[9 Ways to Experience Kaga Culture in Ishikawa and Kanazawa] A Journey of Walking, Making, and Tasting

One of Kanazawa's most iconic chaya districts, with a cohesive townscape preserved from the Edo period.
Rows of de-goshi lattice-front buildings continue along the street, lined with shops selling wagashi and crafts. As you stroll past the storefronts, you begin to notice the differences in what each shop offers. Another appeal of this street is being able to choose how to spend your time depending on your mood, whether that means taking a break at a sweets shop or dropping into a store that catches your eye. Every angle feels picture-perfect, making it fun even for a simple walk. Just standing on the street gives you a sense of the town's atmosphere. It's a quintessential Kanazawa scene that's well worth seeing first.

A museum located in one corner of Nishi Chaya District. It displays the interior of a chaya and scenes from the time, allowing you to learn about details such as tatami room arrangements and tools that cannot be understood from the exterior alone.
Once inside, you can clearly picture how the chaya you saw from the street was actually used. On the second floor is a tatami room with vivid vermilion-lacquered walls, where a shamisen, drums, folding screens with gold leaf, and other items are displayed. Seen together with the streetscape outside, this is a place where you can gain a fuller view of life inside a chaya.

A hands-on facility located near Kenrokuen Garden. With wagashi-making and craft workshops available, you can experience multiple aspects of local culture in a short amount of time.
In the hands-on craft area, options include painting a Kaga Hachiman Okiagari doll, making wagashi, applying gold leaf, and preparing your own matcha. There is also a tourist information center inside, making it a recommended base for exploring Kanazawa. It's a convenient stop that works both as an experience spot and a starting point for getting around. Easy to fit into your schedule between other plans.

A facility where you can learn about and experience the Kaga Yuzen process.
Yuzen is a kimono dyeing technique that uses paste resist, and the name is said to come from its founder, Miyazaki Yuzensai. You can try the coloring process yourself and use your hands to understand how colors are layered and how the bokashi shading technique works.
By actually doing the work yourself, the differences in the finished result become clear, from how finely colors are placed to how the dye spreads. It's a place where you can fully appreciate each step of the process.

A museum dedicated to Kutani ware. By comparing differences in color use and painted decoration, you can learn the characteristics of each era and the distinctions between artistic styles. Even the same type of vessel can give a very different impression depending on its colors and composition, so as you follow the exhibits, the features naturally become easier to sort out. The museum also has a tea room, where seasonal tea is served in Kutani ware vessels. One of its appeals is being able to experience the ware in actual use. Combined with viewing the exhibits, it leaves an even stronger impression.

A museum with a wide-ranging collection of modern and contemporary craft and design works.
Seeing works made with different materials and techniques side by side makes their differences easier to grasp in concrete terms. Ceramics, dyeing and weaving, metalwork, and other fields are displayed in a layout that lets you compare materials and techniques across categories.
Museums that collect so broadly across modern craft and design as a whole are rare, and its many valuable works make it one of the finest collections in Japan. This is a place where you can compare multiple fields at once. The differences between each craft remain clearly memorable.

A simple wagashi made with mochi and sweet bean paste. Because the flavors of the ingredients come through directly, differences in the rice and water appear clearly in the taste. The soft mochi and smooth koshi-an blend together, leaving a lasting impression with their unity in each bite. The use of glutinous rice grown at the foot of Mt. Hakusan and clear underground spring water from Hakusan is also part of the secret behind its unchanging deliciousness over the years. Its simple composition is exactly what allows the qualities of the ingredients to stand out. It's one to keep in mind as a benchmark when choosing wagashi.

A wagashi with a striking triangular design, and a long-selling confection from the long-established sweets shop Koshiyama Kanseido, founded around 1888.
In the center of the baked outer layer is the Umebachi crest, the family crest of the Maeda clan of the Kaga Domain, giving it a design that evokes Kanazawa's history. The distinctive triangular baked skin, inspired by a castle keep and samurai helmet, has a moist and tender texture. Inside are two kinds of filling: brown sugar bean paste and another filling that changes with the season. Along with its distinctive appearance, you can also enjoy the difference in flavor.

A dried sweet made by drying agar, then finished by artisans who break each piece by hand. By intentionally making the shapes uneven, each bite has a slightly different texture. Using a traditional method in which the agar is dried over six days, it creates a two-layer texture: crisp on the outside, with some of agar's soft moisture remaining inside.
Available from individual pieces to boxed assortments, it also keeps well for a relatively long time. Easy to choose as a gift, it's also a versatile sweet that suits a range of occasions.