Garden, castle and the free hour
7 stops · 3 h · on foot · start 5:00-7:45 and Kenrokuen is free · 7 stops
- Zuishinzaka gate
- Kotojitoro lantern
- Yamazakiyama mound
- Seisonkaku
- Ishikawamon gate
- Gyokusen'inmaru garden
- Matcha at Gyokusen'an
150 places · MICHELIN Hokuriku 2021 and Ishikawa sources · no Eater coverage · 5 ready-made routes
Tap a route and it gets drawn on the map, stop by stop.
Tap a pin to see photos, rating and how to get there by bus, train or on foot. Turn on a route to follow the numbered path.
This interactive map of Kanazawa (Japan) brings together 150 hand-picked places: 68 attractions, 45 restaurants, 20 cafés and 17 shops. It also includes 5 walking routes with their stops in order. For every place you get what it is, a practical tip and how to get there by public transport. It is free, works on your phone and needs no sign-up.
· Curated by the HOLASIM team · How we make the maps
Tap a route to see it drawn on the map, stop by stop.
7 stops · 3 h · on foot · start 5:00-7:45 and Kenrokuen is free · 7 stops
6 stops · 3 h · on foot plus one bus · go before 9 or after 16 · 6 stops
6 stops · 3 h · on foot · phone-book Myoryuji before you set out · 6 stops
6 stops · 2 h · on foot · do NOT do it on a Wednesday: half the market shuts · 6 stops
6 stops · 4 h · on foot · avoid Mondays: nearly every museum shuts · 6 stops
兼六園 · Kenrokumachi
One of Japan's three great gardens: ponds, stone bridges and pines pruned over three centuries.
Tip: ¥320 adults, ¥100 children, cash only. Until 31 Oct you get in FREE between 5:00 and 7:45; from 1 Nov the free window starts at 6:00. Regular hours 8:00-17:00.
🚇 Kenrokuen-shita, Kanazawa-jo bus stop, 4 min walk
Featured in: Ishikawa Pref. · Oficina Kanazawa Castle & Kenrokuen
Show on map随身坂口 · Kenrokumachi
Kenrokuen's south gate. With Renchimon, one of the two that open during the free dawn window.
Tip: During the free window only Renchimon and Zuishinzaka open, and you must leave 15 minutes before regular opening. The other gates stay shut.
🚇 Kokuritsu Kogeikan, Kenritsu Bijutsukan bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Ishikawa Pref. · Oficina Kenrokuen
Show on map徽軫灯籠 · Kenrokumachi
The two-legged stone lantern on the edge of Kasumi Pond: the photo everybody takes home from Kanazawa.
Tip: It sits inside Kenrokuen, so the garden ticket applies. At 7:00 nobody is there; by 11:00 there is a queue for the same shot.
🚇 Kenrokuen-shita, Kanazawa-jo bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Ishikawa Pref. · Meien-ki
Show on map霞ヶ池 · Kenrokumachi
Kenrokuen's main pond, with its turtle island and the reflection of pines roped against the snow.
Tip: Yukitsuri rope cones start going up on 1 November and are finished by mid-December. They are not up yet today.
🚇 Kenrokuen-shita, Kanazawa-jo bus stop, 3 min walk
Featured in: Ishikawa Pref. · Meien-ki
Show on map山崎山 · Kenrokumachi
Kenrokuen's maple mound, the corner that catches fire in red when the momiji arrives.
Tip: It is GREEN today: the Weathernews forecast puts the peak between early and late November, later than average. If you come this week, come for the moss.
🚇 Dewamachi bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Ishikawa Pref. · Weathernews
Show on map瓢池 · Kenrokumachi
The gourd-shaped pond, the garden's oldest corner, with the Midoritaki waterfall dropping at the back.
Tip: It is right by Renchimon gate, the other early-opening one: come in there and you have it to yourself before 8.
🚇 Hirosaka, 21-seiki Bijutsukan bus stop, 3 min walk
Featured in: Ishikawa Pref. · Meien-ki
Show on map夕顔亭 · Kenrokumachi
A 1774 teahouse on the edge of Hisago Pond: the oldest building still standing anywhere inside Kenrokuen.
Tip: You cannot go in: you look from outside, from the edge of Hisago Pond. Look for the carved gourd on the wall that gives it its name.
🚇 Hirosaka, 21-seiki Bijutsukan bus stop, 3 min walk
Featured in: Ishikawa Pref. · Meien-ki
Show on map明治紀念之標 · Kenrokumachi
The 1880 bronze of Yamato Takeru, and one of the very first public bronze monuments cast in Japan.
Tip: Pigeons never land on it: the alloy contains arsenic. It is the trivia every local guide tells.
🚇 Kokuritsu Kogeikan, Kenritsu Bijutsukan bus stop, 3 min walk
Featured in: Ishikawa Pref. · Meien-ki
Show on map眺望台 · Kenrokumachi
A balcony on the garden's east side: the lower town, Mt. Utatsu and, on clear days, the Sea of Japan.
Tip: Kenrokuen sits on a plateau some 50 m above the centre: that is why you see so much from here. Best in morning sun.
🚇 Kenrokuen-shita, Kanazawa-jo bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Ishikawa Pref. · Meien-ki
Show on map成巽閣 · Kenrokumachi
The villa the 13th Lord Maeda built in 1863 for his mother: lacquered ceilings, Dutch glass and a private garden.
Tip: ¥700 for the regular display, ¥1,000 when a special show is on. CLOSED WEDNESDAYS. Open 9:00-17:00, last entry 16:30.
🚇 Kokuritsu Kogeikan, Kenritsu Bijutsukan bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Seisonkaku oficial
Show on map石川門 · Marunouchi
The 1788 gate facing Kenrokuen, with lead roof tiles that turned white over the years.
Tip: The park is free to enter. Every SATURDAY there is a free night opening with illumination, from sunset to 21:00.
🚇 Kenrokuen-shita, Kanazawa-jo bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Ishikawa Pref. · Kanazawa Castle Park
Show on map玉泉院丸庭園 · Marunouchi
A Maeda garden buried in 1922 and rebuilt in 2015 from the original plans, under a stepped stone wall.
Tip: IT IS FREE, unlike Kenrokuen. On Saturdays it is lit until 21:00 along with the rest of the castle park.
🚇 Shokokaigisho bus stop, 3 min walk
Featured in: Ishikawa Pref. · Kanazawa Castle Park
Show on map鼠多門 · Marunouchi
A black-plastered gate rebuilt in 2020; its bridge restores the direct link between the castle and Oyama Jinja.
Tip: Going up inside the gate is FREE, same as Kawakitamon. It is the shortcut between the castle and the Korinbo district.
🚇 Shokokaigisho bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Ishikawa Pref. · Kanazawa Castle Park
Show on mapいもり堀 · Marunouchi
The south-side moat, filled in during Meiji and dug out again in 2010; the lawn at the bottom used to be a tennis court.
