Kanazawa is probably Japan’s most underrated city relative to what it actually contains. For decades it was the optional stop on the “Tokyo-Kyoto-Osaka” route. Since the Hokuriku Shinkansen opened in 2015, it’s reachable in 2h30 from Tokyo, and travellers are finally starting to stop. They discover, often surprised, a city that escaped the 1945 bombings, kept its Edo-era fabric intact, and combines what Kyoto’s most precious without Kyoto’s tourist density. Three days, and the rest follows.
Kanazawa Is Worth More Than A Day Trip
During the Edo period, Kanazawa was Japan’s second wealthiest city, behind only Tokyo (then Edo). It was the capital of the Kaga domain, controlled by the Maeda clan, who produced the equivalent of a million koku of rice per year, a period economic metric that roughly translates as “very, very rich”. This opulence paid for gardens, ceramics, lacquerware, Nō theatre, weaving, and gold-leaf craft. The city escaped American bombing in 1945, partly because it had no major military industry. The urban fabric remained largely intact, it’s today one of the only large Japanese cities where you still walk through 18th-century streets.
It’s also the capital of gold leaf, of Kutani porcelain, of Wajima lacquer, and of fish dishes that seriously rival Tokyo’s. And it’s, surprisingly, one of the calmest large Japanese cities: no gigantism, no neon, no overhead expressway. A pace.
Kenrokuen, One Of Japan’s Three Great Gardens
Kenrokuen is officially ranked among the three most beautiful gardens in Japan, with Kairakuen (Mito) and Korakuen (Okayama). The name means “the garden of six attributes”, spaciousness, seclusion, artifice, antiquity, water, panoramas, six qualities that, according to classical Chinese theory, never coexist in one garden. Kanazawa’s claims to have united them. It’s probably right.
The garden’s icon is the Kotojitōrō, a stone lantern with two uneven legs, at the edge of a pond. That’s the photo you bring back from Kanazawa. Go early (7am opening, or even 4am in summer with free admission before the official hours) or late in winter, when the trees are protected by yukitsuri, conical rope structures that prevent heavy snow from snapping the branches. Kenrokuen-under-yukitsuri is one of the most iconic images of Japanese winter.
👉 For more, read my piece on Kanazawa in spring and winter. The two seasons give two completely different cities.
Higashi Chaya, The Geisha District That’s Still Working
Higashi Chaya (“the eastern tea house district”) is one of Kanazawa’s three surviving chaya-gai. Unlike Kyoto’s Gion, which has largely become a backdrop for photos, the houses here are still operational. About thirty geiko (the local term for geisha) remain in Kanazawa, and several houses still host private evenings. The dark-red wood façades, the kimusuko (wooden lattice) windows, the wet cobblestones at dusk, it’s the least touristified version of this aesthetic in Japan.
Two houses are open to visitors: Shima (the best preserved, the tatami and the shamisen are period) and Kaikaro (still active, with a Japanese cedar staircase covered in gold leaf). ¥750 each. Go around 5 PM to avoid the morning groups.
Kanazawa Sushi And The Sea-Of-Japan Table
For many Japanese, Kanazawa is one of the best sushi cities in the country. The Noto peninsula to the north is one of Japan’s great fishing grounds. The central Ōmichō market (近江町市場), in the heart of the city, is where restaurants have stocked up since 1721. You can eat directly at the counters, sushi, but also winter oysters and snow crab (zuwai-gani) between November and March.
For high-end omakase without Tokyo prices, Sushi Mekumi in Nomachi (book weeks ahead) or Komatsu Yasuke in Higashi are local references. For a more accessible experience, any counter at Ōmichō will serve sushi worth ¥4,000 that would cost ¥12,000 at Tsukiji.
👉 The local dish not to miss: jibu-ni (治部煮), a duck stew thickened with wheat flour, served with smoked tofu and seri (water dropwort). It’s Kanazawa’s signature dish, found almost nowhere else.
Offbeat, Around Kanazawa
Kanazawa is the best base for exploring Hokuriku, the Sea-of-Japan region that remains largely under international tourism radars.
