5/7/24: Onto Kanazawa & its Geisha District, Kenrokuen Garden, & Swimming Pool!

While on the 2.5-hour bullet train from Hakone to Kanazawa, we caught a glimpse of the majestic mountains by Nagano, the site of the 1988 Winter Olympics. Kanazawa, located near the northwest coast of Honshu on the Sea of Japan, is the gateway to the rugged sea-swept Noto Peninsula. After Kyoto, the city was the second-largest city to escape bombing during WW II. As a result, much of the old town has been left intact including former samurai mansions, geisha quarters, and Edo-period canals. 

Kanazawa's impressive train station:

The time was depicted with water coming through what looked like the fountain's vents!

Having just spent nearly a week in Tokyo, we considered ourselves pretty adept at getting around that city's metro. However, Kanazawa was a lot smaller so buses became our go-to transit for the first time in Japan. I have to 'fess up, though, that we relied on the dedicated tourist buses that made a circular loop to the major attractions with announcements in English so it wasn't hard!

We headed first to the Higashi Chaya District which had been designated an important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings. During the Edo Period (1603-1868), it thrived as an area with many chaya or teahouses, which offered exclusive entertainment by geisha. Latticework adorning the historical wooden buildings and traditional street lamps helped evoke a tranquil ambiance. 

The Higashi Chaya Kyukeikan Rest House was a restored machiya, a type of late Edo-Period or feudal-period architecture. We appreciated being invited to enter but there was no description of what we saw.

Signs indicated that drinking and eating were prohibited while walking in the district.

The solemn-looking, wood-slatted facades of geisha houses dating from the 1820s, where men of money have long come to be entertained with music, songs, dancing, poem recitals, the tea ceremony, and other pleasure-seeking pursuits. There were still seven houses in the district where geisha performed but we weren't able to identify them.

We had no idea whether these people were wearing their own traditional Japanese attire or had rented the outfits. We knew the latter practice was widespread once we reached Kyoto.

I remember it took us a while before realizing that behind the many buildings with half-curtains were shops, inns, and restaurants as there were no signs indicating that to unknowing foreign tourists! Most were former geisha homes.

Sugawarajinja Shrine:

Enchoji Temple:

Kanazawa is also renowned for its crafts dating from the shogun era when the Maeda clan ruled over the city for over 300 years amassing wealth in land and rice and encouraging the development of the arts. The Maedas were the second-most powerful family in Japan and controlled the largest domain in the country. Silk dyeing, lacquerware, and Noh theater flourished and are still popular in Kanazawa today. 

Twenty years ago, the city was named Japan's first UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art. Commonly sold in Kanazawa were Japanese traditional crafts adorned with gold leaf. After gold leaf technology was begun in the 16th century, the city now produces over 90 percent of gold leaf in Japan. Since Hakuichi, one of the biggest gold leaf manufacturers and retailers in Kanazawa, had a shop in the Higashi Chaya District, it was the perfect place to start some souvenir shopping.

Not only were traditional crafts available with edible gold leaf, but ice cream cones were too! We'd first seen them in Puerto Rico earlier this year and I promised myself I'd treat myself to one here in Kanazawa. I had just eaten a plain old vanilla cone before we saw the gold leaf cones so had to wait a bit before indulging my sweet tooth again.

We then hopped on another tourist bus over to Kenrokuen Garden, the largest of what are considered to be the three best landscape gardens in Japan and described by some to be the grandest. It once served as Kanazawa Castle's outer garden and is one of the main reasons many people visit the city. Garden construction was started by the fifth Maeda lord in the 1670s and successive lords added to it according to their individual tastes until it was completed about 150 years later in 1837 by the 13th Maeda lord. It was only after the Meiji Restoration that it was opened to the public in 1874.

The gourd-like-shaped Hisagoike Pond:

The Kotojitoro Lantern was shaped like the Nijibashi or Rainbow Bridge that supports the strings of the koto, a Japanese instrument.

The 13th Maeda lord obtained the seed for the Karasakinomatsu Pine from near Lake Biwa and planted it here.

The Asahizakura Cherry Tree took up an enormous area.

Kenrokuen Garden's name can be translated as a "refined garden incorporating six attributes": spaciousness, careful arrangement, seclusion, antiquity, elaborate use of water, and scenic charm.

Kasumigaike Pond's center island represents the legendary island of perpetual youth and longevity. It's also called the tortoise-shelled island because of its shape.

Each stone on the next island represents one of the Seven Fortune Gods.

The Meiji Monument was constructed in 1860 to commemorate the Ishikawa warriors in the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877.

The Plum Grove was created after gathering various plum trees from throughout Japan.

Turpentine was gathered here and used as fuel for military planes in June of 1945.

The Edo Period Shiguretei Tea House was restored in 2003. It was closed but I was able to peek through the door and take this photo.

What a delight it was to stroll through one of the country's best gardens and come upon small bridges, plenty of lanterns, and trees planted so lovingly centuries ago.

Just outside the garden was the Seisonkaku Villa built in 1863 in the traditional Japanese architectural style with valuable paintings and period crafts by the 13th Maeda lord as a retirement home for his widowed mother.

The collection of articulated dolls had adjustable backs, knees, and ankles.

These Gosho dolls, portrayed as chubby, cute infants, were gifts from the Imperial Family and nobles to the Maeda family. The base was made from carved wood or papier mache, and the skin was repeatedly coated with a white pigment made from oyster shells before being polished. The eyes and eyebrows were drawn, vermilion added to the mouth, and hair glued with silk threads and then styled. The dolls were then dressed in beautiful costumes with family crests. Each Gosho doll had its own personality and hairstyle and was named after the item it wore or held, like a hat or lucky charm.

Rooms upstairs were painted vibrant shades of red, purple, and an electric shade of ultramarine blue, the latter invented in 1828 in France when a prize of 6,000 francs was offered as a contest prize.

A short distance from Kenrokuen was the city's 21st Century Museum of Modern Art, a striking circular building with no front or back so visitors could explore it from all directions and even, from time to time, get lost! I cannot believe I neglected to take a picture - I think it was so near to closing time and we just wanted to enter.

We're normally big art museum buffs but modern art is not our cup of tea. However, it contained one piece by Argentine artist Leandro Erlich I really wanted to see. His outdoor 'swimming pool' was topped with a glass roof and shallow water. When we got close to peer under the water, we saw people who, having entered through an underground passage, looked like they were walking underwater!

I found the sense of intimacy among people who don't know each other absolutely brilliant and marveled at Erlich's creative genius.

Photo courtesy of the museum.

The sidewalk tile recreated the lantern and bridge from Kenrouken Garden!

The best perk at our hotel that night was this wine card that treated us to a glass of vino each. Believe me, we needed it after the full day we had!

Next post: Kanazawa Castle and the city's Samurai District before heading onto Kyoto.

Posted on June 23rd, 2024, from our home in Denver's Foothills after a long hiatus because of impossibly weak wifi in China, our next destination after Japan, and recovering from another femur operation the day after we returned home a week ago. Keeping my fingers crossed that this fourth leg operation will finally do the trick after slipping on some mud in Guatemala almost two years ago! Please take care of yourselves and your loved ones, be safe, and enjoy life.