| Kanazawa |
During the Edo Period, Kanazawa (金沢) served as the seat of the Maeda Clan, the second most powerful feudal clan after the Tokugawa in terms of riceproduction and fief size. Accordingly, Kanazawa grew to become a town of great cultural achievements, rivaling Kyoto and Edo (Tokyo).
During World War Two, Kanazawa was Japan's second largest city (after Kyoto) to escape destruction by air raids. Consequently, parts of the old castle town, such as the Nagamachi samurai district and chaya entertainment districts, have survived in pretty good condition.
Today, Kanazawa remains an important city in its region and serves as the capital of Ishikawa Prefecture. The city boasts many historical attractions such as restored residences and districts, as well as modern museums. But Kanazawa's unchallenged main attraction is Kenrokuen, one of Japan's "three best landscapegardens" and by many considered the most beautiful of them all.
History
While many castle towns in Japan had the castle placed to one side of the city, Kanazawa spread out concentrically from the castle site. Kanazawa Castle itself largely burned down in 1888, but there are a few buildings remaining, notably the Ishikawa Gate and the Sanjikken Longhouse, and one large section has been painstakingly rebuilt to authentic standards of construction. The castle site dates back to the fifteenth century, when it was the centre of power for the Ikkō-ikki, which was a Buddhist sect that had overthrown the old regional governors, the Togashi clan, and established what is called “The Peasant’s Kingdom” in the district of Kaga, the southern part of present-day Ishikawa Prefecture.The name "Kanazawa" (金沢), which literally means "marsh of gold", is said to derive from the legend of the peasant Imohori Togoro (lit. "Togoro Potato-digger"), who was digging for potatoes when flakes of gold washed up. The well in the grounds of Kenrokuen known as 'Kinjo Reitaku' (金城麗澤)was recreated by the Maeda lords to acknowledge these roots. The area where Kanazawa is was originally known as Ishiura, and the Ishiura Shrine near Kenrokuen is a remnant of this period.
During the fifteenth century, the powers of the central Shoguns in Kyoto was waning, and their regional governors were assuming even greater powers, carving out their own little fiefs. In Kaga, the priest Rennyo, of the Jodo Shinshu sect, arrived in the Kaga region to proselytise. Rennyo’s brand of Buddhism quickly spread among the samurai and peasants. The followers of Rennyo were directly under the control of the central Honganji in Kyoto, and were known as the Ikko sect, the “Single-Minded” sect. At the time, due to the diminishing power of the hereditary regional governors, the Togashi, central control over the region was weak, which allowed groups of Rennyo converts to increase their political ambitions, leading to the suicide of the last Togashi governor in 1488.
Kanazawa Gobo and the Peasant’s Kingdom
For the next hundred years, Kaga was ruled by the Ikko peasants, who created a kind of republic known by history as The Peasant’s Kingdom. Their principle stronghold was the basilica of Kanazawa Gobo, on the tip of the Kodatsuno ridge. Backed by high hills and flanked on two sides by rivers, it was a natural fortress, and the eventual home of the Maeda lords. Around the basilica, in what is now the second and third baileys, the first proper town grew, with priestly residences and other religious buildings as its core, and around them came the merchant areas. Many of these districts have survived to the present day, in name if nothing else. This type of town, peculiar to the Warring States Period, was a fortified temple town, and in its basic structure bears a great deal of resemblance to mediaeval European towns, with the temple or church in the centre and the entire town enclosed in some form of fortification, usually a high wall surrounded by a moat, often dry.
[edit]End of the Peasants Kingdom
In the year 1580, a general under Oda Nobunaga named Sakuma Morimasa attacked the Peasants Kingdom, and succeeded in overthrowing Kanazawa Gobo. Granted an income of 50,000 koku from Nobunaga, Sakuma proceeded to recreate the town as a military base. However his reign was short-lived: in 1583 Toyotomi Hideyoshi, with Lord Maeda Toshiie as his advance guard, invaded, and Toshiie was granted the fief of Kaga in addition to the Noto peninsula which he already possessed.
