Kanazawa Local Quiz Practice: Questions and Explanations

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.

Source:戦国時代～江戸時代

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.

Source:(国指定)兼六園

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.

Source:兼六園の雪吊りについて

Correct answerIshikawa-mon

Ishikawa-mon was rebuilt in 1788 and designated a National Important Cultural Property in 1950. Its roof looks white because it is tiled with lead, and since the gate stands facing Kenrokuen, it serves as the de facto front entrance of Kanazawa Castle Park.

Source:金沢城石川門・三十間長屋

Correct answerA licensed teahouse (geisha) district officially authorized by the Kaga domain in the Edo period

Higashi Chaya took shape in 1820, when the Kaga domain gathered teahouses scattered around the castle town into an officially licensed district, and geisha culture lives on there today. Kanazawa retains three chaya districts — Higashi, Nishi and Kazuemachi — whose latticed facades still carry the air of the domain era.

Source:時がゆったりと流れるまち にし茶屋街

Correct answerTrue

Kanazawa is Japan's largest producer of gold leaf, accounting for about 99% of domestic output. The craft has a history of more than 400 years, and the city's humid climate and its artisans' skill have long sustained the making of this ultra-thin foil.

Source:金沢の金箔とは？日本一の産地で体験する、400年受け継がれてきた美の技

Correct answerIt is a Kanazawa-specific yuzen-dyeing tradition, distinct from Kyoto Yuzen.

Kaga Yuzen is the kimono-dyeing tradition handed down in Kanazawa, known for realistic flower-and-plant motifs built on the "Kaga Five Colors" — indigo, crimson, ochre, grass green and ancient purple. Unlike the showier Kyoto Yuzen, it makes almost no use of gold leaf, embroidery or other decoration beyond the dyeing itself.

Source:加賀友禅を知る - 歴史と特徴

Correct answerA near-black, thick, viscous roux eaten with a fork.

Kanazawa Curry is served in a distinctive style: a thick, near-black roux on a stainless-steel plate, topped with shredded cabbage and eaten with a fork. The style traces back to a curry created at a Kanazawa restaurant in the early 1960s, and chain restaurants have since carried it well beyond the city.

Source:金沢カレーの歴史

Correct answerTrue

Kanazawa was spared large-scale air raids in World War II, so entire stretches of its domain-era townscape survive, from the Nagamachi samurai district to its three chaya districts. Few Japanese cities of its size retain their castle-town form so completely, and that inheritance underpins Kanazawa's culture and tourism today.

Source:昭和時代

Correct answerThe Three Great Writers of Kanazawa (Kanazawa San-bungo)

Izumi Kyoka, Muro Saisei and Tokuda Shusei — all born in Meiji-era Kanazawa — are honored together as the city's "Three Great Writers," each with his own memorial museum. Their styles differ tellingly: Kyoka the fantasist, Saisei the poet, Shusei the naturalist — which makes reading them side by side part of the pleasure.

Source:ちょこっと文学

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.

Source:兼六園の歴史｜兼六園

Correct answerSakuma Morimasa

In 1580, Sakuma Morimasa — a nephew of Shibata Katsuie — took the Ikko-ikki stronghold of Kanazawa Mido and fortified the site, creating the forerunner of Kanazawa Castle. After his defeat at the Battle of Shizugatake, Maeda Toshiie took over and built the first true keep; the castle's story thus begins a step before the Maeda.

Source:金沢城の歴史 | 金沢城公園

Correct answerItaya Hyoshiro

Tatsumi Yosui was dug in 1632 on the orders of the 3rd lord, Maeda Toshitsune, largely to secure water for firefighting at Kanazawa Castle. Its design and construction are credited to Itaya Hyoshiro, a townsman of Komatsu; the canal carries water from the upper Sai River to the castle town along a route that includes long tunneled sections — a formidable feat of engineering for its day.

