Kanazawa: Marsh of Gold

Kanazawa is the city I called home from October 1997 to August 1998.  Those 10 months in the laregst city in the Hokuriku region were incredible.  I spent the time experiencing and exploring the city that, in my honest opinion, is one of Japan's finest gems, or perhaps I should say gold.  In fact, Kanazawa's name means "Marsh of Gold", stemming from a folk tale in which a peasant pulls up a bucket from a well and finds gold in the bottom.  Kanazawa also is famous for its gold leaf.  Over 90% of Japan's gold leaf is made in Kanazawa.  It is truly a wonderful and valuable city.

Nestled by the Sea of Japan in Ishikawa Prefecture, Kanazawa is a city that still has many of its historical and cultural wonders.  Because it is in an extremely rural area and posed no strategic importance, Kanazawa was spared the fire-bombing which destoryed so many fine Japanese cities during World War II.  The old, winding streets, store-lined tea districts, and numerous other priceless treasures survived the war and lure thousands of Japanese tourists each year.  Foreign visitors are still few.

Kanazawa was once the home of the powerful Maeda clan.  From Ishikawa Castle, the clan's founder, Maeda Toshie was responsible for producing more rice than any other feudal lord in Japan.  His hyakumangoku, or one million bushels of rice, made him the richest lord in all of Japan (after the Shogun in Edo of course).  He patronized numerous artists and scholars, luring them from the capital at Kyoto to his provincial city by the Sea of Japan.  The Maedas carefully hid their investments in the form of arts and crafts, rather than castle construction and military build-up (both of which were strictly observed and controlled by the shogunate). For that reason, Kaga silk, Kutani pottery, and Ohi teaware all prospered. Under the patronage of Toshie and his successors, Kanazawa became a thriving cultural and economic city, called a 'little Kyoto'.

Kutani-yaki is the famed pottery of the region. It is a type of porcelain-ware styled after patterned pieces from China. It utilizes brightly-colored glazes. Red glazes feature patterns of children and people, while green/gold/lavendar glazed pieces tend to feature animal and plant motifs. Kutani-yaki can seem a bit gaudy when compared to some of Japan's more subtl and refined pottery types, but the pieces make up for this is design and functionality. Every type of shape or form seems to be possible in the Kutani tradition. And more recent designs shift away from the traditional colors and motifs, and they can be truly breath-taking. Kutani-yaki is made all over the prefecture, but a very good kiln stands in Nishi-Kanazawa, and is open to the public. You can walk through the kiln and see the entire process, from potters wheel to firing to painting. The gift shop also has a very nice assortment of pottery for sale, although almost any shop in Kanazawa has kutani-yaki for sale.

Ohi-yaki is another pottery type unique to Kanazawa. It has been made for generations by the same family, whose descendant was lured from Kyoto by the Maedas. The Maedas desired a resident tea master in their capitol, so they brought one from Kyoto. He, in turn, brought a potter with him to craft tea bowls and various implements for the tea ceremony. They took the name Ohi from an area outside of Kanazawa where they gathered good clay. The family name has remained the same, and the title passes from father to son. Only one Ohi at a time makes official Ohi-yaki, making his own special recipe for the trademark amber glaze. When the torch is passed on, the new master must make his own recipe for his unique amber glaze. Various kilns in and around Kanazawa make pottery in the Ohi style, so you can find affordable pieces of Ohi-yaki. Even the small pieces of the actual thing can be quite an investment, but they are magnificent. Tea bowls are sculpted from a single piece of clay -- no potter's wheel is used. Using special picks and tools, the Ohi master chips away moist clay until the bowl has taken form. The glazes are magnificent earth tones, with the trademark amber glaze being the epitome of the kiln.

With a special type of pottery designed specifically for the tea ceremony, it's no wonder that among the thriving cultural arts of Kanazawa is tea ceremony. Tea houses fill the city, and it is not very difficult to find a tea ceremony to attend. Most Japanese cities have one or two tea sweets among its meibetsu, or famed products. Kanazawa's famed tea sweet is small, powdery and shaped like a five-petaled cherry blossom. Numerous others fill the gift shops, department stores, and sweet shops throughout the city, but these little, powdery cherry blossoms are THE sweet to eat. They go well with the bitter green tea of the tea ceremony, and their powderry, lack-of-intense-sweetness does a good job of neutralizing the bitter tea without overpowering it. Tea wares, tea sweets, and tea itself are quite easy to acquire in Kanazawa as well.

Noh theatre is another practiced artform in this city so proud of its cultural heritage.  Noh theatre is a wonderful tradition in Kanazawa, and many of the cities fine museums reflect this with permanent exhibits of various Noh masks and fabulously detailed and colorful Noh costumes. Kanazawa has also produced a fair number of notable actors within the Noh tradition. The Prefectural Noh Theatre is a lovely facility that stages numerous performances throughout the season. It has a large stage and ample seating. During the city's Hyakumangoku Festival in the summer, a gala outdoor Noh production is staged. Under the stars, the actors portray princes, maidens, priests, and demons as the stage is illuminated by torchlight.