Tip: Best spot to photograph the whole Gyokusen'inmaru stone wall, especially in afternoon light.
🚇 Hirosaka, 21-seiki Bijutsukan bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Ishikawa Pref. · Kanazawa Castle Park
Show on map白鳥路 · Marunouchi
A tree-lined walk over a filled moat, with statues of Kanazawa's three writers and bronze fireflies.
Tip: The nicest route between the Omicho area and Ishikawamon gate, and it is lit at night.
🚇 Kenrokuen-shita, Kanazawa-jo bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City
Show on map尾山神社 · Oyama-cho
Dedicated to Maeda Toshiie, the clan's founder. Its rear garden maps a Japanese harp in stone and water.
Tip: Free and open all day. Out the back you come straight to the Nezumitamon bridge and the castle park.
🚇 Shokokaigisho bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City
Show on map尾山神社神門 · Oyama-cho
An 1875 three-storey gate with Dutch stained glass on top and Japan's oldest lightning rod at the tip.
Tip: The stained glass lights up from inside after dark. Come back after dinner: it is a different building.
🚇 Minamicho, Oyama Jinja bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City
Show on map尾崎神社 · Marunouchi
Vermilion lacquer and gilt fittings: they call it the Nikko of the north, and it is almost always empty.
Tip: It is steps from the castle and everyone skips it. Ten minutes here beat ten in the Kenrokuen queue.
🚇 Otebori bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City
Show on map石浦神社 · Hirosaka
Kanazawa's oldest shrine, and the one with the tunnel of 101 red torii that blew up on Instagram.
Tip: Right across the street from the 21st Century Museum. The polka-dot komaro charms are the souvenir that sells out.
🚇 Hirosaka, 21-seiki Bijutsukan bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City
Show on map金澤神社 · Kenrokumachi
Next to Kenrokuen, with the Kinjo Reitaku well that supposedly gave the city its name: the marsh of gold.
Tip: Free, and you reach it without paying for Kenrokuen, via the Zuishinzaka gate. It is a students' shrine: hundreds of wooden plaques.
🚇 Kokuritsu Kogeikan, Kenritsu Bijutsukan bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City
Show on map宇多須神社 · Higashiyama
Higashi Chaya's guardian shrine. In February the geisha dance setsubun here dressed as men.
Tip: Up the back starts the Utatsuyama temple trail: five minutes and there are no tourists left.
🚇 Hashibacho bus stop, 4 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City
Show on map全性寺 · Higashiyama
A red gate with two giant straw sandals hanging: left by people praying for strong legs.
Tip: Part of the temple cluster at the foot of Utatsuyama. Walk it in the morning: afternoon sun hits head-on and ruins photos.
🚇 Moriyama 1-chome bus stop, 4 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City
Show on map大乗寺 · Nagasaka
A Soto Zen monastery of seven buildings lined up the hillside; you can sit to meditate with the monks.
Tip: Free to enter and off the circuit: the quietest point on this map. Its maple grove turns red in mid-November.
🚇 Bus from Kanazawa Station to Senkyu Koko-mae or Enkoji, then a 16 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City
Show on mapひがし茶屋街 · Higashiyama
The 1820 teahouse quarter, with kimusuko wooden lattices and cobbles: Japan's largest chaya district.
Tip: Between 8 and 9 in the morning it is empty and the lanterns are still on. From 11 to 16 it is a wall of people.
🚇 Hashibacho bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City · Distrito Preservado
Show on mapお茶屋 志摩 · Higashiyama
An 1820 teahouse kept exactly as it was, unfurnished: you see the stage where geisha played and the dressing room below.
Tip: Open 9:00-18:00. One of the few chaya you can walk through inside: most are now shops or cafes.
🚇 Hashibacho bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Bien Cultural Importante de Japón
Show on map主計町茶屋街 · Kazuemachi
A row of three-storey teahouses along the Asano river, with alleys one shoulder wide in between.
Tip: This is the chaya quarter still in business: pass at 19:00 and you hear shamisen from the street. Take the Akarizaka alley down.
🚇 Hashibacho bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City · Distrito Preservado
Show on mapにし茶屋街 · Nomachi
The third chaya quarter, a single block south of the Sai river, with more working geisha than tourist windows.
Tip: The smallest and quietest of the three. Pairs well with Myoryuji and Teramachi on the same walk.
🚇 Nishi Chayagai bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City
Show on map西茶屋資料館 · Nomachi
A replica teahouse interior in the western quarter, with the red tatami room and the instruments.
Tip: FREE, open 9:30-17:00. If you would rather not pay for Shima in Higashi Chaya, this tells the same story.
🚇 Nishi Chayagai bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City
Show on map長町武家屋敷跡 · Nagamachi
A maze of earthen walls and canals where the Maeda clan's mid-rank samurai lived.
Tip: From December to March the walls get straw mats so snow does not dissolve them: komo-gake. Not up yet today.
🚇 Nagamachi Buke Yashiki bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City
Show on map武家屋敷跡 野村家 · Nagamachi
The only Nagamachi samurai house you can go inside, with a stone-laid garden and koi carp.
Tip: ¥550 adults today, ¥400 high school, ¥250 primary. It goes to ¥750 on 1 April 2027, so coming before that is a bargain. Open 8:30-16:30.
🚇 Nagamachi Buke Yashiki bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Nomura-ke oficial
Show on map大野庄用水 · Nagamachi
The city's oldest canal, dug around 1580 to float stone and timber up to the castle.
Tip: Kanazawa has 55 open canals. Follow this one upstream and it walks you through all of Nagamachi.
🚇 Seirei Byoin, Seido bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City
Show on map鞍月用水 · Katamachi
The canal that cuts through the bar district: along Seseragi-dori, bars and cafes hang over the water.
Tip: The good stretch is between Korinbo and Katamachi. At night the canal-side terraces fill up and take no bookings.
🚇 Korinbo bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City
Show on map金沢市足軽資料館 · Nagamachi
Two genuine foot-soldier houses moved here: the other half of the samurai story, the half with no garden.
Tip: FREE, 9:30-17:00. Compare it with the Nomura house on the same walk: the class gap shows in the size of the kitchen.
🚇 Seirei Byoin, Seido bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City
Show on map金沢市老舗記念館 · Nagamachi
The 1579 Nakaya pharmacy moved whole: the counter, the herb drawers and, upstairs, Kaga wedding sweets.
Tip: Open 9:30-17:00. The upper room holds festival dolls and mizuhiki knots you barely see in shop windows any more.
🚇 Shinise Kinenkan bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City
Show on map長町友禅館 · Nagamachi
A workshop where you watch kaga-yuzen painted by hand: silk dyeing in five colours, with insect-eaten leaves.
Tip: Kaga-yuzen DOES have an official seal: a red Kagazome Shinko Kyokai tag for hand-painted work, blue or purple for stencil work, plus the artist's own stamp.