Source:辰巳用水 調査～史跡指定～整備

Correct answerGold-leaf soft-serve ice cream

Gold-leaf soft-serve ice cream, topped with an entire sheet of gold leaf for dramatic visual effect, is served by gold-leaf specialty shops in Higashi Chaya and became a signature new Kanazawa treat around the time of the Hokuriku Shinkansen's 2015 extension to the city.

Source:箔一

Correct answerAbout 1/10,000 of a millimeter

Kanazawa gold leaf is beaten down to a thickness of roughly 1/10,000 of a millimeter — thin enough that a coin-sized piece of gold alloy spreads to nearly the area of a tatami mat. A breath of wind will lift it, so artisans handle it with bamboo chopsticks; this extreme thinness is what makes it usable on everything from Buddhist altars to architecture and crafts.

Source:当館の概要

Correct answerMiyazaki Yuzensai

Miyazaki Yuzensai, the fan-painter credited with establishing the yuzen style of dyeing, moved to Kanazawa in 1712 after winning fame in Kyoto. Settling in with a dye house serving the Kaga domain, he is said to have produced one innovative pattern design after another, giving Kaga Yuzen its decisive push — the very name "yuzen" comes from him.

Source:加賀友禅を知る - 歴史と特徴

Correct answerAn advance reservation

Myoryuji does not allow free, unguided visits -- it can only be toured on a reserved, guided tour lasting about 40 minutes. Since same-day walk-ins cannot enter, visitors need to book in advance by phone or online.

Source:妙立寺（忍者寺）

Correct answerThe Golden Lion

In September 2004, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art won the Golden Lion, the top prize at the 9th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale. The building — a glass-walled circle by SANAA, the architect unit of Sejima Kazuyo and Nishizawa Ryue — embodied the idea of a museum open to the city like a park, and drew worldwide acclaim even before it opened.

Source:History | About | 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa

Correct answerAbout 30 minutes

The Hokuriku Railroad's Ishikawa Line is a local line connecting Nomachi Station in Kanazawa with Tsurugi Station in Hakusan, taking about 30 minutes. Trains run roughly every 60 minutes in the daytime (every 15-20 minutes in the morning), serving as an everyday commuter and school line for local residents.

Source:北陸鉄道石川線

Correct answerNarezushi

Kaburazushi is a type of narezushi: salted turnip stuffed with salted yellowtail, packed in rice malt (koji) and left to ferment. The form predates modern vinegared-rice sushi, balancing the sweetness of koji against the tang of fermentation. Prepared in the depths of the Hokuriku winter, it remains an essential part of a Kanazawa New Year.

Source:かぶらずし 石川県 | うちの郷土料理

Correct answerGensuke Daikon

Gensuke daikon is a Kaga vegetable prized for its plump white shape and flesh that holds together through long simmering while soaking up broth — which has made it the staple of Kanazawa-style oden. "Kaga vegetables" is a city-certified brand for varieties grown in Kanazawa since before 1945; fifteen items carry the name.

Source:品目紹介 | 加賀野菜 | 金沢市農産物ブランド協会

Correct answerSanjikken Nagaya / Tsurumaru Storehouse / Ishikawa-mon

Only three Edo-period buildings survived the fire of 1881 — Ishikawa-mon, the Sanjikken Nagaya and the Tsurumaru Storehouse — and all are National Important Cultural Properties. The keep, lost to lightning in 1602, was never rebuilt; today's Gojikken Nagaya and its neighbors are reconstructions completed in 2001 using traditional carpentry.

Source:金沢城の歴史 | 金沢城公園

Correct answerIt boasted an assessed yield of about 1 million koku at its peak / Maeda Toshiie was the founding lord of the Kaga domain / Successive lords used Kanazawa Castle as their seat / The Maeda family continued as lords without interruption until the Meiji Restoration

Founded by Toshiie, the Maeda were the largest daimyo house in Japan outside the shogunal family, rated at up to about one million koku. Successive lords ruled from Kanazawa Castle, the line running unbroken until the Meiji Restoration. Their emphasis on learning and crafts over arms is a large part of why Kanazawa reads as a city of culture today — and their seat was Kanazawa, never Kyoto.