Although the once impressive Ishikawa castle was struck by lightning and burned to the ground in the 1800s, several castle structures, most notably Ishikawa-mon and its tower, and the remarkable garden still exist.  Ishikawa-mon and Kenroku-en are the symbols of Kanazawa and the main attractions in the city.  Kenroku-en is one of Japan's three sublime gardens.  Its name means "Garden of the Six Attributes", refering to Kenroku-en's balance of the six features desirable in the perfect Japanese garden: antiquity, artificiality, broad views, seclusion, spaciousness, and water.  The trees are magnificent, gnarled and twisted with age and exposure to Kanazawa's snowy winters.  Seasonal flowers delight the eye, and the cherry trees are among the finest that I saw while I was in Japan.  Tea houses are tucked away in corners of the garden, and its famous Koto lantern stands under graceful Japanese maple trees, greeting visitors as they stop and gaze at the largest lake in the garden. The garden is most famous during the winter, when the heavy snowfalls of the region blanket the trees, rocks, and lanterns. During this time, the trees are supported by yuki-tsuri. A large bamboo or wooden pole is lashed to the tree trunk (and at various other strategic points if the tree is especially large). Ropes descend from a massive knot at the top of the pole and are tied to the branches of the tree. This support system keeps the sculpted braches of the aged trees from snapping under the weight of the heavy snowfall. And the system works well, since many of the trees in the garden are well over 100 years old.

Kanazawa has three tea districts.  These were entertainment centers, filled with tea houses, geisha houses, and theaters.  As you walk the old streets, you can imagine geisha looking out of second story windows at the samurai and merchants in the streets below, and the twang of the shamisen floating through the streets.  Today, the tea districts are filled with shops, restaurants, and inns.  Higashiyama, across the Asano River, is the largest of the tea districts.  It hosts a very nice festival each spring, with a stage out in the middle of the Asano River.  In the summer, as part of Kanazawa's huge Hyakumangoku festival, 1000 illuminated silk lanterns are floated down the river at Higashiyama, each one representing the soul of a person who has passed away in the previous year.  The other two districts in Owari-cho and Nishi- Kanazawa are smaller, but equally charming. All three are still working tea districts, although restaurants and hotels seem to outnumber the tea-houses nowadays. In Higashiyama, and the Nishi Chaya, geisha houses are preserved and open to the public. It is fascinating to see the numerous rooms used to living and those used for entertaining, and imagining that years ago they were filled with merchants, samurai, and geisha. Kanazawa has geisha still. When I asked, I was told that there are about 30 still working in the tea districts.

Teramachi, across the Sai River, is a wonderful collection of temples and shops.  The streets are lined with old houses, and tucked away in one charming part of the neighborhood is Ninja-dera.  It has to be the most unique temple I've ever seen.  No pictures are allowed inside, so I can't show it to you.  It was the personal temple of the Maeda's, and had a tricky layout to confuse assassins if there was an attack on the city.  There are hidden walls, passageways and rooms.  There are seven stories, but only five are apparent from the outside.  Rooms, passageways, and balconies twist and turn. leading you through the maze-like building. There are secret rooms where Lord Maeda could sit and see who was praying at the altar without them seeing him. There are subfloors, trap doors, hidden entrances, and even secret rooms where, if cornered, the samurai could committ seppuku, or ritual suicide. It's just an all-around fascinating building.

Kanazawa has wonderful food.  You can find anything there: Italian, Indian, Bolivian, and anything and everything Japanese.  The tea sweets, sushi, and sake are reknowned throughout Japan.  Kanazawa's fish is fresh and delicious, and no place is better to get it than Omicho Market.  Whether it's sliced as sashimi, tucked into sushi, or piled up on top of rice as donburi, the fish is divine. Fish of all shapes and sizes are sold here just after being plucked from the Sea of Japan. The size of the crabs really startled me the first time I laid eyes on them. And the shopkeepers, standing being the fresh seafood, flowers, pickles, and produce that they are selling, are constantly attempting to bribe you into stopping and making a purchase. They see enough foreigners to know to switch to broken English as you walk past. You are asked to try this and that, and it's always 'delicious'.

Just North of Kanazawa is Ishikawa Prefecture's famed Noto-hanto, or Noto Peninsula. It is a rugged, rural, sparsely populated area of staggering natural beauty. Secluded temples, jagged seashores, and tiny fishing villages dot the peninsula. In the winter it is ravaged by storms wipping across the Sea of Japan from Korea and Manchuria. Snowfall is usually very heavy. Among its famed tourist sights are Wakura Onsen, famous for its bubbling hotsprings, Wajima, famous for its morning market and distinctive lacquerware, and Chirihama, a beach that acquires its fame from the fact that tourists can drive on it (the sand is horribly compacted, but the view is still powerful).

Kanazawa is definately worth a visit, but the city of half-a-million people can be a bit out of the way for normal travelers. From Tokyo, it is a four-hour train ride from Tokyo of Ueno stations, or a seven-hour bus ride from Ikebukuro station. From Osaka and Kyoto, Kanazawa is a bit more accessible. Once you get there, your visit will be extremely worthwhile. You'll uncover treasures and experiences that are hard to find in other Japanese cities, and you'll escape sites plagued by mobs of foreign tourists. Kanazawa is a cultural treasure, a shining piece of gold, and it is easy to see why so many Japanese think so highly of this 'Little Kyoto'.

Until I can get some of my own pictures up on this page, please enjoy these.  They're just a taste of a Kanazawa spring.

Here are a few of my photos from Kanazawa. I stumbled onto them on a disk I found. Click on the thumbnail to view the picture.

Links
Official site of Kanazawa City
Check out my 'alma mater', Kanazawa Univeristy.
Although it's usually raining, check out the weather in Kanazawa here.
Find out what's been going on in Kanazawa by checking out the Hokkoku Shinbun, the regional newspaper.
Check out the Kanazawa University Aikido Club website created by my friend Mark.
And here's an interesting link to a website about the fine Sake of Ishikawa and Toyama prefectures.

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