Kanazawa 金沢
The city of Kanazawa (pop. 439,000, sitting in between the Sai and Asano rivers, started its history about 500 years ago, when the Ikko sect of Buddhism established the Kanazawa Gobo temple on the site of the present castle, creating Japan's only independent Buddhist state in history.
Oda Nobunaga sacked the place in 1580, and installed one of his retainers, Maeda Toshii, as the town's new lord in 1583.
The Maeda clan subsequently enjoyed the largest daimyo domain in Japan until the Meiji Restoration of 1868. During the Tokugawa rule, the castle town of Kanazawa rivaled Kyoto and Edo in wealth and splendor, and was Japan's fourth largest city.
Nowadays, with a population of 440,000, Kanazawa only ranks 32nd (see cities' population listing), and has turned into a kind of backwater, far off the shinkansen line joining Kyushu to Northern Honshu.
Kanazawa castle took fire in 1881, and the current castle is a reconstruction, except the Ishikawa Gate which dates from 1788. Note that the castle tower has not been rebuilt after 1881, as Japan's feudal era was over.
The city was spared bombing during WWII and for this reason is one of the best preserved traditional town in Japan.
Kanazawa's sights are divided among the following areas :
Kenroku-en Garden
Nagamachi, Teramachi & Katamachi districts
Museums & other attractions
How to get there
The JR Thunderbird Limited Express links Kyoto to Kanazawa in about 2 hours 15 minutes (￥3,900).
The JR Shirasagi Limited Express connects Kanazawa to the JR Tokaido Shinkansen line in Maihara (??) is a bit less than two hours, From Maihara, it is about 25 minutes to Nagoya, 55 minutes to Kyoto and 2 hours to Tokyo.
By air, the nearest airport is Komatsu (55min by bus). JAL has flights to Tokyo (Haneda) and Okinawa, while ANA has flights to Sapporo, Sendai, Tokyo (Haneda) and Fukuoka.
Noh theatre picture by courtesy from the Japan National Tourist Organization. Seison-kaku picture by courtesy of Kanazawa City.
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