🚇 Seirei Byoin, Seido bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Kaga Yuzen · industria tradicional
Show on map妙立寺（忍者寺） · Nomachi
A 1643 temple with 23 rooms, 29 staircases, floor traps and a well with a tunnel: a military post disguised as a temple.
Tip: BOOKING REQUIRED by phone on 076-241-0888 (English spoken) or at the door intercom. No online booking. ¥1,200 adults and ¥800 children; the tour is guided in Japanese with an English booklet, lasts 45 min, and preschoolers cannot enter.
🚇 Hirokoji bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Myoryuji oficial
Show on map忍者武器ミュージアム · Nomachi
A private collection of shuriken, chains and locks where you can throw real stars at a target.
Tip: It has nothing to do with Myoryuji, which is not a ninja temple. Here the point is throwing stars; there, the architecture.
🚇 Nishi Chayagai bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Ninja Weapon Museum oficial
Show on map谷口吉郎・吉生記念 金沢建築館 · Hirosaka
Museum of the two Taniguchi, father and son architects, with an exact rebuild of the Seisonkaku room upstairs.
Tip: Yoshio Taniguchi designed MoMA's New York extension; here is the family archive, in Teramachi.
🚇 Hirokoji bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City
Show on map犀川大橋 · Katamachi
A riveted steel bridge from 1924 over the Sai river, the only one of its kind left in the city.
Tip: The Sai is called the male river and the Asano the female. Cross it in the afternoon: the sun sets right upstream.
🚇 Katamachi, Saigawa Ohashi-kita bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Bien Cultural Tangible Registrado
Show on map浅野川大橋 · Higashiyama
A 1922 concrete bridge with iron lamps, the hinge between Higashi Chaya and Kazuemachi.
Tip: Take the stairs on the Kazuemachi side and walk the water's edge: from below the bridge is another thing entirely.
🚇 Hashibacho bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Bien Cultural Tangible Registrado
Show on map嫁坂 · Satomi-cho
A stone stair cut in the 16th century so a samurai's daughter could climb up to marry: hence the bride's slope.
Tip: Kanazawa has dozens of named slopes. This and Kisozaka are the two best climbs up to the plateau.
🚇 Nijuninzaka bus stop, 3 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City
Show on map金沢21世紀美術館 · Hirosaka
SANAA's glass circle, a museum with no front and no back, designed as a public square with artworks inside.
Tip: The exchange zone (the ring, library, gardens and several works) is FREE and open 9:00-22:00. Only the exhibition zone is ticketed. Closed Mondays.
🚇 Hirosaka, 21-seiki Bijutsukan bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa 21st Century Museum oficial
Show on mapカラー・アクティビティ・ハウス · Hirosaka
Olafur Eliasson's cyan, magenta and yellow glass spiral: the city changes colour depending on where you stand.
Tip: It is in the outdoor garden: no ticket, any time of day. At night it lights up and there is almost nobody.
🚇 Hirosaka, 21-seiki Bijutsukan bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa 21st Century Museum oficial
Show on mapブルー・プラネット・スカイ · Hirosaka
James Turrell's room with a square cut from the ceiling: you sit on the stone bench and watch the sky change.
Tip: It is in the free zone. Best half hour is just before sunset, when the blue turns violet.
🚇 Shiyakusho, Kakinokibatake bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa 21st Century Museum oficial
Show on map鈴木大拙館 · Honda-machi
Three Taniguchi concrete boxes around a water mirror: less a museum than a place to sit and stop thinking.
Tip: ¥310 adults, free up to high school, ¥210 for over-65s. Open 9:30-17:00, CLOSED MONDAYS. Put the phone away: the water is the point.
🚇 Hondamachi bus stop, 3 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City · museo oficial
Show on map国立工芸館 · Dewa-machi
The crafts branch of the National Museum of Modern Art, moved from Tokyo to Kanazawa in 2020, in two 1898 barracks.
Tip: It is Japan's only national museum outside the big cultural capitals. Closed Mondays, like almost everything on this hill.
🚇 Kokuritsu Kogeikan, Kenritsu Bijutsukan bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: National Crafts Museum (MOMAT)
Show on map石川県立美術館 · Dewa-machi
Home of Nonomura Ninsei's pheasant incense burner, a National Treasure, and the best Kutani and Kaga lacquer collection.
Tip: The permanent collection is ¥370, open 9:30-18:00. In the hall is Le Musée de H, pastry chef Tsujiguchi's cafe: no ticket needed.
🚇 Kokuritsu Kogeikan, Kenritsu Bijutsukan bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art
Show on map石川県立歴史博物館 · Dewa-machi
Three 1909 red-brick sheds, a former army arsenal, now Kaga's history told with models and sound.
Tip: Open 9:00-17:00. The building itself is an Important Cultural Property: even if you do not go in, the yard between the three sheds is free.
🚇 Hondanomori Hall bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of History
Show on map金沢市立中村記念美術館 · Honda-machi
A local sake brewer's tea-ceremony collection, in a merchant house moved into the Honda woods.
Tip: Admission includes a matcha with wagashi facing the garden. It is the cheapest way to take tea in Kanazawa.
🚇 Hondamachi bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City · museo oficial
Show on map金沢能楽美術館 · Hirosaka
Masks and costumes of Kaga-hosho, the noh school so popular here that even carpenters sang it: they called it noh raining from the sky.
Tip: Open 10:00-18:00, closed Mondays. They let you try on a noh mask and costume: it is free and nobody knows.
🚇 Hirosaka, 21-seiki Bijutsukan bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa Noh Museum
Show on map石川県立伝統産業工芸館 · Kenrokumachi
Ishikawa's 36 recognised crafts under one roof: Kutani, yuzen, gold leaf, Wajima lacquer, mizuhiki and Ohi ware.
Tip: It is at Kenrokuen's gate. Come HERE BEFORE you buy: then you know what you are looking at in the Higashi Chaya shops.
🚇 Dewamachi bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Ishikawa Densankan
Show on map金沢市立安江金箔工芸館 · Higashiyama
Japan's only museum devoted to gold leaf, founded by a beater who gave his collection to the city.
Tip: Kanazawa makes 99% of Japan's gold leaf, per the Kanazawa-haku collective trademark registration. The finished sheet is 0.0001 mm thick.
🚇 Hashibacho bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City · museo oficial
Show on map大樋美術館 · Hashiba-cho
Eleven generations of Ohi potters in a house with a garden: amber clay tea bowls, hand-built without a wheel.
Tip: Ohi ware was born in Kanazawa in 1666 and is made nowhere else. The family kiln is next door to the museum.
🚇 Hashibacho bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Ohi Museum oficial
Show on map金沢菓子木型美術館 · Ote-machi
Twelve hundred cherrywood sweet moulds, upstairs from the confectioner that has run since 1625.
Tip: Open 9:00-17:00. The Chouseiden rakugan mould weighs like a brick: ask to see it, they will show you.
