From tea ceremonies to gold leaf work and pottery making, arts and crafts are alive in Kanazawa, Japan
- Kanazawa, the capital of Ishikawa prefecture in Japan, has a long history of celebrating arts and crafts – even the city’s manhole covers are beautiful
- The passion for crafts permeates all aspects of life here, and workshops show students how to make sweets, pottery, porcelain and more, and do gold leaf work
Kanazawa takes its arts and crafts seriously. Even the city’s manhole covers – adorned with bucolic scenes of riverside temples and ancient castles – are beautiful.
Then again the city, the capital of Ishikawa prefecture on Japan’s Honshu Island, has a long tradition to uphold.
During the Edo period (1603 to 1867), Kanazawa was ruled by the Maeda clan, second in Japan only to the ruling Tokugawa clan, which feared a power grab.
But the Tokugawas need not have worried; the Maedas wanted to secure their region’s future by investing in crafts rather than weaponry.
Doing so not only transformed Kanazawa into one of Japan’s most prosperous cities (even today, 99 per cent of Japan’s gold leaf is produced here), but also afforded a certain amount of protection because of the presence of the finest artisans, literary scholars and tea ceremony masters.
Open to visitors to Kanazawa’s Nagamachi neighbourhood, otherwise known as the Samurai District, are well-preserved Edo-era homes, many of which have a room dedicated to tea ceremonies.