[edit]Maeda Toshiie and Kanazawa
Maeda Toshiie was born in 1537, in the village of Arako in Owari Province (present-day Nagoya), the son of Maeda Toshiharu, the lord of Arako Castle. In the same year, in the same province, Toyotomi Hideyoshi was born, and three years before that, Oda Nobunaga. And five years later in neighboring Mikawa Province, Tokugawa Ieyasu was born. These men would go on to become some of the most powerful lords of the Warring States era. Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu were primarily responsible for the reunification of Japan after 150 years of civil war; however Toshiie’s role has usually been obscured by the Big Three. Nevertheless, Toshiie was a very powerful lord, and the close friend and confidant of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and it was only his death in 1599 that prevented him from playing a larger role in the establishment of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
After his father died in 1569, Toshiie found himself the head of the Maeda Clan, and the lord of Arako Castle with its fairly minor 2450 kan income. He was known as a formidable warrior: in 1551, the fifteen-year-old Toshiie won his first victory at the Battle of Kayazu. He took his first head in that battle, and in another battle in 1556 he defeated a man known for his ferocity, earning the praise of Nobunaga. Toshiie's income was tripled, and due to his courage he was given a position directly serving Nobunaga. In 1573, Toshiie was given 100,000 koku in Nibu, in the south of Echizen Province, and thus, at the age of 39, became a daimyo, or domain lord. He was set there to keep an eye on Shibata Katsuie, who controlled eight counties in the region.
In 1581, the 45-year-old Toshiie was granted the 230,000 koku fief of Noto, and became the lord of an entire province. Leaving Fuchu Castle in Echizen, Toshiie and his family moved to Noto and the next year he built Komaruyama Castle in Tokoroguchi (present-day Nanao). In the Battle of Shizugatake (1583) between Hideyoshi and the powerful lord Shibata Katsuie, Toshiie took a neutral position. At first he had set out with the Shibata forces, but withdrew part-way, retreating to Fuchu Castle and going over to Hideyoshi. Toshiie's position was delicate. Katsuie had his third daughter, Ma'a, as hostage, but two more of his daughters had been adopted into Hideyoshi's family. However, for the preservation of his clan, Toshiie had to make the most politically wise choice, so he sided with Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi’s forces were victorious, and although Toshiie pleaded with Hideyoshi to spare Katsuie's life, it was to no avail: Shibata Katsuie committed suicide in the flames of his castle.
By 1590 Toyotomi Hideyoshi had unified Japan, and was the undisputed master of the realm. However he was not eligible for the coveted title of ‘Shogun’ as he was not of Minamoto descent – by this time it had become customary that the Shogun was a member of the house of Minamoto, the first Shogunate house, but Hideyoshi, being of low peasant stock, couldn’t even pretend to be connected. So he had to be contented with the lesser title of Taiko, Grand Regent.
Hideyoshi was anxious about his young son Hideyori's future, and in 1595 asked Toshiie to be his guardian. In his Will, Hideyoshi wrote "I have known Toshiie for many years, and his uprightness is well known. I wish to install him as Hideyori's guardian." However Hideyoshi was argued out of leaving Toshiie as sole regent, largely by Toshiie himself, and so a council of regents was set up to govern until Hideyori would be of age. In 1595, Toshiie, along with Tokugawa Ieyasu, Mori Terumoto, Uesugi Kagekatsu and Ukita Hideie, was chosen by Hideyoshi to act as regent. Ieyasu was the most powerful of the daimyo under Hideyoshi, but Toshiie was probably the second-most: Toshiie may not have as high a rank or as many provinces as Ieyasu, but he was much more the distinguished soldier, trusted by Hideyoshi and was far more popular. The Chief Regent was however, in terms of money, power, and title, Ieyasu. Nevertheless, Toshiie had been asked by Hideyoshi to take full responsibility for Hideyori, which showed that he was actually the one Hideyoshi trusted most. Hideyoshi realised that after his death the one who would be the greatest threat to his government would be Ieyasu. Loyal Toyotomi generals like Ishida Mitsunari did not get along with Ieyasu, and this led to confrontation, with Toshiie as the only one who could prevent a war as Hideyoshi had foreseen. Hideyoshi died in 1598, after his final aborted attempt at conquering China through Korea had failed, and thus the political succession became highly unstable.
After Toshiie's death in April 1599, his son Toshinaga had enshrined him at Utatsu-Hachimangu Shrine in Kanazawa, and made it a duty of the samurai to pay their respects. When feudalism was abolished and the fiefs disbanded after the Meiji Revolution, former samurai built Oyama Shrine on the site of the Kanaya Palace, once part of the castle. The shrine gate, built in 1875, is a mixture of European and Japanese design, with rare stained-glass windows in the top level, and is now registered as an Important Cultural Property.
