honeybee is much different from that of Japanese honeybee. But the modern method was derived from the traditional method by successive improvements.
As the nest, wood trunk, which was hollow out the like natural nest, was used with wood cover at top and bottom. In Wakayama, the nest is called as Gora. In Ehime wooden box (ca 40 x 40 x 50 cm) is used for the nest.

Ehime wooden box	"Gora"

In either case, hives are taken out of the nest and honey is filter off though sieves. The hives are destroyed in this method, then the bees have to make new hives. It makes low efficiency of honey harvest.
Some of the nest boxes, so far I saw, are shown below.

Hyougo mikata	Magano kamikouti
Ehime hizikawa	Kyouto asiu

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