Kanazawa’s Kinpaku: Gold from the Mountain Stream Part 1

My travels have brought me to the seaside city of Kanazawa. I don’t really know what to expect before I arrive. My frame of reference when it comes to Japan is mainly shaped by images of Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and too much anime. Ahem. Right – I’ll need a cup of coffee if I’m going to be doing any adventuring.

My first stop is Kanazawa Castle Park which boasts an impressive compound. Each gate and building has been faithfully re-constructed with traditional carpentry and masonry techniques. Luckily, it’s not so traditional that there’s no cafe. Mamezarachaya is light and modern while still taking its inspiration from dining experiences of feudal times. Surely, this is the place to caffeinate.

©Keri Yazawa

My coffee arrives with an added bonus: tiny flakes of gold glittering up at me in the sunshine.

“Is this safe?” I ask the staff, askance.

“Of course! Gold is good for us. It brings happiness.”

OK then. Can’t argue with that!

It doesn’t have a taste per se, but there’s something about knowing that actual gold is passing your lips that makes you slow down and really savor the experience.

Of the many locally funded and richly developed cultural facets of Kanazawa City, the ever eye-catching gold foil, or kinpaku, is the most dazzling. These days, it’s used to enhance a wide variety of consumer products, from dishware to interior conversation pieces to jewelry to food to, yes, even coffee. And once you start looking for it, you’ll see it everywhere! Here it is in the eyes of the carved beasts that guard the bell tower at Kanazawa’s Higashi BestuinTemple, just a 10-minute walk from Kanazawa Station.

©Keri Yazawa

Gold foil is the pride of Kanazawa, whose name is literally “gold” (kana) and “mountain stream” (zawa). Cradled between the Sea of Japan and majestic mountain peaks, bracketed by rivers and canals, it’s not hard to see where the “mountain stream” part of Kanazawa’s name comes from, but here’s the puzzling bit: how did a place that has no natural gold deposits become Japan’s sole source of gold foil manufacturing? And why on earth is it such a big deal here of all places?

To find that out, let’s mine the layers of history and follow the gold vein back, back, back to the 1500s. We find ourselves in the middle of the Warring States Period. As the name suggests, it was a time of chaos. This was the time to be daring, to take up arms and battle for the future of one’s family legacy. That is precisely what the teenage son of one minor lord did: Oda Nobunaga fought and won against more powerful warlords, eventually demanding obedience from Japan’s elite and basically unifying the country. It was quite an accomplishment for the young man and, as you can imagine, he was rather pleased with himself. This is where our story of gold foil begins: with Oda Nobunaga. The scabbards of Nobunaga’s swords, the interior of his lakeside castle, and even the dishes served at the extravagant banquets he hosted – all shone with gold, for what better way is there to show off wealth and power and position than by gilding one’s every possession?

Oda Nobunaga’s fascination with gold foil started a boom in the industry that ended up outliving him. His successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, had caught gold fever as well, even going so far as to have a tea room built and covered completely – walls, ceiling, shelves, and storeroom – in gold foil. A (modest-sized) re-creation of this room is on display in Kanazawa City.

©Keri Yazawa

The word “lavish” doesn’t do it justice. Taking in the incredible, single-minded dedication required to construct such a space, one can only think of King Midas and try to invent an appropriately catchy descriptor to match his unsustainable gluttony for gold.

What must it have been like to work on something as magnificent as that? Well, why not find out for yourself? In Kanazawa, it’s possible for anyone to handle sheets of gold foil if you make a reservation for a kinpaku-experience workshop.

After being hammered to a thickness of about 1 micron, the sheets are carefully placed in a book of specially made rice paper. A specific hold is needed to keep the top sheets held vertically while transferring the gold foil with a pair of bamboo pincers. It’s imperative that the oils from the skin (especially the fingers) do not come into contact with the gold, the paper, or the end of the pincers.

©Riotaro Mochizuki

This is the first of three phases in the traditional gold foil making process that you can experience in Kanazawa City. Trust me when I say yes, it’s as tricky as it looks, but it’s still manageable with average dexterity. Craftsmen and artists working on Nobunaga’s elaborate castle and Toyotomi’s extravagant tea room would have been carefully applying these sheets to the surfaces of walls, sliding doors, screens, and shelves. One by one by one.

Long story short, Oda Nobunaga brought the bling to Japan in a big way and, as you can imagine, the lords who served under him were eager to emulate his opulent lifestyle. One of those lords was Kanazawa’s Toshiie Maeda, and he’ll be making his appearance in the story of Kanazawa’s gold foil very soon.

Continue to Part 2

Bow your way past the gate and take a stroll around Higashi Bestuin Temple in Kanazawa

Stop by the Hakuza main office and showroom to see Toyotomi’s golden tea room.If you’re looking for a day trip near Kyoto, venture out to the Nobunaga no Yakata Museum to get a sense of Shogun Oda Nobunaga’s gorgeous golden lifestyle.

This article was written by Keri Yazawa

About Keri Yazawa
Keri Yazawa has been a resident of Kanazawa City since 2005 and enjoys cycling, stamp-making, and tofu!

©Keri Yazawa