Favorite Place of My Lifetime

Kanazawa City

The name Kanazawa is derived from the following story: A peasant
named Imohori Togoro made his living digging potatoes. He washed
gold dust from the potatoes into a well, now called Kinjo Reitaku,
so the area was named Kanazawa, meaning 'marsh of gold.'

About 500 years ago the Ikko sect of Buddhism set up a religious
goverment with its center at the Kanazawa Gobo temple, which later
became the site of Kanazawa Castle.

The temple was destroyed by an army led by Oda Nobunaga in 1580.
Maeda Toshiie, one of his retainers, entered into Kanazawa in
1583, built a castle in its stead and ruled the district as the
lord possessing the largest fief in Japan. He is known for
producing a million koku of rice annually (one koku equals five
bushels). The Maeda lords especially fostered arts
and crafts, and Kanazawa became a cultural center like Tokyo
(then known as Edo) and Kyoto.

After the Meiji Restoration in 1868 Kanazawa became the capital
of Ishikawa Prefecture, and has flourished as the hub of
political, economic, educational, and cultural activities in the
Hokuriku District.