Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture
May 2, 2019
Geisha District, Kenrokuen Gardens And Kanazawa Castle Park
Leaving Akita, we traveled roughly half way down the west side of Honshu Island, and finally into some warm and dry weather at Kanazawa.
As the legend goes, Kanazawa, which literally means “marsh of gold”, was named so after a peasant dug up gold flakes while looking for potatoes. Today, Kanazawa is a modern city with a population of nearly 470,000 people, and is the capital of its prefecture. The city has a land area of roughly 468 square kilometres.
One of the big draws for Kanazawa tourism is the fact that it was one of only a few major cities that escaped destruction by heavy bombing during the Second World War, so there are many centuries old highlights that await visitors.
During our visit, we were fortunate to see two and a half of these. I say two and a half because just across the street from the Kenrokuen Garden was Kanazawa Castle Park. When we finished at the garden we were able to walk across the moat bridge and view the grounds inside the main gate.
Debarkation from the ship
In most ports of call, there is always a welcoming committee for the ships passengers. It can vary from something as simple as some local vendors set up with tables to flog their wares to the visitors as they make their way to the tour buses or local port town. But in many, the welcoming event can be quite spectacular with bands, dancers, drummers and more. In Kanazawa it was more on the subdued side, but full of culture nevertheless, as traditional kimonos were being worn by the local ladies who were welcoming the ship’s guests.
Kanazawa Geisha District
We’re told that young girls like to rent traditional outfits and dress up for special occasions like Golden Week.
Also known as Eastern Pleasure Quarter “Higashi”, this area is an important area for the Preservation Districts For Groups of Historic Buildings in Japan. This is one remaining area in Kanazawa that still maintains its unique neighbourhood feeling and displays the original style of geisha house. In 1820 the eastern pleasure quarter was approved as an amusement area by the Kaga feudal government. Here people could enjoy entertainment by geishas in the form of music and dance.
Latticed wooden facades and second floor reception rooms are characteristic of teahouse buildings of the Edo period, and this old atmosphere is still alive today during the evening hours. Although the music can be heard while out on the street, this is as close as tourists will get to seeing the activities on the second floor. These are reserved solely for Japanese residents and even at that, are many times only open to invited “regular” customers.
Visited by hordes of tourists during the day, they are only able to shop at a few ground floor businesses that are open for regular trade such as restaurants, clothing and crafts.
The Kenrokuen gardens
Kenrokuen Garden was a very large and well known garden in Kanazawa. We in the west would describe it more as a park than a garden, as there were more tree scenes than there were flowers. But the Japanese design was certainly something to appreciate.
Being Golden Week, we had to contend with the throngs of local tourists visiting the garden with their friends and family. And of course everyone had a camera or cellphone to take the ever-present selfie photos. It got old pretty quick.
Our visit to the garden was, despite the crowds, very pleasant indeed. Walking around the grounds and seeing all the magnificent trees and ponds was a great way to spend a warm spring afternoon. Situated within the garden was a collection of souvenir shops and teahouses, all of which were way too crowded for us to be interested in them. But it was nice to be able to give our legs a good workout wandering about. To the left is our GPS track of our meanders about the garden.
A lovely and simple row of Japanese lanterns that lined the street in front of all the tourist shops located outside the boundary of the Kenrokuen Garden.
Kanazawa Castle
This is the exterior wall guard house for the Kanazawa Castle, and is located beside the draw bridge.
Although Kanazawa Castle was not on our itinerary for this day, it just happened to be right across the street from the Kenrokuen Gardens. Since we were finished ahead of the rest of the crowd from our ship, and it would be some time before they would finish inside the gardens, we had some time that we could get the poor mans tour of the castle across the street.
By poor mans tour, I mean that we could get past the outer gate and into the courtyard, but going into the actual castle itself would have required us to buy proper tickets. Now it wasn’t the cost that prevented us from paying and going inside, but rather the time factor. Once the other patrons from our ship had come out of the gardens, the buses would load up and head back to the ship. If we didn’t get the message that they were leaving, and we hadn’t finished our tour of the castle inside, then we would be left behind and have to find our own way back to the ship. Not an easy task since we didn’t actually know where the ship was berthed. So we took the safe route and just poked around the outer grounds taking a few snap shots of the walls and the outsides of the inner buildings.
The Kanazawa Castle outer grounds, which themselves were behind an outer wall, were very large indeed. If one was marshalling an army here, it could easily consisted of thousands of men.
Last views before leaving port
This is a panorama shot stitched together from three photos shot from our ship, and it shows the extent of the Kanazawa harbour which opens out into the inland Sea of Japan.