[edit]Toshinaga and Toshitsune
Toshiie's oldest son, Toshinaga, was born in 1562, when Toshiie was 26. At twenty he married Nobunaga's daughter Ei, and from being lord of Fuchu Castle in Echizen, he went on to successively govern Matto, Moriyama, and Toyama castles before inheriting stewardship of the Maeda Clan in 1598. At the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, he sided with Tokugawa Ieyasu and thus was able to further enlarge the lands left him by his father to a massive 1.2 million koku, by far the largest domain outside Ieyasu's lands in the Kantō region around Edo (present-day Tokyo). He succeeded his father's position as one of the Five Regents that Hideyoshi had appointed to govern while his son was a minor, though Toshinaga kept his ears to the ground and was careful to protect his lands against Tokugawa pressure. He died in 1614 after retiring to Toyama Castle.
His son Toshitsune is generally credited with ensuring the Maeda’s dominance, by his alliances by marriage with the Tokugawa and the care he took to avoid any pretence of military ambition. Instead the vast wealth of the Maedas was channelled into arts and crafts, many of which are still nationally renowned. The "Million-koku Culture" bloomed as a result of the vast wealth of the region. As both a large domain and an "Outer Lord" (Tozama: daimyo who submitted to Ieyasu only after he won the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600) the eyes of the Shogunate were constantly on Kaga, and to keep it at bay, the Maedas poured their efforts into cultural rather than military pursuits. The third Lord Maeda, Toshitsune, formed the Kaga Workmanship Office and promoted lacquer and gold-and-lacquer-work; and the fifth lord, Tsunanori, collected works of art and artisans from all over the country. The roots of this cultural flowering go back to the days of Toshiie and Toshinaga, when Kaga gold-leaf, inlaid work, and calligraphy were well-known even then.
When the third lord split his domain up between his three sons, Kaga still provided an income in excess of a million ‘koku’. This massive income ensured Kanazawa's status as one of the largest cities in Japan throughout the Edo period, and gave rise to a legacy of art and culture that in many ways rivals even that of Kyoto. Even today the phrase ‘Kaga Hyakumangoku’ is a common one when talking about the history and position of the city: a ‘koku’ was the unit of income for samurai in the feudal period, and is about 150 kg of rice. At current Japanese retail rice prices, a million-koku income is roughly the equivalent of about sixty billion yen, or an income of some US$600,000,000 per year.
Development
On April 14, 1631, fire broke out near the Sai Bridge. It consumed much of the city, including the castle. In 1632 Toshitsune ordered the construction of a canal to bring water from the upper Sai River to the castle to alleviate the water shortage problem in the castle. A bold plan was drawn up: water would be drawn from far upstream, and channelled through kilometres of canals and pipes down to the castle. The pipes were carefully laid at a 750:1 slope for about 3.3 kilometres along the Kodatsuno ridge. The water was fed to the castle under the moat that lay between it and what is now Kenrokuen by an artesian well, and the large lake in Kenrokuen, Kasumi-ga-Ike, acted as an emergency supply. Local legend has it that the lake in fact has a plug, which could be pulled to suddenly increase the water in the moats.
In the Meiji Period, castles were now the property of the central government, who considered them symbols of the outmoded feudal system and tore most of them down. In Kanazawa’s case the castle became the base for the Ninth Division of the Imperial Army. Those buildings which were in the way were torn down, and most of the rest perished in a fire in 1888. The Army occupied the castle until after World War II, when it was disbanded, and in 1949 the site became the new home of Kanazawa University, which stayed there until about 1998 when it moved to its new campus in the hills surrounding the city. Now the site is a park, and for the first time in its 400-year history is open to all who visit.
[edit]Merchant areas
After 1600, Kaga was now the richest domain outside the Shogunate itself. As a result, the population of Kanazawa increased dramatically. Samurai and other retainers, as well as commoners who migrated in, swelled the population manyfold. This resulted in the rather chaotic layout of the city that largely survives today. Though settlement was by no means willynilly, it did tend to be rather ad hoc at times. The maze-like street plan that resulted is usually ascribed to defensive purposes: however there is no documentary basis for this claim, and in fact most castle towns were laid out rather more rationally, and some, like Nagoya, were as grid-like as Manhattan. Defensive features in the castle town were, instead, primarily moats and gates: roads played a smaller role.