Source:加賀藩主前田家墓所・辰巳用水附土清水塩硝蔵跡

Correct answer30 or more

The Korinbo Tree Fantasy is a winter tradition in which more than 30 zelkova trees lining Route 157 are illuminated, giving the Korinbo shopping district a magical glow. It has become a seasonal fixture of this bustling downtown shopping area.

Source:香林坊商店街振興組合

Correct answer21:00

Kanazawa Castle Park's night illumination takes place on Saturdays and during peak seasons such as cherry-blossom time, with free admission. Entry runs from sunset until 21:00, letting visitors enjoy the illuminated Gyokusen-in Garden and San-no-maru Plaza in a fantastical night setting.

Source:夜間開園・ライトアップ

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.

Source:金沢城の建造物について教えてください

Correct answerSpaciousness (kodai) / Antiquity (soko) / Water features (suisen)

The Six Attributes come from the Song-dynasty "Record of the Famous Gardens of Luoyang": spaciousness, seclusion, human artifice, antiquity, water features and panoramic views. Qualities like spaciousness and seclusion were held to be impossible to combine, and the garden was named Kenrokuen in 1822 for uniting all six — the name chosen, by tradition, by Matsudaira Sadanobu, lord of Shirakawa.

Source:六勝について｜兼六園兼六園の歴史｜兼六園

Correct answerIt uses the natural water pressure created by the difference in elevation with Kasumigaike Pond upstream

The fountain is fed by Kasumigaike Pond and rises on nothing but the natural pressure created by the difference in elevation — no pump, no power source. Its jet therefore sways subtly with the pond's water level. Said to have originated as a mid-19th-century trial for raising water into Kanazawa Castle, it is regarded as the oldest fountain in Japan.

Source:水の物語〜水とくらしについて、兼六園で考える

Correct answerAbout 1.02 million koku

Even after the 3rd lord, Maeda Toshitsune, split off the Toyama and Daishoji sub-domains for his sons, the Kaga domain's official rating held at about 1,025,000 koku — the largest of any daimyo domain, shogunal house excepted. No other domain came close: Kaga stood alone as the "first among daimyo," and the epithet "million-koku Kaga" grew from this singular figure.

Source:百万石の「一番大名」

Correct answerSugawara no Michizane

The Kaga Umebachi crest derives from the plum-blossom emblem of Tenjin worship, tied to Sugawara no Michizane, the deified patron of learning — a figure the Maeda claimed as an ancestor. The family appears to have adopted this dedicated design only in the Edo period; in founder Toshiie's day a generic plum-blossom crest was used. Even the family crest, in other words, was part of the theater of pedigree.

Source:加賀梅鉢｜意味や由来は？梅鉢紋との違いは？Reference case: origin of the Kaga Umebachi crest

Correct answerKyoho 6 (1721)

A great fire in 1690 pushed the fish market at the Asano River mouth to Omicho, and when the Sai River fish market merged in as well in 1721 (Kyoho 6), Omicho Market took its present shape. The name is said to come from merchants of Omi Province who once lived there. Three centuries on, it is still "Kanazawa's kitchen."

Source:近江町市場商店街振興組合

Correct answerKyoto and Edo

Under the Edo shogunate's ban on leaf-beating, gold leaf production was in principle confined to Kyoto and Edo. The Kaga domain quietly kept making it anyway, and only toward the end of the Edo period was production officially sanctioned, limited to the domain's own use. That refusal to let the craft die under regulation laid the ground for Kanazawa's near-monopoly on national production from the Meiji era onward.

Source:金沢と金箔

Correct answerIndigo blue (ai) / Crimson (enji) / Ochre (odo) / Ancient purple (kodai-murasaki)

The Kaga Five Colors are indigo blue, crimson, ochre, grass green and ancient purple. On this deep, quiet palette, Kaga Yuzen renders plants and flowers realistically, using gradation shading and its famous "insect-eaten leaf" motifs. Its near-total avoidance of decoration beyond dyeing — no gold leaf, no embroidery — sets it apart from Kyoto Yuzen, and gold never serves as a base color.

