Travel Guide Kanazawa

A city of 470,000 inhabitants located at the foot of Haku-san, about ten kilometers from the Sea of Japan, Kanazawa was spared from the bombings of World War II; close to the coast of the Sea of Japan, it is the most popular tourist destination, even more so since the arrival of the Shinkansen in 2015 in one of the most beautiful stations in Japan. It has retained a number of traditional buildings as well as its social and cultural customs. It also has one of the most famous gardens in Japan dating back to the 18th century, Kenroku-en. At the same time, Kanazawa has galvanized both modern and traditional industries, from textile and metalwork production to silk, pottery and lacquerware. A cultural mecca, Kanazawa is home to the famous school of Nō, the Kaga-Hōsho, as well as protecting the masters of tea ceremony and ikebana. Kanazawa is one of the great capitals of traditional arts. The Maeda lineage that ruled the Kanazawa region, called Kaganokuni, was the second most powerful daimyō in Japan. The Maeda family was the patron of the arts and culture of the region: the famous Kutani pottery, Wajima lacquerware, Yūzen kimono fabrics, representations of the Nō Kaga Hōsei, or Kaga cuisine, but this nurturing of the local culture did not stop with the Maeda family. Even today, the large industrialists of the region support this tradition so that Kanazawa is a region where traditional arts are alive and well.