Kanazawa Castle Guide: Massive Stone Walls and Wooden Turrets, Free to Explore Beside Kenrokuen

Three Centuries as the Seat of the Maeda Lords: The Highlights of Kanazawa Castle

During the Edo period, the Maeda family governed the three provinces of Kaga, Noto and Etchu. Kanazawa Castle was their residence.

For three hundred years, successive lords reworked the castle, restoring it after each of the fires that swept through it.

That work still continues today. In the Ninomaru area, the palace lost to a fire in the Meiji era is being reconstructed.

Four centuries after it was first built, the castle is still changing shape. Here we introduce the highlights of Kanazawa Castle.

Kanazawa Castle

Kanazawa Castle in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, is the former residence of the Maeda family, lords of the Kaga Domain. Designated a National Historic Site, the grounds are open free of charge as Kanazawa Castle Park, where you can walk among the buildings and gardens inside.

How Large the Grounds Are and How Long to Allow

Kanazawa Castle Park covers about 30 hectares (about 74 acres), roughly the size of 42 soccer pitches. Because the grounds are so large, it pays to know the highlights in advance and decide what you want to see so you can cover them efficiently.

Allow about 60 minutes for a light stroll, and about two hours to take in the highlights properly. There is a fair amount of walking, so wear comfortable shoes you are used to. You also remove your shoes at several of the buildings, so choose a pair that slips on and off easily.

Ishikawa-mon Gate

Ishikawa-mon Gate serves as the front door for a visit to Kanazawa Castle. The park is large enough to have five entrances, but for the classic castle experience, enter here.

The gate faces the Katsurazaka Gate, the main entrance of Kenrokuen Garden, across the road, so souvenir shops and restaurants cluster nearby and the area is the liveliest of the five.

The gate itself is the oldest surviving structure at Kanazawa Castle and is designated an Important Cultural Property.

The interior of Ishikawa-mon Gate is open to visitors on Saturdays and Sundays from April to November and during peak tourist seasons, so you can step inside and look around. Admission is free.

Special Openings of Important Cultural Properties | Kanazawa Castle Park

Gojikken Nagaya

Gojikken Nagaya (Fifty-Ken Row House) is a vast tamon-yagura, a long turret linking Hishi Yagura and Hashizumemon Tsuzuki Yagura, with a total floor area of about 1,900 m² (about 20,000 sq ft). Seen up close it is genuinely imposing, a long sweep of namako walls that dominates the view.

You can go inside as well as admire it from outside. Originally used to store weapons, the building was lost to a fire in 1881 (Meiji 14) and reconstructed in 2001 (Heisei 13). Inside you can see the framework of thick pillars and beams, the stone-drop openings (ishi-otoshi) that look down over the moat, and exhibits tracing the history of Kanazawa Castle.

Visiting Kenrokuen Too? The Plus One Ticket Costs Less

If Kenrokuen Garden is also on your itinerary, the Kenrokuen Plus One Ticket gets you into Gojikken Nagaya for less.

The Kenrokuen Plus One Ticket combines admission to Kenrokuen with entry to one cultural facility in Kanazawa. At Kanazawa Castle, Gojikken Nagaya is the facility covered.

Bought separately, admission to Kenrokuen is ¥320 and admission to Gojikken Nagaya is another ¥320, for a total of ¥640. The Kenrokuen Plus One Ticket covers both for ¥500.

The ticket can be bought on the spot at the Gojikken Nagaya reception desk, with no need to buy in advance.

Kenrokuen Plus One Ticket | Ishikawa Prefecture

Ninomaru Palace, Now Under Reconstruction

Ninomaru Square was once occupied by Ninomaru Palace, where the lords lived and conducted the affairs of the domain. It had more than 60 rooms, sliding doors and walls decorated with paintings, and ornamental detail worked into every metal fitting, making it the largest building within the castle. It burned down in the fire of 1881 (Meiji 14).

A project to reconstruct the palace is now underway, with construction starting in March 2025 (Reiwa 7). The first phase currently in progress covers the entrance section and is expected to be completed around fiscal 2033.

Ninomaru Palace is known to have been a strikingly ornate building. Once it is complete, the splendor of Kaga’s Hyakumangoku (one million koku) will come across more vividly than ever. It is something to look forward to.

Sanjikken Nagaya

Sanjikken Nagaya (Thirty-Ken Row House) is, like Ishikawa-mon Gate, a rare surviving tamon-yagura from the Edo period. It is designated an Important Cultural Property.

The interior of Sanjikken Nagaya is also open to visitors, free of charge. While Gojikken Nagaya is devoted to exhibits on the history, the castle and its structure, Sanjikken Nagaya has no displays. Instead, the building itself is the attraction, with beams and walls that have stood since the Edo period.

As with Ishikawa-mon Gate, the interior opens on Saturdays and Sundays from April to November and during peak tourist seasons.

