A MONTH IN JAPAN –KANAZAWA, NOVEMBER 14, 2025

November 14, 2025 –Kanazawa

That there is a lot to see and do in Kanazawa is confirmed by Lonely Planet Guide to Japan:

Bestowed with culturally rich attractions and an enviable location in between the Sea of Japan and the Northern Alps, Kanazawa (pop. 465,000) is a city that’s justifiably emerged as one of Chibu’s most sought-after destinations.  As the capital of Ishikawa Prefecture, it’s a city that’s long attracted more discerning travelers here for its many cultural treasures of what once was the power base of the Maeda clan.  But in recent years - namely since the arrival of the shinkansen in 2015 that’ll have you here in 2 1/2 hours from Tokyo or Kyoto – word has spread of its many attractions.  Well-preserved Edo-era teahouse districts, a masterfully restored castle complex, rich samurai history, modern art museums and some of Japan’s most sublime gardens – it’s a lovely place to experience traditional culture amid 21^st-century living. 

Since we had only a limited time to soak up the myriad cultural riches of Kanazawa, the kind of leisurely walking tours we’d taken in Tokyo and Takayama were out of the question.  We mapped out our priorities:  Kenroku Garden, Kanazawa Castle, the DT Suzuki Museum, and the 21^st Century Museum of Contemporary Art on the first full day, and the Kazuemachi Chaya geisha district and the Omicho market on the second half day. 

• Kenroku Garden

Kenrokuen is one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan.  Construction of the 25-acre garden was begun by the Maeda clan in 1643 and its development continued over three centuries.  In 1822, the garden took its present name from an 11^th-century Chinese classic, “Rakuyo-Meienki” (outstanding gardens), which cited Koen Garden (lake garden) as the only garden to successfully combine all six elements of the ideal garden:   spaciousness, seclusion, artifice, antiquity, watercourses, and panoramas.  In 1871, at the end of the Edo period and the last shogunate, Kenrokuen was opened to the public.

Lonely Planet says of Kenrokuen:

Its kaiyu-style garden features circulating paths where Japanese couples dressed in traditional yukata (light cotton kimonos) saunter 

among superbly curated grounds with mossy stone shrines,

pagodas, ponds, ancient spindly trees and cypress.  

 

It’s the epitome of Japanese beauty, elegance and natural harmony that changes in each season’s light. 

One prominent feature of the gardens is the use of yukizeri ropes to hoist up protruding limbs of karasaki pine trees prone to drooping from age and damage from heavy snowfall.

The garden is home to Japan’s oldest fountain; other iconic landmarks include its two-legged Kotoji stone lantern 

and a 5.5m bronze statue dedicated to the soldiers who died in the Seinan War, a civil war waged by disaffected samurai following the Meiji Restoration in 1877.  

Kenrokuen was all that Lonely Planet promised and more and, had we had time, we would have gladly lingered.  But it was lunchtime.

Kanazawa translates as “marsh of gold,” and 98% of Japan’s gold leaf industry happens here.  After a quick lunch, we treated ourselves to a local specialty:  soft-serve ice cream wrapped in gold leaf.  Consuming gold may not have increased our net worth, but it sure satisfied our curiosity.   

 

• Kanazawa Castle

The castle, a horizontal complex of buildings covered in white plaster and roofed with white ceramic tiles, is located across the street and over the bridge from Kenroku, which originally formed the castle’s garden beyond the castle walls.   

What you see today is not the original castle, which was built three hundred years ago during the feudal samurai period.  The castle burned down and was rebuilt six times between 1602 and 1881, only to be neglected and abandoned during the Meiji Restoration.  The buildings and grounds were repurposed in 1949 as the site of Kanazawa University, which occupied the castle complex until the university relocated to another part of Kanazawa in 1995. 

The Kanazawa government then embarked on a massive reconstruction of the castle, its gates and bridges, and its defensive walls from scratch in their original location, using carpentry and masonry methods and materials faithful to the original design—no nails, no steel, no concrete, no mortar. The restoration work is ongoing.

As Lonely Planet notes:

This is one for architecture buffs, with its design drawn according to extant records from the 1850s.  This lengthy, ongoing process to return Kanazawa’s prized centerpiece is a labor of love for what is Japan’s largest wooden structure built after the Meiji period. 