The series of moats was laid out in the early seventeenth century – initially they were dry, but later connected to the rivers. The Inner Moat was dug in only 27 days, and averaged about four to five feet wide. The Outer Moat took a bit longer, and averages some six to nine feet in width. Though much of the Inner Moat has been filled in, large sections of the Outer Moat still remain. The earth removed from the moat was piled into ridges along the inner side, as an added defense measure. By the end of the Edo period, ordinances from the city were issued demanding people stop building houses on top of the ridges, and demanding they clear silted-up sections. Similarly, houses began to fill in the firebreaks throughout the city, and even began to appear on temple property in the Teramachi (temple-town) district to the south of the city.
The Hokuriku Highway passed through Kanazawa, dog-legging around the castle. The front entrance of the castle was to the north, as it was this road that the Maeda lords took when they went to Edo – as they had to do every two years through the Alternate Attendance system (sankin kotai). The entrance to the city was originally marked by a small cluster of pine trees, later replaced with a gate called the Pine Gate, and a bridge. From here the road passed along between merchant houses, and straightened out as it neared the Asano river. As is typical of town planning in Japan, there was a large open space where people tended to congregate at the foot of the bridge. There were guard huts and a gate there, and it was also one of the places where public notices were displayed. Kanazawa was flanked by two rivers, and for defensive reasons there were only two permanent bridges across the Asano river, with just one across the rougher Sai river. However there were also pontoon bridges and ferries. The present bridge across the Asano river dates back from the Taisho period – the original wooden ones tended to get swept away in flood every so often – especially the Sai river ones.
The main street of Kanazawa in the Edo period was Owari-cho. A relatively wide road, lined with large merchant houses, it stretched down to the old Omicho Market at the far end – which is still there, still selling groceries, as it has done for the last four centuries. About a third of the way down the street, on the left, another wide road led straight to the main gate of the castle. Commoners, and in the cities this meant merchants and artisans, lived in designated areas. Merchant areas were laid out along the main roads, notably the Hokkoku Highway that runs through the city. Merchants here were the richest and most influential, and a few of them survive until this day. Other outlying areas were ranked lower, and the houses were of a correspondingly lesser scale.
[edit]Samurai areas
Large-scale reorganization of the samurai areas took place in 1611. Areas had been ordained by income, and as the total income of the domain had increased fourfold in the past couple of decades, there was some reorganization to be done there; plus room had to be found for the 14 families with incomes over 3,000 koku and their retainers, not to mention the large number of samurai that arrived from Takaoka (in Toyama Prefecture) with Toshitsune, the third lord, when he took up his position. The richest families were moved out of the castle and given massive estates scattered throughout the city, and their own retainers were housed in huge complexes nearby. The most notable example in Kanazawa is Honda-machi, where the retainers of the rich and powerful Honda family lived, in what was almost a town within a town.
In most cases, even with large fiefs like Sendai and Satsuma, samurai tended to live on their own land, but in Kaga all samurai, regardless of income, lived in Kanazawa. When Kanazawa was finished in more or less its final form in the late 17th century, over three-quarters of it was samurai housing. Nearest the castle were the huge estates of the Eight Houses (chief vassals) and their own retainers. For every 100 koku of income, a samurai was given about 550 square metres of land, and average of the "middle-class" samurai was 800, which is huge compared to modern Japanese housing. The richest vassal family, the Hondas, had a whopping 50,000 koku income. The minimum for daimyo level was 10,000 koku, and apart from the Eight Houses, some twelve families had incomes in excess of this. Kanazawa was filled with huge mansions.
Size and location of samurai housing was determined by income and standing. The richest and most powerful samurai in Kanazawa had their own men, often hundreds of them, who were housed in large areas that usually adjoined the main house. Samurai houses shared a similar basic pattern: a single-floored residence, usually fairly square or rectangular in plan, surrounded by a garden – both the vegetable and the decorative kinds. The roof was gabled, and faced the road. The boundary wall was usually made of beaten earth, topped with tiles. There are still a number of them around in the city, most notably in the Nagamachi area. The size and height of the wall and the entry gate were also dictated by rank. Samurai over 400 koku in income had a stable gate, used to house guards and horses.