Tsurumaru Storehouse

Tsurumaru Storehouse was built in 1848 (Kaei 1) to hold weapons. Along with Ishikawa-mon Gate and Sanjikken Nagaya, it is designated an Important Cultural Property.

Its total floor area is about 636 m² (about 6,800 sq ft), making it one of the largest storehouses of its kind surviving at any castle in Japan. From the Meiji era the military took it over and used it to store soldiers’ uniforms.

As with Ishikawa-mon Gate and Sanjikken Nagaya, the interior opens on Saturdays and Sundays from April to November and during peak tourist seasons. Admission is free.

Gyokusen’inmaru Garden

Gyokusen’inmaru Garden is a garden laid out within the castle. Maeda Toshitsune, the third lord of the domain, had it created in 1634 (Kanei 11), and successive lords added to it over the generations.

Kenrokuen Garden served as a place to entertain guests, while this garden was the one the lords kept for themselves. Stone walls rise along the slope surrounding the pond, and a waterfall is built into those walls so that water spills down them. A garden and stone ramparts composed as a single design are found at no other castle.

At Gyokusen-an, the rest area facing the garden, you can enjoy matcha with a seasonal fresh sweet while looking out over the grounds. Resting there or simply viewing the garden costs nothing.

Tsurunomaru Rest House

When your legs need a break, head for Tsurunomaru Rest House. Entry is free, and you can rest with a view of Hishi Yagura and Gojikken Nagaya through a full wall of glass.

The theater inside screens a VR film that brings the lost Ninomaru Palace back to life, running about 10 minutes with English subtitles, free of charge. There are also exhibits with large monitors and touch panels that let you follow the history of the castle.

At Mamezara Chaya inside the building, you can try sets that arrange small portions of Ishikawa confections and local specialties on little dishes, along with desserts.

Free Illuminations Every Saturday

Every Saturday, and during peak seasons such as the cherry blossom period, the park stays open until 21:00 and the grounds are illuminated. Evening admission is free as well.

The lights fall on Gyokusen’inmaru Garden with its surrounding stone walls, and on Sannomaru Square, which looks across to Hishi Yagura and Gojikken Nagaya. The stone walls around the outside of the castle are illuminated until 22:00 every night.

Three entrances stay open in the evening: the Ishikawa-mon, Nezumitamon and Gyokusen’inmaru entrances.

Nezumita-mon Gate and Nezumitamon Bridge are illuminated too, and passing through Nezumita-mon Gate brings you straight to Gyokusen’inmaru Garden, which makes it the entrance to choose for the illuminations. The path to Nezumita-mon Gate runs behind the precincts of Oyama Shrine.

Five Entrances: Head for Ishikawa-mon on a First Visit

Kanazawa Castle has five entrances. On a first visit, aim for the Ishikawa-mon entrance and you cannot go wrong. As noted above, it is the classic way into the castle, and the entrance to Kenrokuen Garden and rows of shops make the area lively.

The area around the Ishikawa-mon entrance is reachable by bus, taxi or on foot. Just inside the gate there is a tourist information center, which also holds coin lockers and the Japan Top 100 Castles stamp.

On the way out, it is worth leaving through whichever entrance is closest to your next destination.

If you come by car, Kenroku Parking sits near the Ishikawa-mon entrance. It holds 480 cars and is open 24 hours. The rate is ¥350 for the first hour, then ¥150 for each additional 30 minutes.

The History of Kanazawa Castle

The site where Kanazawa Castle stands was originally occupied by Kanazawa Gobo, a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist temple. The forces of Oda Nobunaga took it in 1580 (Tensho 8), and three years later Maeda Toshiie, an ally of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, became lord of the castle.

The Maeda family governed the three provinces of Kaga, Noto and Etchu, a domain rated at about one million koku. For roughly 300 years, until the Meiji era, successive lords made this castle their residence. Over that time fire struck again and again, and each time the castle was restored.

In the Meiji era the castle became a military facility, and the fire of 1881 (Meiji 14) destroyed most of its buildings. After the war the site served as a campus of Kanazawa University, and once the university moved out, it opened as Kanazawa Castle Park in 2001 (Heisei 13).

Kanazawa Castle today has no main keep (tenshu).

The keep was built in the 1580s, when Maeda Toshiie became lord of the castle. Some 20 years later, in 1602 (Keicho 7), it burned down after a lightning strike. A three-story turret, Sankai Yagura, was built the following year to take its place, and that too was lost in the great fire of 1759 (Horeki 9). Neither was rebuilt afterwards.

Behind the decision of such a wealthy domain to leave the keep unbuilt lay a regard for the shogunate. As a house that had not served the Tokugawa from early on, the Maeda family was watched with caution. Major rebuilding work on the castle had at times drawn suspicion of rebellion, which is said to have made them careful about reconstruction.