The castle’s unusual history and ongoing reconstruction are detailed in this website, which has photos of the castle’s gorgeous tongue-and-groove joinery.   

We did not have enough time to enter the castle and only walked the grounds and examined the massive stone walls, so for more on the interior, I commend you to the website. 

 

• D.T. Suzuki Museum

If Kanazawa Castle had no concrete, the D.T. Suzuki Museum made up for it.  About a ten-minute walk from the castle, the museum commemorates the life and work of D.T. Suzuki (1870-1966), a Buddhist philosopher, author, and educator who was born in Kanazawa.  He wrote over 100 books; translated texts from Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Sanskrit into English; and is credited with introducing Zen and Shin Buddhism to the West.  He famously said, “I am an artist at living – my work of art is my life.”

The museum dedicated to his memory is also a work of art.  Designed by Yoshio Taniguchi in 2011, it is a striking example of minimalist architecture with its straight lines and sight lines, its uniform pale gray color, and its impossible floating position in a shallow reflecting pool surrounded by restrained landscaping. The museum is the manifestation of the man and his teachings, a place for quiet reflection and meditation. 

The walk through the gardens on leaving the museum felt like moving through a secret.

    

• 21^st Century Museum of Contemporary Art

We made our way on foot to the 21^st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, located between the D.T. Suzuki Museum and Kenruko Garden.  The museum was designed in 2004 by SANAA, whose signature retail buildings we’d seen in Tokyo; this building, however, was at another level.  It's circular.   

From Wiki:

The building has a circular form, with a diameter of 112.5 meters. This shape aims to keep the appearance of the overall building volume low, to mitigate the scale of the project and allows access from multiple points of entry. The transparency of the building further manifests the wish to avoid the museum being perceived as a large, introverted mass. 

The building includes community gathering spaces, such as a library, lecture hall, and children’s workshop, located on the periphery, and museum spaces in the middle. The exhibition areas comprise numerous galleries with multiple options for division, expansion, or concentration. The galleries are of various proportions and light conditions – from bright daylight through glass ceilings to spaces with no natural light source, their height ranging from 4 to 12 meters. … Four fully glazed internal courtyards, each unique in character, provide daylight to the center of the building and a fluent border between community spaces and museum spaces. 

The museum has a sculpture garden that wraps around the main building.  

There is at least one satellite building which, when we were there, was screening an animated film about AI robotics.

The circular main building is divided into free spaces open to the public where photos are sometimes permitted.  Temporary exhibitions and some permanent exhibitions are almost always ticketed and photos are forbidden.   Frustrating.

One of the permanent exhibitions, Swimming Pool, has an above-ground and a below-ground dimension open to visitors.  Having seen it, I understand why it is the most photographed spot in the museum.  Unfortunately, there were no visitors below ground at the time we were there, so we didn't have the full experience of the work.  This photo from Kaname shows what Swimming Pool looks like from above when there are people "in the pool" below.

My favorite work, however, was James Turrell’s Blue Sky Planet.  I wasn’t familiar with Turrell and I was awestruck by this sensory experience.  Blue Sky Planet is a square room faced in smooth stone with built-in bench seating around the perimeter.  You can sit or lie down in the room and watch the main attraction - the sky -  through a large, open, ceiling-mounted aperture.  As I learned is typical of Turrell’s art, his aim is to change the viewer’s perception of color and light.  Photos were not permitted, but these Internet images capture our experience.      

  

• Samukawa Shrine

On our walk home, we spied a stone staircase leading up to a wooden gate which proved to be the back entrance to Samukawa Shrine. 

The shrine is dedicated to the deity of Happo-yoke (protection from all directions) and offers purification rituals to worshippers.  We felt pretty purified by art and architecture, so we simply enjoyed the shrine’s lovely grounds.

The main entrance to the shrine 

brought us out to the main street and the Tourist Information Office, where I got a stamp for my sketchbook stamp collection.

  

• Fuwari

We had dinner at Fuwari, an izakaya recommended by Lonely Planet. We’d tried to go there our first night, but it was fully booked, so we made a reservation for the following night.  Lonely Planet hit the mark.  Here are Fuwari’s food and sake menus.

And these are the small plates and desserts we shared.

These artful business cards were in the Fuwari women’s room, available for the taking.  So I did and back in Berlin I taped them (unartfully) into my sketchbook.

 

Keep it real!

Marilyn