Though the Nagamachi area is promoted in the tourist brochures as the ‘samurai area’, in fact the overwhelming majority of the houses there today are not samurai houses, but modern post-war housing. There are some genuine samurai houses still left in Kanazawa, but very very few indeed. This is because after the Meiji Restoration the samurai found themselves bereft of their traditional income, and many of them ended up selling off their estates, which were turned into fields before being redeveloped as modern housing before World War Two.
[edit]Temple areas
One distinctive aspect of Kanazawa, and other castle towns, is the clustering of temples near the entrances. When Kanazawa was ruled by the Ikkō, the temples were all Jodo Shinshu, the Ikkō sect; but after the daimyo moved in, so did other sects: Sōtō, Shingon, Hoke, Ji, etc. They were placed in their present locations by around 1616. In the Teramachi (literally, ‘Temple Town’ area), they were lined up side by side along a long straight road leading to the foot of Nodayama. Defensive purposes have often been argued for this type of planning, and it is true that the wide spaces, thick walls, and large halls of temples were able to be used as emergency fortifications. However to what extent this actually influenced the layout is not certain. It was, in Kanazawa’s case at least, never put to the test. On the other side of town, the Utatsuyama temple district, at the foot of the hill of the same name, has smaller temples and twistier roads.
[edit]Geisha areas
Kanazawa had a further expansion in 1661, when many samurai who had followed their retired lord Toshitsune to his villa at Komatsu returned after his death. They built houses on the fringes of the city, with street layouts almost totally unplanned. These areas are some of the most labyrinthine parts of the city, but this was not done for defensive purposes at all: by this time peace was quite firmly secured. To alleviate crowding from the continual (illegal) inflow of peasants and other migrants, residents were permitted to rent land from neighbouring farmers, and these areas are some of the most convoluted of all, as the roads were laid out on the old winding paths through the fields.
Thus Kanazawa attained the form that it kept for the rest of the Edo period, and even now the majority of roads in the old city are little changed in form from two centuries ago. The only major change was the creation of ‘geisha districts’ at the foot of Utatsuyama and over the Sai River in 1820, to control and regulate pleasure houses and prostitutes (bath-girls: 湯女). However, conservative factions regained control of the Kaga government, and the geisha districts were abolished a decade later. The districts were made legal again just before the Meiji Revolution, and stayed that way until prostitution was officially outlawed in 1954. The geisha areas were out of bounds to samurai, and so were patronised by rich merchants and artisans, who would compete with each other to spend the most obscene amounts of money on parties.
The geisha house, or ‘tea house’ as it is commonly called, is superficially similar to the merchant houses, in the same way the samurai houses are superficially similar to farmhouses. However unlike the merchant houses, where the second floor at the front was for storage only, and thus very low, the second story of tea houses are much higher, because the upper floor was used as the main entertaining area. The upper floors are faced with sliding wooden shutters which would be open in the day or when there was a party going on, and the bottom floor is faced with the unique, extremely fine latticework that is known as ‘Kaga lattice’. The standard of décor was also far higher than most merchant houses, at least to the extent allowed by the various Sumptuary Laws that the Shogunate passed. Due in part to the long gloomy winters, Kaga décor is far brighter than the drab earth browns and greens and ochres of Kyoto style: bold bright scarlets (benigara: 紅柄) and ultramarines were popular. The upper floor of the Seisonkaku Villa in Kenrokuen is particularly boldly-decorated, with purple and black walls as well.
[edit]Recent history
The modern city of Kanazawa was created on April 1, 1889.
On March 25, 2007, a large earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale struck off the coast of the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa prefecture, resulting in at least 1 death and over 160 people injured though Kanazawa was not shaken.
[edit]Culture
Hyakumangoku Matsuri and Asano-gawa Enyukai are the major festivals held in Kanazawa.
