Kanazawa travel guide

Top 10 sights in Kanazawa

Ranked by Wikipedia language editions — proven fame.

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   1© 663highland · CC BY 2.5

   Kenroku-en

   Kenrokuen is the daimyo garden ranked first among the three great gardens of Japan. The winter yukitsuri ropes and the Kotoji lantern are its emblems, and it is quietest immediately after opening in the morning.

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   2© 663highland · CC BY 2.5

   Kanazawa Castle

   The castle of the Maeda, whose domain was assessed at a million koku of rice and was the richest outside the shogun's. Its white lead roofs and diamond-patterned walls have been rebuilt in traditional joinery, and a bridge links it to Kenroku-en.

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   3© Mass Ave 975 · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Hakusan National Park

   A national park of 1962 around Mount Haku, a 2,702-metre volcano counted with Fuji and Tateyama as one of Japan's three holy mountains. Beech forest covers the lower slopes and the alpine flowers above the tree line are what draw walkers in July.

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   4© 金沢市 · CC BY 2.1 jp

   21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art

   The 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art is the circular glass museum known for Leandro Erlich's Swimming Pool. Walking only the free zone is enough to show the modern face of Kanazawa.

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   5© Yusuke.ogawa · CC BY 2.5

   Oyama Shrine

   Oyama Shrine is known for its gate crowned with stained glass. The tower gate, mixing Japanese and Western forms, shows the sensibility of Kanazawa in the years after the ports opened.

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   6© SilverHaze · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Kokutai-ji Temple

   A Rinzai Zen temple in Toyama prefecture. The monk Jiun Myōi founded it as Tōshō-ji in 1300, and Emperor Go-Daigo granted it the name Kokutai-ji in 1327; for a time it belonged to the Fuke sect and housed komusō.

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   7© kahusi (會話) · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Takaoka Castle

   The site of Takaoka Castle, the only castle park designated a national historic site in Toyama prefecture, with boat trips on the moat and a museum. It is seen together with the Great Buddha of Takaoka.

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   Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art

   The principal art museum of Ishikawa prefecture in Japan. The prefecture supports it, and it holds work by artists connected with the region together with some of its most important cultural properties.

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   9© 柑橘類 (talk) · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Zuiryū-ji Temple

   Zuiryū-ji is the mortuary temple of Maeda Toshinaga, and the quintessence of Zen planning, with its national treasure gate, Buddha hall and Dharma hall standing on one straight axis. It is the principal national treasure architecture of the Hokuriku region, at Takaoka.

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    10© dennis bloodnok (bloodnok) · CC BY 2.0

    Shirayama Hime Shrine

    A shrine at Sannomiya in Hakusan in Ishikawa prefecture in Japan. It was the ichinomiya of the old province of Kaga and holds its great festival on 6 May each year.

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1. 

   1© Irina Gelbukh · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Myōryū-ji Temple

   Myōryū-ji, the ninja temple, is a defensive building full of traps and hidden staircases. Visits are by guided tour and must be booked in advance.

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   2© 金沢市 · CC BY 2.1 jp

   D. T. Suzuki Museum

   A museum honouring the Zen thinker Suzuki Daisetsu, built around a still pool for contemplation. Taniguchi Yoshio's minimal architecture is itself a kind of koan.

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   3© MikaPr65 · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Motorcar Museum of Japan

   A car museum at Komatsu in Ishikawa prefecture. It keeps more than five hundred vehicles, which makes it one of the largest in Japan, and is also known for its collection of old lavatory fittings from around the world.

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   4© J o · CC BY-SA 4.0

   National Crafts Museum

   A crafts museum in Kanazawa, Ishikawa prefecture. It opened in 1977 in Kitanomaru Park in Tokyo as the crafts gallery of the National Museum of Modern Art, and moved here in 2020 under a policy of relocating national institutions to the regions.

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   5© 金沢市 · CC BY 2.1 jp

   Kanazawa Yasue Gold Leaf Museum

   A municipal museum in the city of Kanazawa in Ishikawa prefecture, devoted to the gold leaf craft for which the city is known.

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   Ishikawa Aviation Plaza

   An aviation museum beside Komatsu airport at Komatsu in Ishikawa prefecture. More than twenty aircraft are kept, with cockpits left open to sit in, which is why children fill it.

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   7© Opqr · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Yoshizaki-go-bō Temple

   A temple that stood at Yoshizaki in Awara in Fukui prefecture. It is connected with Rennyo, who built up the Jōdo Shinshū sect, and the site was designated a national historic site in 2012.

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   Keta Shrine

   A Shinto shrine at Hakui in Ishikawa prefecture. It was the ichinomiya, the first-ranked shrine, of the old province of Noto, and enshrines Ōkuninushi as its principal deity.

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   9© KENPEI · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Botanic Gardens of Toyama

   A prefectural botanic garden of nearly twenty-five hectares at Fuchu, with glasshouses and a large collection of magnolia and Himalayan plants — the result of long field collaboration with botanists in Nepal and China.

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    10© 663highland · CC BY 2.5

    Seisonkaku

    Seisonkaku is a late Edo villa built by the Maeda family for the lord's mother, and an important cultural property. It stands beside Kenrokuen and is seen with it.

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