🚇 Hashibacho bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Morihachi oficial
Show on map金沢蓄音器館 · Owari-cho
Six hundred gramophones and thirty thousand shellac discs; three times a day they play three different machines.
Tip: Demos are at 11:00, 14:00 and 16:00: time your visit to one. Without them the museum loses half its point.
🚇 Izumi Kyoka Kinenkan bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City · museo oficial
Show on map泉鏡花記念館 · Shimotsutsumi-cho
Birthplace of the writer of the uncanny, the strangest of Kanazawa's three great authors.
Tip: The three literary museums (Kyoka, Shusei and Saisei) share a combined ticket. It is 3 minutes from the Asanogawa bridge.
🚇 Izumi Kyoka Kinenkan bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City · museo oficial
Show on map室生犀星記念館 · Senda-machi
Home of the poet who wrote that one's homeland is best thought of from afar: born and raised a hundred steps from the Sai.
Tip: The monument with his most famous line is by the river, ten minutes away. Do both and the poem makes sense.
🚇 Shiragikucho bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City · museo oficial
Show on map寺島蔵人邸 · Owari-cho
An 18th-century samurai official's house with a 300-year-old maple in the garden, hidden behind a wall.
Tip: The maple turns red in mid-November and they open at night for it. In October it is still green: come for the house.
🚇 Hashibacho bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City · museo oficial
Show on mapしいのき迎賓館 · Hirosaka
The 1924 former prefectural office: brick facade in front, a glass wall onto the castle lawn behind.
Tip: Free to enter, open 9:00-22:00. The lawn behind, with its two giant oaks, is the best picnic in the centre.
🚇 Shiyakusho-mae, 21-seiki Bijutsukan bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Ishikawa Pref.
Show on map卯辰山山麓寺院群 · Higashiyama
Nearly fifty temples stacked up the hillside behind Higashi Chaya, joined by stone stairs and dead-end lanes.
Tip: Go in by Utasu shrine and follow the stairs upward with no plan. It is the calmest walk on this map.
🚇 Hashibacho bus stop, 4 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City
Show on map五本松 · Higashiyama
The five pines on the Utatsuyama climb, with the whole city laid out below and the castle straight ahead.
Tip: A 12-minute climb from Higashi Chaya. Come half an hour before sunset and stay for the lights to come on.
🚇 Namikicho bus stop, 3 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City
Show on map望湖台（卯辰山公園） · Utatsuyama
The highest point of Utatsuyama park: on clear days you see the Sea of Japan and, far off, Mt. Haku.
Tip: It is the view behind the name: boko means looking at the lake. Take a bus up from Hashibacho or walk 30 minutes.
🚇 Tokiwabashi bus stop, 9 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City
Show on map金沢卯辰山工芸工房 · Utatsuyama
A municipal residency where young makers in ceramics, lacquer, dyeing, metal and glass live and work.
Tip: Entry is FREE and you see the studios from the corridor. It is the flip side of the souvenir shops: here it is made, not sold.
🚇 Zaimokucho bus stop, 10 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City
Show on map鼓門 · Kinoshinbo
Two 13.7 m timber columns shaped like the tsuzumi drum of noh theatre, at the station's east gate.
Tip: It is lit every night and changes colour by season. The photo works better from the plaza steps than from underneath.
🚇 Kanazawa-eki Higashiguchi bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City · JR West
Show on mapもてなしドーム · Kinoshinbo
A glass-and-steel dome of 3,000 panels over the station plaza, conceived as an umbrella for Japan's rainiest big city.
Tip: Kanazawa says do not go out without an umbrella even if you forget your lunch. Under the dome you do not need one: it is everyone's meeting point.
🚇 Kanazawa-eki Higashiguchi bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa City · JR West
Show on mapヤマト糀パーク · Onomachi
A 1911 soy sauce brewery open to the public, with a koji bar, cedar barrels and shoyu tasting.
Tip: Open 10:00-17:00, CLOSED WEDNESDAYS. Ono was one of Japan's five great soy sauce towns: several breweries still sit within four blocks.
🚇 Hokutetsu Sanma-Ono line bus to Ono-ko, about 35 min from Kanazawa Station
Featured in: Yamato Soy Sauce & Miso oficial
Show on map石川県金沢港大野からくり記念館 · Onomachi
A museum of wooden automata devoted to Ohno Benkichi, the 19th-century Kaga inventor, by the port.
Tip: You can work some replicas by hand. It is the best excuse to get out to the port with kids.
🚇 Hokutetsu Sanma-Ono line bus to Ono-ko, about 35 min from Kanazawa Station
Featured in: Ishikawa Pref.
Show on map大野こまちなみ公園 · Onomachi
Lanes of wooden houses and soy brewery chimneys on the Ono river: the port town the city swallowed.
Tip: It is 25 minutes by bus from the centre and there is not one tourist. You smell the soy fermenting from the street.
🚇 Hokutetsu Sanma-Ono line bus to Ono-ko, about 35 min from Kanazawa Station
Featured in: Kanazawa City
Show on mapいっぷく横丁 · Musashi
A lane of counters inside the market where you eat standing: oysters shucked to order, skewers and Ishikawa sake.
Tip: Open 9:00-17:00, CLOSED TUESDAYS AND WEDNESDAYS. Rock oyster season opened on 1 October: that is what to order today.
🚇 Jukkenmachi bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Mercado Omicho · guía oficial
Show on mapカキマニア · Musashi
An oyster counter from the Sea of Japan and Noto: raw, grilled or fried, shucked in front of you.
Tip: Open 10:30-17:00, CLOSED MONDAYS. With crab still closed until 6 November, oysters are this week's seasonal shellfish.
🚇 Musashigatsuji, Omicho Ichiba bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Mercado Omicho · guía oficial
Show on mapいきいき亭 · Musashi
Eight stools and a kaisendon with twelve different fish: the market's most famous sashimi bowl.
Tip: Open 7:00-15:00, CLOSED TUESDAYS. By 11 the queue is 40 minutes: come at 7:30 and you walk straight in.
🚇 Musashigatsuji, Omicho Ichiba bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Mercado Omicho · guía oficial
Show on map海鮮丼家ひら井 · Musashi
A seafood rice bowl with nodoguro, sea urchin and scallop, in the market's Ichibakan building.
Tip: Nodoguro (blackthroat seaperch) is THE Ishikawa fish and peaks from October to December. Open 11:00-17:00, Wednesdays to 15:30.
🚇 Musashigatsuji, Omicho Ichiba bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Mercado Omicho · guía oficial
Show on map潮屋 · Musashi
Specialists in Noto-style cured and smoked salmon, with a rice bowl of roe and warm salmon.
Tip: Open 10:00-15:00, CLOSED THURSDAYS. The vacuum-packed smoked salmon survives the trip: the market's best-designed edible souvenir.
🚇 Musashigatsuji, Omicho Ichiba bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Mercado Omicho · guía oficial
Show on map近江町食堂 · Musashi
A 1960 market canteen serving jibuni, the day's fish and Ishikawa sake until ten at night.