Source:加賀友禅を知る

Correct answerSen Soshitsu (Senso), 4th head of Urasenke

Maeda Tsunanori invited Sen Soshitsu (known by his go Senso), the 4th head of the Urasenke tea tradition, from Kyoto to serve as tea ceremony magistrate. The potter Haji Chozaemon, who accompanied him to Kanazawa, settled there and discovered suitable clay in Ohi village, becoming the first generation of Ohi-yaki. It is known for its distinctive amber glaze and a hand-molded technique that does not use a potter's wheel.

Source:History of the Ohi Ware／大樋焼の歴史について

Correct answerThe 5th lord, Maeda Tsunanori

The 5th domain lord, Maeda Tsunanori, took up study of the Hosho school in emulation of shogun Tokugawa Tsunayoshi's own devotion to it, and even performed a dance himself at Edo Castle. Noh subsequently took root so deeply in Kanazawa that even carpenters and plasterers were said to hum utai chants, nurturing the tradition that came to be known as "Kaga Hosho."

Source:加賀宝生とは

Correct answerTaniguchi Yoshio

The D.T. Suzuki Museum presents the thought of the Kanazawa-born Buddhist philosopher D.T. Suzuki. Designed by Taniguchi Yoshio, an architect with deep ties to the city, it joins a "Contemplative Space" pavilion to the still "Water Mirror Garden" along a quiet corridor. Exhibits are kept deliberately sparse — the building itself is the invitation to sit and think.

Source:施設概要｜鈴木大拙館

Correct answerHe took his name from the Sai River, which flowed near his childhood home

Muro Saisei (1889-1962) took his pen name from the Sai River that flowed near his childhood home: raised on its west (sai) bank, he paired that reading with the character for "star" (sei). Known for the line "One's hometown is a place to be thought of from afar," he left his mark on both poetry and fiction — a double legacy among Kanazawa's Three Great Writers.

Source:Pick Up 室生犀星記念館

Correct answerCrafts and Folk Art

In 2009 Kanazawa became the third Japanese city admitted to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, after Kobe and Nagoya (both in Design) — and the first city in Asia certified in Crafts and Folk Art (following Aswan and Santa Fe, certified in the field in 2005). The dense accumulation of crafts sustained since the domain era, from gold leaf to Kaga Yuzen and Ohi ware, is what earned the recognition.

Source:ユネスコ創造都市ネットワークとは金沢市（ユネスコ創造都市ネットワーク加盟都市）

Correct answerMaeda Toshiie takes up residence in Kanazawa Castle → The Tatsumi Yosui Canal is completed → Myoryuji Temple (the Ninja Temple) is built → The garden is named "Kenrokuen"

The order: Maeda Toshiie enters Kanazawa Castle (1583) -> the Tatsumi Yosui canal is completed (1632) -> Myoryuji Temple is built (1643) -> the garden is named Kenrokuen (1822). Some sixty years separate the entry into the castle from the canal and temple-town works, and the name "Kenrokuen" arrives nearly two centuries later still — building a castle town was the work of generations.

Source:戦国時代～江戸時代

Correct answerThe 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa opens → Kanazawa City is certified as a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network → The D.T. Suzuki Museum opens → The Hokuriku Shinkansen's extension from Nagano to Kanazawa opens for service

The order: the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art opens (2004) -> UNESCO Creative Cities Network certification (2009) -> the D.T. Suzuki Museum opens (2011) -> the Hokuriku Shinkansen reaches Kanazawa (2015). The sequence traces how 21st-century Kanazawa remade its public face on the twin engines of contemporary art and traditional culture — then went national when the bullet train arrived.

Source:コンセプト｜美術館について｜金沢21世紀美術館ユネスコ創造都市ネットワークとは