Clear the Kanazawa Local Quiz and earn the Kanazawa Local title. Want to know Kanazawa even better, or already confident? The tougher courses are next.
How well do you really know Kanazawa? This quiz covers the castle town the Maeda clan built: the strolling garden of Kenrokuen with its two-legged Kotoji lantern, Kanazawa Castle and the Ishikawa Gate, and the teahouse district of Higashi Chaya. Questions also reach into craft and kitchen, from gold leaf and Kaga yuzen dyeing to jibuni stew, Kanazawa curry, and the stalls of Omicho Market. Everyday details count too, whether it is the yukitsuri ropes that guard the pines each winter or the buses locals actually ride. Practice questions are on hand if you want to warm up before taking on the five ranks, from Nationwide all the way to Oni Maniac.
Kenrokuen's origins trace to 1676, when the 5th Kaga lord, Maeda Tsunanori, landscaped a garden around his villa. What was the garden originally called?
A new question every day — the real test is the quiz itself.
Q1.Which warlord laid the foundations of the Kaga domain ("Kaga Hyakumangoku") and became lord of Kanazawa Castle in 1583?
Uesugi Kenshin
Maeda Toshiie
Date Masamune
Mori Motonari
Reveal the correct answer
Correct answerMaeda Toshiie
Maeda Toshiie served under Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi before entering Kanazawa Castle in 1583, laying the foundations of the Maeda family's Kaga domain. Maeda rule then lasted until the Meiji Restoration, and the bones of today's Kanazawa — its temple districts and canal network — trace back to the castle town they built.
Q2.Along with Kairaku-en in Mito and Koraku-en in Okayama, this Kanazawa garden is counted among Japan's "Three Great Gardens." What is it called?
Rikugi-en
Hama-rikyu Gardens
Kenrokuen
Shurakuen
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Correct answerKenrokuen
Kenrokuen is the daimyo garden that successive lords of the Maeda family shaped over generations into one of the finest gardens of the Edo period, ranked alongside two other gardens as one of Japan's Three Great Gardens. Highlights within its grounds include the iconic Kotoji-toro lantern and a fountain said to be the oldest in Japan, drawing visitors in every season.
Q3."Yukitsuri," seen in winter at Kenrokuen and elsewhere, is a technique used to keep tree branches from breaking under the weight of snow.
True
False
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Correct answerTrue
Yukitsuri is a winter technique in which a tall pole is erected and ropes are strung out radially to shield branches from Hokuriku's wet, heavy snow. At Kenrokuen the work begins around November 1 each year, starting with the Karasaki pine, and the cone-shaped webs of rope have become a signature sight of winter in Kanazawa.
Q4.Kenrokuen's origins trace to 1676, when the 5th Kaga lord, Maeda Tsunanori, landscaped a garden around his villa. What was the garden originally called?
Renchi-tei ("Lotus Pond Garden")
Takezawa Goten
Kenrokuen
Kanaya Goten
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Correct answerRenchi-tei ("Lotus Pond Garden")
The garden that the 5th lord, Maeda Tsunanori, laid out around his villa in 1676 was called "Renchi-tei" (Lotus Pond Garden) and became the seed of Kenrokuen. Successive lords kept reworking it until it was renamed Kenrokuen in 1822 — the garden is the accumulated work of generations of lords rather than a single designer.
Q5.The keep of Kanazawa Castle burned down after being struck by lightning in 1602 (Keicho 7) and, despite Kanazawa Castle being the seat of the mighty "million-koku" Kaga domain, was never rebuilt. What is considered the most likely reason for this?
To avoid arousing the Tokugawa shogunate's suspicion that the domain was flaunting military power
Enough timber to support a keep could no longer be obtained in the Hokuriku region
Successive domain lords simply disliked the keep style of architecture
The castle's ground was judged unable to bear the weight of a rebuilt keep
Reveal the correct answer
Correct answerTo avoid arousing the Tokugawa shogunate's suspicion that the domain was flaunting military power
After the keep burned, a three-story turret stood in for it until that too was lost to fire. As a powerful tozama (outside) domain, Kaga is believed to have deliberately declined to rebuild the keep so as not to arouse Tokugawa suspicions of military ambition. The very absence of a keep at the seat of the million-koku domain speaks to the Maeda family's studied caution.