Tip: One of the few in Omicho open at night: 10:30-15:00 and 17:00-22:00. Order jibuni, the duck stew with wasabi that defines Kaga cooking.
🚇 Musashigatsuji, Omicho Ichiba bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Mercado Omicho · guía oficial
Show on map刺身屋 · Musashi
A fishmonger with a counter at the back: you pick the fish in the case and they slice it there and then.
Tip: Open 10:30-21:00 on weekdays and from 9:30 at weekends. One of the last in the market to close.
🚇 Musashigatsuji, Omicho Ichiba bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Mercado Omicho · guía oficial
Show on map井ノ弥 · Musashi
A classic market kaisendon, the assorted bowl carrying twelve toppings with fish-head soup included.
Tip: Open 11:00-15:00 and 17:00-19:00 on weekdays. From 6 November they add kobako-gani, the roe-bearing female snow crab.
🚇 Jukkenmachi bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Mercado Omicho · guía oficial
Show on map大口水産 焼き焼きコーナー · Musashi
A grill inside the fishmonger: pick a scallop, oyster or nodoguro and they grill it right there to eat standing.
Tip: Open 9:00-15:00, CLOSED WEDNESDAYS, like half of Omicho. Eating while walking through the market is frowned on: eat standing by the stall.
🚇 Jukkenmachi bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Mercado Omicho · guía oficial
Show on mapもりもり壽司 · Musashi
Kanazawa's most serious conveyor sushi: the fish comes from Kanazawa port and Noto, not from a freezer.
Tip: Open 10:00-17:30, CLOSED TUESDAYS. Order the Hokuriku assortment and the seared nodoguro: best value on this map.
🚇 Musashigatsuji, Omicho Ichiba bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Mercado Omicho · guía oficial
Show on map鮨 歴々 · Musashi
A chef's sushi counter in Omicho: omakase of Ishikawa fish with Kaga-style vinegared rice.
Tip: Open 11:00-14:30 and 17:30-22:00. In Kanazawa nearly every good counter wants a booking: phone or reserve by app the same day.
🚇 Jukkenmachi bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Prensa local de Ishikawa
Show on map舟楽 · Musashi
A bo-zushi house: pressed rice bars topped with nodoguro, mackerel or salmon, wrapped in kombu.
Tip: Bo-zushi keeps unrefrigerated all day: the one sushi you can take on the train. Open 9:00-17:00.
🚇 Jukkenmachi bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Mercado Omicho · guía oficial
Show on mapカレーのチャンピオン · Musashi
Kanazawa curry: thick black sauce over rice, shredded cabbage on top, a cutlet and a fork instead of a spoon.
Tip: Open 11:00-16:00. Kanazawa curry is eaten with a fork off a metal plate: that is part of the dish's definition, not an affectation.
🚇 Musashigatsuji, Omicho Ichiba bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Champion's Curry oficial
Show on map近江町山さん · Musashi
Stall sushi and kaisendon, with the grilled nodoguro bowl the market crowd eats mid-morning.
Tip: Open 9:00-16:00. Salt-grilled nodoguro is cheaper than raw and, for many locals, better.
🚇 Omicho Ichiba, Ichihime-jinja bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Mercado Omicho · guía oficial
Show on map黒百合 · Kinoshinbo
Kanazawa oden since 1953, inside the station: clear Hokuriku broth with fu, octopus and beef roll.
Tip: Open 11:00-21:30, every day. In Kanazawa oden is eaten year-round, but from October it is THE dish: order kurumafu and baigai.
🚇 Kanazawa-eki Nishiguchi bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Kuroyuri oficial · prensa local
Show on mapおでん山さん · Kinoshinbo
An oden counter inside the station mall, built for the hour you have before your Shinkansen leaves.
Tip: Open 11:00-21:30. Kani-men, the female crab stuffed back in its shell, only appears when the season opens on 6 November.
🚇 Kanazawa-eki Nishiguchi bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Oden Yamasan oficial
Show on mapおでん菊一 · Katamachi
A counter oden in Katamachi, the kind that has kept the same pot and topped-up broth for decades.
Tip: Small, and it fills with locals after 19:00. Sit at the counter and point: no Japanese needed.
🚇 Korinbo bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Prensa local de Ishikawa
Show on map金澤おでん 赤玉本店 · Katamachi
A 1927 oden house, the city's best known, two floors and a queue at the door from opening.
Tip: Closed Mondays. The dish that defines it is kurumafu, a wheel of wheat gluten that soaks up all the broth: order it first.
🚇 Katamachi bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Prensa local de Ishikawa
Show on map若葉 · Ishibiki
A neighbourhood oden up the slope in Ishibiki, where the university students and staff go.
Tip: Open 17:00-22:30, CLOSED MONDAYS. It is away from the centre and therefore has no queue: the honest version of Kanazawa oden.
🚇 Kami-Ishibiki bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Prensa local de Ishikawa
Show on mapつば甚 · Teramachi
A 1752 ryotei above the Sai river bluff: formal kaga-ryori in tatami rooms looking over the valley.
Tip: Open 11:00-15:00 and 17:00-21:00, booking required. One of the few ryotei in town with an affordable lunch menu.
🚇 Hirokoji bus stop, 3 min walk
Featured in: Prensa local de Ishikawa
Show on map金城樓 · Hashiba-cho
An 1890 ryotei with its own garden, serving jibuni and Kaga kaiseki on Kutani ware and lacquer.
Tip: Book days ahead. The lacquer-box lunch is far cheaper than dinner and you get the same garden.
🚇 Hashibacho bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Prensa local de Ishikawa
Show on map東山みずほ · Higashiyama
An iron-pot rice house in Higashi Chaya: kamameshi, jibuni and Kaga vegetables in a restored machiya.
Tip: Open 11:00-15:00, CLOSED WEDNESDAYS. Jibuni is the one dish you must try in Kanazawa: flour-dusted duck, broth and wasabi on top.
🚇 Hashibacho bus stop, 3 min walk
Featured in: Prensa local de Ishikawa
Show on map松魚亭 · Higashiyama
A kaiseki dining room on the Utatsuyama slope with the whole city through the window: Kaga cooking with a view.
Tip: Open 11:30-14:30 and 17:00-22:00, CLOSED WEDNESDAYS. Ask for a window table when booking: not all of them have the view.
🚇 Namikicho bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Prensa local de Ishikawa
Show on map大友家 · Owari-cho
A family fish restaurant between Omicho and the castle, with a daily set at office-lunch prices.
Tip: Open 11:30-14:00 and 17:30-22:00, CLOSED SUNDAYS. The midday set costs half what the same costs in Omicho.
🚇 Jukkenmachi bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Prensa local de Ishikawa
Show on map鮨処 たかしま · Higashiyama
An eight-seat counter in Higashi Chaya with omakase of Sea of Japan fish and warm rice.