Kanazawa-Haku is gold which is beaten into a paper-like sheet. Gold leaf plays a prominent part in the city's cultural crafts, to the extent that there is a gold leaf museum (Kanazawa Yasue Gold Leaf Museum). It is found throughout Kanazawa and Ishikawa, and Kanazawa produces 99% of Japan's high-quality gold leaf: the gold leaf that covers the famous Golden Pavilion in Kyoto was produced in Kanazawa. Gold leaf is even put into food. The city is famous for tea with gold flakes, which is considered by the Japanese people to be good for health and vitality. Kanazawa lacquerware (Kanazawa shikki), a high-quality lacquerware traditionally decorated with gold dust, is also well-known.
'Cultural landscape in Kanazawa. Tradition and culture in the castle town' has been designated an Important Cultural Landscape.[4]
[edit]Points of interest
Kanazawa was one of the few major Japanese cities to be spared USAAF fire bombing during World War II. As a result, Kanazawa's considerable architectural heritage has been preserved.
Kenrokuen Garden is by far the most famous part of Kanazawa. Originally built as the outer garden of Kanazawacastle, it was opened to the public in 1875. It is considered one of the "three most beautiful gardens in Japan" and is filled with a variety of trees, ponds, waterfalls and flowers stretching over 25 acres (100,000 m²). In winter, the park is notable for its yukitsuri – ropes attached in a conical array to trees to support the branches under the weight of the heavy wet snow, thereby protecting the trees from damage.
The Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art (IPMA) is located within the grounds of Kenroku-en.[5]
Outside Kenrokuen is Ishikawa-mon, the back gate (karamate-mon) to Kanazawa Castle. The original castle was largely destroyed by fire in 1888 but part of it has been partially restored as of 2001, with more to come. There are currently plans to re-create much of the original castle grounds, including some surrounding areas.
The Seisonkaku Villa was built in 1863 by a Maeda lord、Maeda Nariyasu (13th Lord) for his mother, Takako. Originally called the Tatsumi Goten (Tatsumi Palace), it Much of the villa has been dismantled, but what remains is still one of the most elegant remaining feudal lord villas in Japan. The villa stands in a corner of Kenrokuen, but separate admission fees (¥700) apply. Notable features are the vividly-coloured walls of the upper floor, with purple or red walls and dark-blue ceilings (red walls, 'benigara', are a Kanazawa tradition), and the custom-made English carpet in the audience chamber.
Kanazawa also boasts numerous Edo period (1603–1867) former geisha houses in the Higashi Geisha District, across the Asano river (with its old stone bridge) out from central Kanazawa. Nearby is the Yougetsu Minshuku which sits at one end of one of the most photographed streets in Japan. This area retains, almost completely, the look and feel of pre-modern Japan, its two-story wooden facades plain and austere. The effect is accentuated by the early morning mist. Late at night, the street is lit by recreated Taisho-period streetlamps.
The Oyama-jinja shrine, which is considered an Important Cultural Asset, is also in Kanazawa. It is noted for its imposing three-story "Shinmon" gate influenced by Dutch design, built in 1875, with its brightly-coloured stained-glass windows.
Kanazawa's Myoryuji Temple or Ninja-dera (Ninja Temple) is a fascinating amalgamation of traditional temple architecture, hidden doors, passageways, and hidden escape routes. Although the temple is often referred to as ninja dera, it is in fact not connected with ninjas at all (this does not stop local tour operators and shops from selling ninja trinkets). Local legend has it that the temple, with its hidden doors and passageways, was intended as a secret refuge for the local rulers in the case of an external threat.
Mount Utatsu gives a commanding view of the city of Kanazawa. Toyokuni Shrine, Utatsu Shrine (a Tenman-gū), and Atago Shrine, known together as the Mount Utatsu Three Shrines, are found on the mountain. A monument to author Shusei Tokuda is located near the summit.
[edit]Local cuisine
Kanazawa is known for its traditional Kaga Cuisine. Seafood is a specialty, jumbo shrimp, followed by sushi and sashimi. The sake produced in this region is of high quality, smooth and sweet, derived from the rice grown in Ishikawa Prefecture as well as the considerable precipitation of the Hokuriku region, allowing for an ample supply of clean, fresh water. Omicho market is a market in the middle of the city, originally open-air, and now covered, which dates back to the Edo period. Most of the shops there sell seafood.
Above from WikipediaMore photos of Kanazawa:
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In Kanazawa, Japan, Ancient Beauty Fuses With Modern Art
Ko Sasaki for The New York Times
Canopies of rope protect trees from heavy snowfall in Kenrokuen Garden, the principal attraction in Kanazawa, a history-rich city in the Ishikawa Prefecture on Japan’s western coast.
