4304-4304 Travel Guide

Seisonkaku is a lavish villa beside Kanazawa's Kenrokuen, built in 1863 by the 13th Kaga lord Maeda Nariyasu for his mother. Blending sukiya architecture with modern Western touches, its interior sliding-door paintings and mother-of-pearl inlay are exquisite, and the garden borrows the view of Kenrokuen — a place to grasp Kaga's 'million-koku' culture and its spirit of filial devotion.

The Ishikawa Shikō Memorial Cultural Exchange Hall in Kanazawa is a literature and archive museum in the old 'Fourth Higher School' main building — a Meiji red-brick structure. The school produced many writers and scholars; the museum shows its history, artefacts and Kanazawa's intellectual lineage. The brick schoolhouse itself is a registered cultural property, part of Kanazawa's scholarly townscape.

Ozaki Shrine is a shrine in Kanazawa, set in a corner of the old castle town, worshipped by citizens for warding off misfortune, inviting fortune and safe childbirth. The grounds are quiet under old trees, with local-faith rites continued; it fits into a Kanazawa shrine-and-temple pilgrimage.

Myoryuji, also called the 'Ninja Temple', is a Nichiren-sect temple in Kanazawa famed for its trick-architecture: hidden floors, secret stairs, escape tunnels and spy-holes, said to be the Kaga domain's concealed palace and refuge. Plain outside, labyrinthine within, it is among Kanazawa's most mysterious sights — visited only on a guided tour.

The Nagamachi Bukeyashiki (samurai residence) of the Nomura family is a preserved mid-to-high-rank Kaga samurai house in Kanazawa's Nagamachi district — white walls, stone lanes and canals form the classic samurai townscape. The Nomura main house and stroll garden are well kept; the garden borrows the stone wall of Kanazawa Castle and is planted with care — a window on Edo samurai life and Kanazawa's 'craft' beauty.

Kenroku-en in Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan, ranks with Kairaku-en and Kōraku-en as one of Japan's three great gardens. This strolling pond garden was built up over roughly 180 years by the Maeda lords of Kaga domain: it began in 1676 with a lotus-pond villa, and in 1822 the twelfth lord, Maeda Narinaga, gave it the name Kenroku, 'combining six qualities' — spaciousness, seclusion, artifice, antiquity, water and panorama — from a Song-dynasty treatise on the famous gardens of Luoyang. Kasumiga-ike pond lies like a mirror, and the two-legged Kotoji stone lantern beside the arched bridge has become the emblem of the city. The Karasaki pine spreads low, horizontal limbs propped in winter by yukitsuri rope cones, the signature image of snow country. Hisago pond with its Midori-taki cascade, Japan's oldest fountain and the Seisonkaku villa each add another mood. With sharp seasons — cherry, green, maple, snow — the garden anchors a circuit with Kanazawa Castle, the 21st Century Museum and the Higashi Chaya district.