Tip: Two sittings: 13:30 and 17:00 to 22:00. With eight seats you must phone the same day or earlier.
🚇 Hashibacho bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Prensa local de Ishikawa
Show on map香りん寿司 · Owari-cho
Neighbourhood sushi near the castle, with the cured mackerel and nodoguro bo-zushi they have made for decades.
Tip: Open 11:30-13:30 and 17:30-22:00, CLOSED WEDNESDAYS AND SUNDAYS. The lunch window is only two hours.
🚇 Otebori bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Prensa local de Ishikawa
Show on map寿し 五郎エ門 · Katamachi
A small counter in the Kiguramachi maze, with the day's fish handwritten on the wall.
Tip: Kiguramachi is Katamachi's best-kept restaurant alley. Come in from the canal street and walk slowly.
🚇 Katamachi bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Prensa local de Ishikawa
Show on mapまわる寿しもりもり寿し片町店 · Katamachi
The Katamachi branch of the Nanao conveyor chain: Noto fish, visible prices and room for kids.
Tip: It opens at night, rare among the good conveyors. Take a number on the screen by the door and wait outside.
🚇 Katamachi bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Morimori Sushi oficial
Show on map近江町市場寿し · Musashi
Market sushi with unusually long hours, 9:30 to 20:00, and a seven-piece Hokuriku set at the counter.
Tip: One of the few in the market that does not shut mid-afternoon. If you reach Kanazawa at 16:00, this solves it.
🚇 Jukkenmachi bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Mercado Omicho · guía oficial
Show on map金沢まいもん寿司 · Kinoshinbo
Ishikawa's conveyor chain inside the station mall: day-boat fish from Nanao and Wajima.
Tip: Open 11:00-21:30. From 6 November they bring out the kano-gani and kobako-gani menu: not yet today.
🚇 Kanazawa-eki Nishiguchi bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Maimon Sushi oficial
Show on mapのど黒めし本舗いたる · Katamachi
The nodoguro house: Ishikawa blackthroat seaperch grilled whole or over rice, at Itaru's daytime branch.
Tip: Nodoguro is the Sea of Japan's priciest and fattiest fish, at its best from October to December. Book: it fills up.
🚇 Katamachi bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Prensa local de Ishikawa
Show on mapいたる 本店 · Katamachi
Kanazawa's benchmark izakaya: a blackboard of the day's fish, sake from Ishikawa's breweries and a packed counter.
Tip: Open 17:30-23:30, CLOSED SUNDAYS. Book ahead: every hotel recommends it and it is full by 18:00.
🚇 Katamachi bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Prensa local de Ishikawa
Show on mapグリル オーツカ · Katamachi
A 1957 yoshoku diner and home of hantan rice: half white rice, half pilaf, a cutlet and demi-glace.
Tip: Open 11:00-14:45 and 17:00-19:50, CLOSED WEDNESDAYS. This is 1950s Japanese-western food: do not look for refinement, look for portion.
🚇 Shinise Kinenkan bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Prensa local de Ishikawa
Show on mapターバンカレー · Korinbo
One of the founding houses of Kanazawa curry, from 1971: thick black sauce, cabbage and a cutlet.
Tip: Kanazawa curry was born here and at Champion's, not in a Tokyo chain. Order the L size only if you are skipping dinner.
🚇 Korinbo bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Prensa local de Ishikawa
Show on map天ぷら天むら · Katamachi
A tempura counter in Kiguramachi frying one piece at a time, with Kaga vegetables and market fish.
Tip: Kaga's heirloom vegetables (kabocha, Kinjiso eggplant, Gorojima sweet potato) are in season right now.
🚇 Katamachi bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Prensa local de Ishikawa
Show on mapうなぎ福利 · Katamachi
A charcoal eel house in Katamachi, Kansai method: no steaming, so the skin stays crisp.
Tip: The eel is cooked to order and takes 30 minutes: call ahead or settle in with a beer.
🚇 Katamachi bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Prensa local de Ishikawa
Show on map川端鮮魚店本店 · Katamachi
A fishmonger turned evening counter: the owner buys at Omicho in the morning and serves it raw at night.
Tip: There is no fixed menu: they show you the fridge and you pick. Bring cash and patience with the Japanese.
🚇 Katamachi bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Prensa local de Ishikawa
Show on mapジャルダン ポール・ボキューズ · Hirosaka
A French dining room with a glass wall onto the castle lawn, inside Shiinoki Geihinkan: Kaga produce, Lyonnais technique.
Tip: Book a table by the glass: it looks straight at the castle's stone wall. The lunch menu is half the price of dinner.
🚇 Shiyakusho-mae, 21-seiki Bijutsukan bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Hiramatsu Restaurant oficial
Show on mapレ・マイユ · Higashiyama
A small French table on the Utatsuyama slope, with a short menu of Noto fish and Kaga vegetables.
Tip: Open 12:00-15:00 and 18:00-22:00, CLOSED TUESDAYS. Few tables: book days in advance.
🚇 Tenjinbashi bus stop, 3 min walk
Featured in: Prensa local de Ishikawa
Show on mapショーグンバーガー · Higashiyama
A pure wagyu burger born in Kanazawa, now with branches across Japan, in a Higashi Chaya machiya.
Tip: The chain started here in 2019. The sensible out when you travel with teenagers who will not eat more raw fish.
🚇 Hashibacho bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Prensa local de Ishikawa
Show on map宝生寿し · Onomachi
Port-town sushi four blocks from the Kanazawa quay: the fish gets here on foot, straight off the boat.
Tip: It is in Ono, 25 minutes by bus. Pair it with the soy sauce brewery: one trip covers lunch and the visit.
🚇 Hokutetsu Sanma-Ono line bus to Ono-ko, about 35 min from Kanazawa Station
Featured in: Prensa local de Ishikawa
Show on map市場めし あまつぼ · Musashi
A market canteen on market hours: opens at 8, closes at 21, with fish and Kaga dishes.
Tip: Open 8:00-21:00, CLOSED WEDNESDAYS. The longest hours in the market: your Omicho safety net.
🚇 Musashigatsuji, Omicho Ichiba bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Mercado Omicho · guía oficial
Show on map海鮮丼ゆたか水産 · Musashi
Kaisendon from 7 in the morning, with the sea urchin and salmon roe bowl the fishmongers have for breakfast.
Tip: Open 7:00-15:00, CLOSED WEDNESDAYS. At 7:30 the market belongs to the people who work it: the best hour of the day to be here.
🚇 Jukkenmachi bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Mercado Omicho · guía oficial
Show on map能加万菜と成屋 · Musashi
A table of heirloom Kaga and Noto vegetables: pickles, kabura-zushi and rice with the fifteen registered crops.
Tip: Open 7:00-15:00. Kabura-zushi (turnip fermented with fish) is a December thing: today order the autumn pickles.
🚇 Jukkenmachi bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Mercado Omicho · guía oficial
Show on map口福 · Musashi
An Ishikawa fish dining room in the Ichibakan building, open until ten at night.