By INGRID K. WILLIAMS
Published: December 24, 2010
ON a sunny early November afternoon in the Japanese city of Kanazawa, the alchemy of autumn had already begun transforming the city’s beloved Kenrokuen Garden from an oasis of leafy greens into a gold-tinged sanctuary. Workers were busy constructing yukitsuri — thick ropes tied to fragile tree branches, intended to brace them against heavy snowfalls — in dramatic pyramids that soar over the gnarled wood. And the transformation continues as the seasons progress.
“It’s so beautiful, like a black-and-white calligraphy,” Masaki Yokokawa, the owner of Guest House Pongyi, a small hostel that opened in 2009, said of the garden in winter. And when the icy chill eventually gives way to springtime, the awakening branches will bloom with feathery pink and white cherry blossoms.
With distinct, captivating looks for each season, the garden is the year-round star attraction in Kanazawa, a history-rich city in the Ishikawa Prefecture on Japan’s western coast.
The garden is “a national treasure,” said Junko Morita, an English-speaking liaison who works at one of the city’s tourist offices. “All Japanese know about it.”
It is also part of the rich traditional side of the city, along with a feudal-era castle, well-preserved geisha districts and a dazzling “ninja” temple.
The historic sights now have contemporary company in the form of some decidedly modern attractions that have opened in the last few years. This fusion of the old and the new means that the city spans the centuries in just a few miles. And though, as Ms. Morita noted, Kanazawa has always been on the radar of the Japanese, an increasing number of foreigners are being pulled in by the city’s eye-opening range of temptations.
The tourism office where Ms. Morita works, the city’s second, opened last year as part of an extensive effort by the city to accommodate international visitors to Kanazawa. To that end, the city now boasts a comprehensive tourism Web site and straightforward, easy-to-navigate tourist bus routes. In May, a group called the Goodwill Guide Network began offering free English-language tours of the garden and the adjacent Kanazawa Castle.
In 2004, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art opened in a striking circular glass building designed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, winners of the 2010 Pritzker Prize. Inside, pieces by Japanese artists like Noboru Tsubaki share space with works by James Turrell, Anish Kapoor and Jan Fabre. Outside, the periphery is also sprinkled with artworks, including “Colour activity house,” a spiral-shaped, multihued glass installation by Olafur Eliasson that was unveiled this year.
Modern and ancient styles come together at Kanazawa’s train station, which was revamped in 2005 to include a colossal glass-and-steel dome fronted by an equally large and impressive traditional wooden gate. The station will soon welcome the Shinkansen, Japan’s bullet train, when an extension of the Hokuriku line is completed in 2014. With a direct, high-speed line from Tokyo, travel time between the cities will be cut from about four hours to two and a half. Though this change will most likely be a boon for business and tourism, some residents are wary.
“Some people say that if the Shinkansen comes, the tourists won’t stay in Kanazawa, they will do daytrips,” said Mr. Yokokawa, the guesthouse owner. But for now, “the people who come to Kanazawa want to know Japan more deeply” and visitors are duly rewarded with a glimpse of the real Japan.
Complementing all that glorious architecture is the still-flourishing tradition of Japanese handicrafts — lacquerware, pottery, kimono design and gold leaf (99 percent of Japanese gold leaf is produced in the city) — which earned the city a Unesco City of Crafts and Folk Art designation in 2009. With tree-lined canals, wood-paneled teahouses and temple-dotted hills, Kanazawa is reminiscent of another well-preserved, though markedly more touristy Japanese city, Kyoto.
“Kanazawa is called ‘small Kyoto’ because the ambience is similar,” said Mr. Yokokawa, though the cities also share a history. Like Kyoto, “in World War II the Americans didn’t bomb Kanazawa, so many of the city’s old traditional things remain,” said Sakumi Sakai, a retired Kanazawa resident who was in the middle of an English lesson with Ms. Morita at the tourist center.
But it’s the garden that is the finest — and most enduring — attraction.
“This is one of the three most beautiful landscaped gardens in Japan,” said Noboru Orito, a volunteer tour guide for the Goodwill Guide Network. It’s an oft-uttered sentiment, as is the fact that the meticulously groomed garden incorporates the six characteristics — spaciousness, tranquillity, artifice, antiquity, aquatic elements and panoramic views — that collectively create the ideal, balanced Japanese garden. “Gardens with all six features are very rare,” he added.
