Chubu, Japan · City
Home to Kenroku-en Garden, the Higashi Chaya geisha district, and a strong tradition of gold-leaf and lacquerware craftsmanship.
Train — Direct Shinkansen from Tokyo
One of Japan's three most beautiful gardens, offering a different look with each season.
Cobblestone streets lined with well-preserved traditional teahouses.
A circular museum with free admission, home to Leandro Erlich's famous 'Swimming Pool' installation; its interactive, explorable exhibits also make it popular with families with children.
A Yoshio Taniguchi building devoted to the philosopher who explained Zen to the West, built around a mirror pond designed for sitting in silence: the museum is itself a meditation practice.
Kanazawa keeps three working chaya districts and its geiko give periodic public performances of dance and shamisen, far more accessible than a private ozashiki evening. Check the calendar, because open performances are few each year.
A sushi counter with fish from the Sea of Japan, especially good in winter; the city competes on equal terms with the great sushi capitals.
A Buddhist temple with secret passageways, trapdoors, and hidden staircases, built to keep watch over the approaches to the castle; visits are by advance reservation only.
A market for fresh seafood from the Sea of Japan, with stalls where you can eat on the spot.
A booked session of dance, music and games with geiko at a tea house in Higashi or Kazuemachi; there are programmes open to foreigners with an interpreter.
A municipal shop selling pieces from the city's ten traditional crafts, with an explanation of each technique; the best place to grasp at a glance why Kanazawa is the country's craft capital.
Kanazawa produces nearly all of Japan's gold leaf; a hands-on workshop on applying it.
Unlike Kyoto yuzen, the Kaga style paints realistic flowers, even with leaves eaten by insects; you can watch the masters work and try it yourself.
The grounds of the former castle of the Maeda lords, rebuilt using traditional techniques and located across from Kenroku-en Garden.
Here oden is eaten all year round, with sea snail and wheat gluten, and the local curry is black, thick and served on a metal tray with shredded cabbage.
The largest nightlife district in Hokuriku, and a step away the lantern-lit walk along the Asano river, in the city's third geisha quarter.
A workshop for painting a piece of Kutani-yaki, the five-colour porcelain of the Kaga region, at a working kiln.
Streets lined with earthen walls where mid-ranking samurai once lived, including one residence open to the public.
The national home of kogei moved here from Tokyo in 2020, into two restored Meiji-era military buildings next to Kenroku-en.
Grilled blackthroat seaperch, the most sought-after fish in Hokuriku, and jibuni, a thick duck stew that was the lordly dish of Kaga cuisine.
Dedicated to Maeda Toshiie, the lord who founded the city; its Meiji-era gate carries coloured stained glass of Dutch influence, something unheard of at a shrine.
A guided tasting at the city's oldest brewery, still producing in the same neighbourhood since the 17th century.
The head shrine of the cult of Mount Hakusan, one of Japan's three sacred mountains, and a temple from the year 717 carved into rock caves.
Half an hour away by train, three historic hot spring towns with contemporary-design public baths and ryokan of deep tradition.
A public centre where craftspeople on fellowships work in full view of visitors; entry is free and you can talk to them.
A hot spring resort with 1,300 years of history within Kanazawa's own municipal boundaries, in a valley 40 minutes from the centre.
A festival held in early June commemorating feudal lord Maeda Toshiie's entry into Kanazawa, featuring a grand samurai parade through the city.
Kanazawa is the capital of the Kaga-hosho school of noh theatre: masks, costumes and, on specific dates, actual performances in the adjoining theatre.
It holds Ninsei's pheasant-shaped incense burner, a National Treasure, and has a high-end patisserie inside the museum itself.
Gold and silver inlay on iron, inherited directly from the decoration of samurai armour and helmets.
A riverside walk of little more than a kilometre among rocks and maples, with a wooden bridge shaped like a grasshopper, in the hot spring town of Yamanaka.
A workshop for braiding the ceremonial paper cords tied to gifts and envelopes in Japan, using the technique specific to Kaga.
A zazen session with the temple's head monk, followed by rice porridge, tea, and sweets, in a private setting within the Teramachi temple district — book at least 3 days in advance.
A historic teahouse district, smaller and quieter than Higashi Chaya, with craft workshops and old geisha houses.
Tea ware created in 1666 expressly for the Maeda lords, still in the hands of the same family, in a contemporary building with a tea room.
15 vegetable varieties grown only here that give the local cooking a flavour of its own; you see them in the market and order them at seasonal restaurants.
A giant wooden drum and a glass and steel dome turned the station into the city's modern symbol; it is lit at night.
A reading hall pierced by 6,000 openings for light, one of the most photographed contemporary buildings in Japan.
A curious case of a festival invented by an anime and genuinely adopted by the town: the lantern festival that appeared in 'Hanasaku Iroha' is now held every October.
The city's team plays at a new stadium right in the centre, and the Kanazawa marathon is run in October.
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