Gardens, Trapdoors, Art, and Lanterns: The Varied Sights of Kanazawa

The next morning, June 3rd, I woke up early to get an early start on the many sights of Kanazawa. Much like Denver, Kanazawa has a bike rental system within the city where so long as a bike is returned to a rack within 30 minutes there's no additional charge.  Using this system, I would rent a bike, ride it to a tourist attraction, meander around, then take another bike to the next spot. This turned out to be an incredibly cost and time efficient way to explore the city.

The first stop for me was Kenrokuen, one of Japan's 3 most beautiful gardens. Located atop a hill in the center of the city adjacent to the castle, not only were the sights within the garden impressive, but the vista overlooking the city was also a sight to behold. The garden had many notable designs within in, but one I found particularly interesting at the time was a natural fountain that uses the water pressure from the up-slope lake, an interesting feat of ancient engineering.

Realizing there was still much more to see I walked into the nearby traditional crafts museum, which had historic items from throughout the region on display. Many of these items used gold leaf, adding an air of unprecedented luxury to both everyday items like dishware, but also more decorative things like paintings and even a kimono. And for Zelda fans in the music section there were a plethora of ornate ocarinas.

Next I ventured across town to Myoryuji Temple, or as it is more commonly known as, Ninjadera. This temple was used as a fort and sanctuary for the local lords during the Edo period. It is an architectural masterpiece, deceptively hiding it's practical function under the guise of a normal Buddhist temple. 

In accordance with the Shogun's laws, buildings could not be over 3 stories in height, but somehow the architects managed to fit 7 tiers of rooms within the building without compromising the spacious main hall or standard appearance of the temple. Within these tiers were rooms with purposely low ceilings to keep swords from being raised, yet still felt spacious through the use of visual illusions created by a slight arch in the ceiling. Hidden passages for guards and trap doors false floors were at every turn. Hovels under stairs gave guards windows to attack enemies' feet. The donation grate transformed into a pitfall. Even the sliding doors at the front entrance actually disguised a staircase to the upper floors depending on which order the doors were slid open.

So far this description has highlighted just some of the practical functions of the temple, but I would be remiss not to mention the aesthetic choices made as well. The main hall was as grand as any temple I have been in, and the view from the lord's secret prayer room overlooking the atrium gave a unique perspective of the idols in the hall. Within the hidden labyrinth a bridged hallway was built, covered in blue carpet to create the visual image of a river flowing through the building. In one of the lord's rooms, sections of the wall were removed to create a silhouette of Mt. Fuji on the wall.  While I wasn't able to take photos myself, I was able to find some images online to give visual representation to this convoluted construction.

During the guided tour I met Tanaka Mao, a nice girl traveling alone from Chiba, a city near Tokyo. We decided to sight-see together for a bit to Nagamachi, the city's former samurai district. The area has been well preserved, with the yellow walls lining the streets, giving privacy to the former residences. Many of these historic houses have been converted to shops or cafes, so we decided to visit one and get some tea. The cafe overlooked a small garden build within the property grounds, which had trees meticulously cared for for over 300 years. As I attempted to converse with her in my limited Japanese, I learned her hobby is scuba diving, which gave us a great conversation topic to discuss, since I had already made plans to get my scuba certification on my way back from Japan in August.

After Tanaka and I parted ways, I ventured over to the 21st century art museum, one of Kanazawa's most notable attractions. The building itself is architecturally interesting, being a minimalist circular building, but as with any great art museum, it's design did not detract from the exhibits themselves. Around the outside were interesting structural art, including a spiraling kaleidoscope of colored walls, a network of tubes to talk to people across the grounds, and other strange installations. Even within the museum there was a large vine covered wall with a glass tunnel going through, creating an artistic space even outside of the exhibits.

The first main exhibit was called Xejing, a showcase about a made up nomadic country by the artists. The fictitious backstory work was quite interesting as far as culture and traditions go, as well as the city planning proposals, it seemed the intent was to pose philosophical questions about society to the visitors. But the production seemed practically satirical, at at points pretty much asinine. At the end of that exhibit, I came to the conclusion that I still don’t get modern art, because I feel wearing bread on your ears and throwing fruit at a wall is not necessarily art.

Some of the other exhibits were equally interesting and baffling, including a bunny suit with a person inside, a giant patchwork wall, a video showcase of someone dancing with glowing shoes, a "science lab", and some wood-like paintings with depth. In another section was the public showcase, which had some impressive works. I got a few postcards of my favorite works. I had saved the main attraction for last, which is a pool installation in the center of the museum where you can walk underwater. The visual trickery involved constructing a pool with a thin piece of class near the lip, and filling up from that glass cover up to the brim of the pool. A tunnel lead into the basin, where you could look up through the water to visitors peering down at you milling around below the surface.

Afterwards I ate some good curry at a nearby restaurant, where I learned that today was the start of Kanazawa's biggest local festival, which would continue through the next couple days of my visit.

This fortuitous coincidence had me head back to my hostel, which was conveniently located next to the riverbank. Climbing on the roof of my hostel, I got a good view of the setup for the festivities. The whole town had gathered to watch the lanterns float down the river once the sun had set. Soon thousands of lanterns gracefully floated down the river, which was a beautiful sight that my pictures just can’t do justice. 

I found it particularly amusing to observe all the hobbyist photographers clamoring over each other and wading into the water for the best shots of the lanterns. I myself wandered down the riverbank, trying in vain to document the event myself. 

Along the way I got to watch the event staff wade through the water and help shuffle the lanterns downstream, as well as people place their lanterns into the river. The lanterns themselves varied in size and art, with some having ornate artwork while others just contained kanji characters. It was quite a fun event, and a great way to wrap up a full day of sightseeing.