👉 Natadera Temple, 40 minutes by train, in the Komatsu suburbs. A Shingon temple set against rock cliffs, with natural caves, mossy paths, and a calm you don’t find in Kyoto anymore. Go in autumn for the momiji, one of Japan’s most stunning red palettes.
👉 Shiroyone Senmaida rice paddies, on the Noto peninsula, 1,004 terraced rice paddies running straight down into the Sea of Japan. Spectacular in green summer, magical in winter when lit by LEDs each evening. 2 hours by car from Kanazawa (the peninsula is rebuilding after the January 2024 earthquake, check the roads before going).
👉 The 21st Century Museum (Kanazawa 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art), a circular building by Kazuyo Sejima/SANAA. The most famous piece is Leandro Erlich’s “Swimming Pool”, where you appear to see people walking at the bottom of a pool. Go on a weekday or you’ll queue.
(For itineraries around Kanazawa and Noto, I keep my addresses up to date on Ikuzo.)
For Foreigners, For Japanese
Foreign travellers come to Kanazawa mostly for Kenrokuen, Higashi Chaya, and the Ōmichō market. Efficient over two days, but still very “downtown”. Japanese visitors come primarily for the food, snow crab in winter, Noto sushi, jibu-ni at a traditional ryotei. And for the crafts: Kanazawa houses a national crafts school (Ishikawa Prefectural Industrial College of Art and Craft), and many Japanese make the trip specifically for gold-leaf, Kutani ceramic, or yuzen dyeing workshops. If you stay three days, add a workshop, it’s the city’s most memorable version.
Lesser-Known Facts
- Kanazawa produces about 99% of Japan’s gold leaf. The local humidity (the city is among the country’s rainiest) is crucial: it prevents the metal from sticking to the tools during hammering. Workshops accept visitors to make their own gold leaf, and the city sells gold-leaf ice cream and coffee, touristy but strangely good.
- D.T. Suzuki, the philosopher who introduced Zen to the West (influencing everything from the Beat Generation to Steve Jobs), was born in Kanazawa in 1870. The D.T. Suzuki Museum (by architect Yoshio Taniguchi) is probably the most calming architectural experience in the city, a silent water court where you sit and do nothing.
- Kanazawa Castle burned down at least four times between 1631 and 1881. The current reconstruction (Ishikawamon gate and main structures) is largely late-20th-century work, but uses traditional joinery without metal nails.
- Kanazawa was (and remains) a major centre for Nō theatre. The Maeda family patronised the Hōshō school, and the tradition continues, there are monthly performances at the Kanazawa Noh Museum, far more accessible than in Tokyo.
- The Nagamachi samurai district has a street where the clay wall is heated from underneath in winter to stop snow from eroding it, a typical detail of preserved-intact ingenuity.
- Echizen-gani crab (caught off Fukui, an hour south of Kanazawa) is officially the only crab in Japan to carry a government-issued yellow quality seal, the country’s only “labelled” crustacean.
When To Go, How To Get There
From Tokyo: Kagayaki Shinkansen (direct), 2h30, ¥14,000. From Kyoto/Osaka: Thunderbird Express, 2h15. From Komatsu airport (KMQ): 40-minute bus to the centre.
When: winter is Kanazawa’s great season. Snow crab, yukitsuri at Kenrokuen, snow on the Nagamachi rooftops, probably the most beautiful version. April (sakura) and November (momiji at Natadera) are also excellent. Summer is muggy, skip unless you’re here for the Hyakumangoku festival in early June.
How long: three days. One for Kenrokuen + Higashi Chaya + downtown. One for Ōmichō + a workshop + the 21st Century Museum. One for an excursion (Natadera, Noto, or an onsen at Yamashiro/Yamanaka). Two works if you cut, but you’ll leave frustrated.
What Kanazawa Says Quietly
Kanazawa doesn’t shout. It doesn’t need to. For 250 years it was Japan’s second-wealthiest city by avoiding wars and cultivating what wars destroy, gardens, lacquer, theatre, recipes. The 1945 bombs missed. The shinkansen arrived in 2015. And yet, walking through Higashi Chaya on a winter evening, the clear impression is that nothing essential has moved. It is, in many ways, the Japanese city that has best preserved the very idea of civility. You leave wondering why you didn’t stay longer.