Tip: Open 11:00-22:00, CLOSED TUESDAYS. Omicho at night is mostly shutters: this and Omicho Shokudo stay lit.
🚇 Musashigatsuji, Omicho Ichiba bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Mercado Omicho · guía oficial
Show on map時雨亭 · Kenrokumachi
A rebuilt teahouse inside Kenrokuen: matcha and wagashi on tatami, the garden straight ahead.
Tip: Open 9:00-16:30, last entry 16:00, closed 29 Dec to 3 Jan. You need a Kenrokuen ticket to get here.
🚇 Kokuritsu Kogeikan, Kenritsu Bijutsukan bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Ishikawa Pref. · Kenrokuen
Show on map玉泉庵 · Marunouchi
The Gyokusen'inmaru garden teahouse: matcha facing the water and the stone wall, with no garden ticket to pay.
Tip: Matcha ¥1,000 with a sweet made for the house. Open 9:00-12:00 and 13:00-16:30; closed only 29 Dec to 3 Jan. Group bookings on 076-221-5008.
🚇 Shokokaigisho bus stop, 3 min walk
Featured in: Ishikawa Pref. · Kanazawa Castle Park
Show on map寒村庵 · Higashiyama
The tea room at the back of Shima teahouse: matcha and a sweet facing the inner garden of a real chaya.
Tip: It is paid separately from the Shima entry. The only way to sit in an 1820 teahouse without hiring geisha.
🚇 Hashibacho bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Casa de té Shima · oficial
Show on map東出珈琲店 · Jukkenmachi
A kissaten roasting its own since 1977, dark wood counter and filter coffee in a porcelain cup.
Tip: Open 8:00-19:00, CLOSED WEDNESDAYS AND SUNDAYS. Order the house blend and thick toast: that is a morning service.
🚇 Jukkenmachi bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Prensa local de Ishikawa
Show on map喫茶閼珈 · Musashi
A kissaten inside Omicho where the stallholders eat before opening: coffee, toast and a boiled egg.
Tip: Open 8:00-16:30, CLOSED SUNDAYS. At 8:30 you hear the market radio and the fish-stall gossip.
🚇 Musashigatsuji, Omicho Ichiba bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Mercado Omicho · guía oficial
Show on map金澤屋珈琲店 · Marunouchi
A roaster with a house facing the castle moat: filter coffee in Kutani ware, looking at the stone wall.
Tip: Open 7:30-21:00 every day, rare in this city. The natural first stop before climbing to the castle via Otemon.
🚇 Otebori bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Prensa local de Ishikawa
Show on map近江町珈琲 · Musashi
Specialty coffee inside the market, with beans roasted in Kanazawa and bread from the bakery next door.
Tip: Open 8:30-17:30, CLOSED TUESDAYS AND WEDNESDAYS. The only third-wave coffee inside Omicho: the rest are kissaten.
🚇 Musashigatsuji, Omicho Ichiba bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Mercado Omicho · guía oficial
Show on mapタウンズフォーク コーヒー · Oyama-cho
Kanazawa third wave: a minimal counter, V60 filter and light roast, two blocks from Oyama shrine.
Tip: Small, four seats. In Kanazawa coffee culture is kissaten first, specialty second: here you see the other half.
🚇 Tamagawa Koen bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Townsfolk Coffee oficial
Show on mapスウェイ コーヒー ロースタリー · Kenrokumachi
A roastery next to Ishikawamon gate, with a pavement table and a view of the castle wall.
Tip: It sits right at the Kenrokuen-castle crossing: the only decent coffee within two blocks of the gate.
🚇 Kenrokuen-shita, Kanazawa-jo bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Prensa local de Ishikawa
Show on mapひらみぱん · Nagamachi
A bakery and bistro in a former Nagamachi blacksmith's shop: croissants, galette and pan-fried eggs.
Tip: Open 8:00-16:00 and again 18:00-22:30. By 9 there is a queue: go early or wait until 15:00.
🚇 Chuo Shogakko bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Hiramipan oficial
Show on map宝勝寺カフェ · Teramachi
A cafe inside a Teramachi temple: matcha, parfait and tea served in the tatami room overlooking the garden.
Tip: Open 10:00-16:00. Teramachi has 70 temples and almost none can be visited: this one lets you in on the excuse of tea.
🚇 Hirokoji bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Hoshoji oficial
Show on mapCafe たもん · Higashiyama
Ricotta pancakes in a Higashi Chaya machiya, the inner court in view from your table.
Tip: Open 8:00-17:00. One of the very few in Higashi Chaya open at 8: breakfast here saves you the rush hour.
🚇 Hashibacho bus stop, 4 min walk
Featured in: Prensa local de Ishikawa
Show on map箔一東山店 · Higashiyama
The soft serve wrapped in a whole sheet of gold leaf: Kanazawa's most shared photo on social media.
Tip: Open 9:00-18:00. There is no per-item authenticity seal for gold leaf: the collective trademark protects the name Kanazawa-haku, not the item. Buy from a house with its own name and workshop.
🚇 Hashibacho bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Hakuichi oficial
Show on map森八 · Ote-machi
A 1625 confectioner, purveyor to the Maeda clan: its Chouseiden rakugan is one of Japan's three great sweets.
Tip: Open 9:00-18:00. Rakugan is sugar pressed in a wooden mould: it keeps for months unrefrigerated and travels best of all.
🚇 Hashibacho bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Morihachi oficial
Show on map和菓子 村上 · Kinoshinbo
A 1911 wagashi house in the station arcade, known for fukusa-mochi and chestnut yokan.
Tip: Open 8:30-20:00. Wagashi change with the season: in October and November it is chestnut, persimmon and maple leaf.
🚇 Kanazawa station, 1 min walk
Featured in: Murakami oficial
Show on mapきんつば中田屋 東山茶屋街店 · Higashiyama
Kanazawa kintsuba: a cube of whole azuki beans barely sealed in batter, served warm with tea.
Tip: Open 9:00-17:00. The Higashiyama branch has a tea room: eat it warm there rather than carrying it off cold.
🚇 Hashibacho bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Nakataya oficial
Show on map甘納豆かわむら · Nomachi
An amanatto house in Nishi Chaya: beans candied one by one, in fifteen varieties and gift boxes.
Tip: Closed Tuesdays. Ask to taste before buying: they let you, and the Dainagon bean one is like nothing else.
🚇 Nishi Chayagai bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Kawamura oficial
Show on map丸八製茶場 · Kinoshinbo
A Kaga tea house since 1863: kaga-bocha, roasted tea stem, is the brew poured in every Ishikawa home.
Tip: Open 8:30-20:00, closed 1 January. Kaga-bocha has almost no caffeine and is drunk at night: the lightest souvenir on this map.
