What to See in Kanazawa - Top Sights and Attractions

Historical landmark in Kanazawa, Japan. The Seisonkaku is a large Japanese villa in the city of Kanazawa, built in 1863 by Maeda Nariyasu, 13th daimyō of the Kaga clan, as a retirement home for his mother Shinryu-in. A collection of her personal effects is open to the public.

It is one of the few buildings in Japan to display the possessions of a daimyo family in their original surroundings. The main floor is built in the buke-shoin (武家書院) style, with a formal guest chamber Ekken-no-ma (謁見の間), and a traditional covered walkway (engawa (縁側)) which opens onto a beautiful small garden. The walkway, named Horsetail corridor (つくしの廊下), is famous for being 20 meters long, with no supporting beams holding up the roof. The roof is supported with a cantilever that extends 10 meters back into the building, a Meiji-period architectural innovation. The first floor showcases extensive architectural uses of artwork, from painted screens and doors to stained glass imported from the Netherlands.

The second floor of the building is decorated in strong reds, blues and purples in the sukiya-shoin (数奇屋風書院) style. Some of the shōji screens on the second floor feature glass panes imported from the Netherlands, allowing snow viewing in wintertime without opening the screens.^[4]

Shinto shrine with a big garden and pond. Oyama Shrine is a Shinto shrine in Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan.

The shrine was established in 1599, dedicated to Maeda Toshiie (the first lord of Kaga Domain), in Utatsu-yama (卯辰山), east of Kanazawa. It was moved to its present location in 1873 and renamed to Oyama-jinja. The main gate was constructed in 1875. This gate is a peculiar mix of traditional Japanese, Chinese, and European religious architectural elements. The gate is 25 metres (82 ft) high including the lightning rod. The third floor is particular famous for its Dutch stained-glass windows. It is said that the third floor was also used as a lighthouse. The gate was designated an Important Cultural Asset on August 29, 1950.^[5]

Sleek museum with cultural art and relics. Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art, also known as IPMA, is the main art gallery of Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. It is one of Japan's many museums which are supported by a prefecture.

The collection includes some of the prefecture's most important cultural assets and works by artists with some connection to the region. It is located in Kanazawa, Ishikawa within the grounds of the Kenrokuen Garden.

The gallery was first opened in 1959. When the collection outgrew its original building, a new facility was constructed. The current structure was completed in 1983.

The museum has a large permanent collection; and only part of it is exhibited at any one time. The core collection includes significant works from the Maeda family collection which had been previously housed in at the University of Tokyo.^[7]

Museum in Kanazawa, Japan. The National Crafts Museum is a museum of Japanese crafts in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan. Still retaining the more formal, official designation National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo Craft Gallery, it forms part of the Independent Administrative Institution National Museum of Art. As part of the government policy of regional revitalization, the facility relocated in 2020 from Kitanomaru Park in Tokyo, where it first opened in 1977. It is now housed in two Western-style buildings of the Meiji period that have themselves been relocated from elsewhere in Kanazawa, reassembled, and restored, the 1898 Old 9th Division Command Headquarters and 1909 Old Army Generals Club. From the collection of some 3,800 items, by craftsmen from all over Japan, some 1,900 have been transferred, including approximately 1,400 by "holders" and preservers of Important Intangible Cultural Properties, who are often referred to as "Living National Treasures", and members of the Japan Art Academy.^[10]