Higashi Chaya Teahouse District

photo by epicureanism · CC BY 2.0

photo by gundam2345 · CC BY 3.0

The Shima teahouse (1820) is one of only two in Japan listed as national heritage.

The cobbled street runs between two-storey teahouses with kimusuko wooden lattices, narrow and closely set so that you can see out without being seen from outside. Shima, a public museum, preserves the exact interior of 1820 (tea rooms with period string instruments, a garden with red stones from Saga) and, together with the Sumiya in Kyoto, is one of the two teahouses in Japan designated a national Important Cultural Property. Not far away, Kaikaro, the largest in Kanazawa, opens its tatami rooms with gold leaf and its Wajima-lacquer staircase by day, and in the evening reserves its service for one guest at a time.

The district was officially recognised as an entertainment quarter in 1820 (the third year of the Bunsei era) with the authorisation of the Kaga domain, which in this way gathered the teahouses outside the city's administrative centre. It is now designated a national Important Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings (重要伝統的建造物群保存地区).

ℹ️ Public street, open to visitors at any time. Shima: daytime hours, paid ticket for the interior. Kaikaro: rooms open to visitors by day for a fee, evening service by private booking. 6 minutes' walk from Hashiba-chō bus stop.

🚉 Hokutetsu Kanazawa · 25 min walk

Sources: hot-ishikawa.jp · kanazawa-tourism.net · oniwa.garden

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