Kanazawa

• Japanese: 金沢 (Kanazawa)

Kanazawa is the capital city of Ishikawa prefecture, and was previously the central castletown of Kaga han.

Kanazawa was already home to a few thousand people when Sengoku Period warlord Maeda Toshiie made it his chief castle headquarters in 1583. With the construction of Kanazawa castle, the city grew quickly, reaching 50,000 inhabitants by 1630, and 120,000 by 1700, becoming one of the largest cities in the world, rivaling Rome, Amsterdam, and Madrid, though never approaching the far larger populations of cities like Osaka and Edo. Though provincial, and not as prominently influential as Kyoto or even Nagoya, Kanazawa was nevertheless a bustling and significant city in the Edo period, and saw many visiting Noh and kabuki troupes (as well as local jishibai performances), as well as being home to nearly 25 printers and publishers. The city was also a destination for notable travelers; the ukiyo-e painters Kitagawa Sôsetsu and Katsushika Oi, for example, may have each lived in the city for a time.

Like all cities in early modern Japan, Kanazawa suffered large fires on a number of occasions, including in 1690, 1759, but was frequently quickly rebuilt.

Kanazawa is still today home to one of the few active geisha districts remaining in Japan: the Higashi Chayagai. Kanazawa's second geisha district, the Nishi Chayagai, was also prominent and active in the late Edo period. Other significant sites in the city include Oyama Shrine, the so-called "Ninja Temple" of Myôryû-ji, and the Kenrokuen gardens, regarded one of the three most beautiful samurai gardens in the country.

A large bronze statue of Yamato Takeru, erected in 1877 in the Kenrokuen gardens adjoining the castle grounds, may be the earliest modern-style, bronze statue in the country of a "national" figure.