🚇 Kanazawa station, 1 min walk
Featured in: Maruhachi Seichajo oficial
Show on map不室屋カフェ · Kinoshinbo
The cafe of an 1865 fu house: Kanazawa's wheat gluten, in soup, in sweets and in the seasonal dessert.
Tip: Open 9:00-21:00. Fu is what makes the oden and jibuni here different: try it in the cafe first, then in the pot.
🚇 Kanazawa-eki Nishiguchi bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Fumuroya oficial
Show on mapあめの俵屋 · Kinoshinbo
Japan's oldest rice-malt candy house, from 1830: rice syrup and malted barley, no added sugar.
Tip: Open 8:30-20:00. Two ingredients and nothing else: in the Edo era it was given to nursing mothers.
🚇 Kanazawa station, 1 min walk
Featured in: Tawaraya oficial
Show on map金箔屋さくだ 本店 · Higashiyama
A gold beater with an open workshop in Higashi Chaya: watch the leaf being cut, and there is a gold-lined toilet for photos.
Tip: Open 9:00-17:00. The gold-leaf-on-a-dish workshop takes 40 minutes and can be booked same day: perfect if it rains.
🚇 Hashibacho bus stop, 3 min walk
Featured in: Sakuda oficial
Show on map箔座 · Higashiyama
A gold leaf shop with a whole storehouse clad in pure gold and platinum in the back yard: the Kinpaku no Kura.
Tip: Open 9:30-18:00 and seeing the golden storehouse in the yard is FREE. It is at the north end of Higashi Chaya, away from the crowd.
🚇 Kobashimachi bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Hakuza oficial
Show on map箔巧館 · Moritomo
Hakuichi's gold leaf centre: museum, hands-on workshop and the room with the 2.5 m golden waterfall.
Tip: It is out of the centre, to the south-west, and closes only on 1 January. The option with kids on a rainy day: workshops at every price.
🚇 Kanazawa Ryukoku Koko-mae bus stop, 13 min walk
Featured in: Hakuichi oficial
Show on map北山堂 九谷 · Hirosaka
A Kutani ceramics house opposite the 21st Century Museum, with studio pieces and the classic five colours.
Tip: Open 9:30-18:00, CLOSED MONDAYS. Kutani carries no per-piece seal: look at the kiln signature on the base and ask about the workshop.
🚇 Hirosaka, 21-seiki Bijutsukan bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Hokusando oficial
Show on map九谷 東山窯 · Kenrokumachi
A Kutani kiln with its own shop beside Kenrokuen: pieces hand-painted by the workshop, not factory made.
Tip: Buying straight from the kiln is the only way to know who painted it. Ask them to show you the signature before you pay.
🚇 Kenrokuen-shita, Kanazawa-jo bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Tozangama oficial
Show on map大樋長左衛門窯 · Hashiba-cho
The family kiln of Ohi ware, eleven generations since 1666, with a shop attached to the museum.
Tip: A genuine Ohi bowl is hand-built without a wheel and carries the amber glaze: no other Japanese pottery looks like it.
🚇 Hashibacho bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Ohi Museum oficial
Show on map加賀てまり毬屋 · Oyama-cho
Embroidered Kaga thread balls and hand-made charms: a craft left in very few hands in Japan.
Tip: Temari were given to samurai brides as charms. The lightest souvenir and the hardest to find outside this city.
🚇 Minamicho, Oyama Jinja bus stop, 2 min walk
Featured in: Kaga Temari Mariya oficial
Show on map能作 · Hirosaka
A Kanazawa lacquer house since 1780: bowls, boxes and chopsticks with maki-e, in a shop that looks like a museum.
Tip: Open 10:00-19:00, CLOSED WEDNESDAYS. Maki-e lacquer chopsticks are the Japanese gift that fits a suitcase best.
🚇 Korinbo bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Nosaku oficial
Show on map金沢クラフト広坂 · Hirosaka
A city-run shop with work by Kanazawa's young makers: glass, metal, lacquer and contemporary ceramics.
Tip: Open 10:00-18:00, CLOSED MONDAYS. Several pieces come from the Utatsuyama workshop: you buy straight from the maker.
🚇 Hirosaka, 21-seiki Bijutsukan bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Crafts Hirosaka oficial
Show on mapうつわ かきいろ · Musashi
Studio tableware inside Omicho: plates and bowls from Ishikawa kilns at everyday prices.
Tip: Open 10:00-17:00, CLOSED WEDNESDAYS AND THURSDAYS. The opposite of a gallery: good pottery to eat off every day.
🚇 Musashigatsuji, Omicho Ichiba bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Mercado Omicho · guía oficial
Show on mapヤマト醤油味噌 東山直売所 · Higashiyama
The Ono brewery's direct outlet in Higashi Chaya: soy sauce, miso and koji drink.
Tip: Open 10:00-12:00 and 13:00-17:00, CLOSED WEDNESDAYS. If you do not make it out to Ono, you buy the same here.
🚇 Hashibacho bus stop, 3 min walk
Featured in: Yamato Soy Sauce & Miso oficial
Show on mapあんと · Kinoshinbo
The station's gift arcade: a hundred shops of wagashi, gold leaf, Kutani, sake and Kaga bento.
Tip: Open 10:00-20:00 every day. It is the safety net: whatever you did not buy in town is here until 20:00.
🚇 Kanazawa station, 1 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa Hyakubangai oficial
Show on map鏑木商舗 · Kinoshinbo
An 1822 Kutani house with a shop in the station: from the everyday plate to the collector's piece.
Tip: Open 8:30-20:00. Kutani is made in Komatsu and Kaga, not Kanazawa: here it is sold and painted, but the kiln is to the south.
🚇 Kanazawa station, 1 min walk
Featured in: Kaburaki oficial
Show on map香林坊大和 · Korinbo
Kanazawa's historic department store, with the Kaga food depachika in the basement.
Tip: The food basement is the best free class in local food: you see every regional wagashi and pickle in one pass.
🚇 Korinbo bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Daiwa Department Store oficial
Show on map八百萬本舗 · Owari-cho
A machiya filled with Ishikawa makers' shops, plus a miniature shrine in the courtyard.
Tip: A cheap shortcut: five different crafts without walking five districts. It is by the Kazuemachi bridge.
🚇 Hashibacho bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Yaoyorozu Honpo oficial
Show on map味の十字屋 · Higashiyama
A Kaga grocery: fu, cured kombu, konka-iwashi and the pickles that never leave Ishikawa.
Tip: Open 10:00-18:00. This is where the dried fu is: it weighs nothing and is the one thing that lets you make Kanazawa oden at home.
🚇 Hashibacho bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Aji no Jujiya oficial
Show on mapエムザ · Musashi
The department store attached to Omicho, with a food basement that is the market's continuation.
Tip: If Omicho is shut on a Wednesday, the M'ZA basement stays open and sells nearly the same things.
🚇 Musashigatsuji, Omicho Ichiba bus stop, 1 min walk
Featured in: Kanazawa M'ZA oficial
Show on map