Adjacent to the garden is the imperial Kanazawa Castle, the former home of the Maeda clan, who ruled the area for nearly 300 years. The original castle was built in the 16th century, but through the years, fires repeatedly destroyed it, so it has been rebuilt several times. The most recent renovations include the re-installment of the castle moat, and this past spring, the reconstructed front gate and rear turret.
Although the castle is impressive, visitors can get an authentic peek into feudal Japan in the Higashi Chaya District, one of only three culturally designated chaya, or entertainment, districts in the country. The area’s narrow streets are lined with two-story wooden teahouses, where geisha once entertained wealthy, sake-drinking clients. At one carefully preserved Edo-era chaya house, the museumlike Shima, visitors can sip tea and explore tatami-matted rooms where some of the geisha performances took place.
For a glimpse into a world filled with a different sort of intrigue, the Myoryuji Temple, commonly called the Ninja Temple, is unparalleled. Though the tour guides insist there is no connection to furtive masked men, the 23-room temple has all the trappings you would expect from a ninja hideout — hidden passageways, pitfalls, trap doors, optical illusions. Even the external structure is deceiving: what appears to be a two-story temple actually includes four stories with seven internal levels, part of an elaborately layered maze.
This emphasis on refinement and complexity can be found in Kanazawa’s food scene, which centers around elaborate meals that rival any kaiseki in Kyoto, and boisterous izakayas, or gastropubs, serving endless cups of local sake and plates of fresh vegetables from the nearby Kaga plains. But the one dining experience that nearly every local recommends is kaiten, or conveyor-belt, sushi.
“Kaiten sushi started here,” said Ms. Morita from the tourist office, explaining that the company that manufactures the miniature conveyor belts, which wind along a sushi bar transporting tiny plates to hungry diners, is based in Kanazawa. And since the nearby Sea of Japan supplies the city with fresh, locally caught seafood year-round, the bounty, like the Kenrokuen Garden, can be enjoyed in any season.
IF YOU GO
From Tokyo, the train to Kanazawa typically takes four to five hours and requires at least one change. Schedules and ticket prices vary; a useful, comprehensive search engine in English can be found athyperdia.com.
WHAT TO SEE
Kanazawa Castle (Marunouchi; 81-76-234-3800; pref.ishikawa.jp/siro-niwa/kanazawajou/e/index.html)
Shima (1-13-21 Higashiyama; 81-76-252-5675; ochaya-shima.com)
At Myoryuji Temple (1-2-12 No-machi; 81-76-241-0888), advance reservations are required for tours, which are given only in Japanese. Tour guides will, however, provide an illustrated, English-language booklet with a summary of the tour.
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art (1-2-1 Hirosaka; 81-76-220-2800; kanazawa21.jp)
WHERE TO STAY
Luxury is scant in Kanazawa, but there is a cluster of standard business hotels conveniently situated near the train station.
One comfortable, inexpensive option is the Dormy Inn Kanazawa(2-25 Horikawa-shinmachi; 81-76-263-9888;hotespa.net/hotels/kanazawa) with doubles from 6,600 yen, about $80 at 82 yen to the dollar.
For something different, reserve the Japanese-style room (6,000 yen for two people) at the backpacker favorite Guest House Pongyi (2-22 Rokumai-machi; 81-76-225-7369; english.pongyi.com), which opened in 2009.
WHERE TO EAT
Mori Mori Sushi (Forus 6F; 3-1 Horikawa-shinmachi; 81-76-265-3510), on the sixth floor of the Forus department store next to the train station, is the hands-down local favorite for kaiten sushi. Don’t miss the bincyo maguro toro and unagi.
For a more refined experience, try Komatsu Yasuke (APA Hotel Kanazawa-Katamachi 1F; 2-21 Ikeda-machi; 81-76-261-6809), considered one of the best sushi restaurants in Japan. Reservations required.
Shikino-An (Koide 1F; 19-4 Takaoka-cho; 81-76-232-6844) is a cozy spot along the canal northeast of Nagamachi, the so-called samurai district, and the ideal place to warm up with some soba, miso soup and crispy tempura vegetables.
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