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How Did the Foot Soldiers of the Kaga Domain Live? A Guide to the Kanazawa Ashigaru Museum
The Nagamachi Samurai District. With its earthen walls and narrow cobblestone lanes, this is an area where you can stroll through the lingering atmosphere of the castle town of Kaga’s one-million-koku domain. In one corner stands a place where you can view, just as it was, a house where the foot soldiers (ashigaru) of the Kaga Domain once lived. This is the Kanazawa Ashigaru Museum.
The modest yet very real daily life of the foot soldiers. You can see their homes and tools up close, free of charge.
Kanazawa Ashigaru Museum
The Kanazawa Ashigaru Museum is a free museum in the Nagamachi Samurai District of Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, that conveys the daily life of the Kaga Domain’s foot soldiers. Two foot soldiers’ houses that were actually lived in, the Shimizu house and the Takanishi house, have been relocated here, and their period homes and household tools are open to the public.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Name | Kanazawa Ashigaru Museum |
| Opening hours | 9:30 am–5:00 pm |
| Closed | Open daily |
| Admission | Free |
| Phone | 076-263-3640 |
| Access | About a 5 - minute walk from the Korinbo bus stop / About a 1 - minute walk from the Seirei Hospital/Chapel stop on the Kanazawa Flat Bus Nagamachi route |
| Address | 1 - 9-3 Nagamachi, Kanazawa, Ishikawa 920 - 0865 |
| Official website | https://www.kanazawa-kankoukyoukai.or.jp/spot/detail_10056.html |
The Foot Soldiers of the Kaga Domain and Their Homes
Foot soldiers (ashigaru) were the rank-and-file samurai who fought on foot with bows, matchlock guns, and spears in wartime. In peacetime, they handled practical work in the castle town, such as the domain’s general duties and security.
When it came to a foot soldier’s home, a row house (nagaya) was the usual arrangement. But the Kaga Domain, which held a castle town of one million koku, provided even its foot soldiers with detached houses complete with gardens. The houses were ringed with hedges, with shrubs and plants set inside.
The Ashigaru Museum has relocated, restored, and opened to the public two of these foot soldiers’ houses: the Shimizu house and the Takanishi house. Both were built during the era of the feudal domain and were real homes in which people actually lived until recent years.
The Shimizu House
The Shimizu house once stood in the former Hayamichi-machi (present-day Saiwai-cho). From the era of the feudal domain, it was handed down through generations of a foot soldier’s descendants and was lived in continuously until its dismantling in 1990. It was a working home in which people lived until just a few decades ago.
The roof is a “stone-weighted board roof” (ishioki-yane), made by laying boards and weighting them with stones. It is a simple single-story house with a gabled roof. The layout is unpretentious, placing a space for receiving guests alongside a space for the family’s everyday life. This is a typical foot soldier’s house.
A full set of living spaces remains, including the tatami reception room, the family living room (chanoma), the kitchen area (nagashi), the storeroom (nando), and the privy (kawaya). In the living room, a scene of a foot soldier family’s daily life is recreated, and the use of each room is explained according to the floor plan. You can get a sense of what kind of days a foot soldier’s family spent here.
The living spaces and tools remaining in the Shimizu house
Foot soldiers’ houses were single-story as a rule. For storage, then, the attic was used as a storage space called an “ama.” Besides storing firewood and the like in preparation for winter, some homes laid down tatami and used the attic as a living room.
The ama attic of the Shimizu house
A major feature of the Shimizu house is that it was passed down and lived in through generations of a foot soldier’s descendants. Beyond the building itself, this unbroken history of a foot soldier’s life handed down over time is one of the highlights of the Shimizu house.
The Takanishi House
The Takanishi house once stood in the former Hayamichi-machi (present-day Kikugawa 2-chome), a group residential quarter where the foot soldiers who served as the domain’s couriers lived. Built during the era of the feudal domain, it was used as a residence until its dismantling in 1994. It is said to be one of the oldest surviving foot soldiers’ houses in Kanazawa.
Here, too, you can step up into the house and view, just as it was, a home where foot soldiers actually lived. Seeing rooms such as the reception room and the kitchen up close, you can experience the structure and the way of life of a foot soldier’s house.
The foot soldier's home remaining in the Takanishi house
A Genuine Foot Soldier’s House Conveys the Life of the Kaga Domain’s Foot Soldiers
In Nagamachi, samurai residences and Michelin-starred celebrated gardens are scattered about. Among them, the Kanazawa Ashigaru Museum is a rare place where you can see, just as it was, the home where foot soldiers spent their days.
The Shimizu house and the Takanishi house: two genuine foot soldiers’ houses. The life of foot soldier families, who were given modest yet detached houses with gardens, comes through from the homes themselves.
Admission is free, and a visit takes only about 10 minutes, so it is easy to drop by. You can come to know the life-sized, everyday world of the foot soldiers who supported the Kaga Domain.
When you tour the Nagamachi Samurai District, be sure to stop by the Kanazawa Ashigaru Museum.
