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Joe Steinbring

Kanazawa

A two-legged stone lantern on the bank of a garden pond, with pines and clipped shrubs beyond.
The Kotoji lantern, the emblem of Kenroku-en, one of the three great gardens of Japan.2026 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring
Static offline map showing Kanazawa in Japan with a location pin.

Kanazawa was never bombed in the Second World War, so its old neighborhoods of wooden townhouses are still standing. My nephew and I got there on July 20, 2026, and spent the next day seeing the city: the Tsuzumi Gate outside the station first thing, then the old streets and a teahouse in Higashi Chaya, and in the afternoon Kenroku-en, one of the three great gardens of Japan, with its two-legged Kotoji lantern and its statue of Yamato Takeru. Both days ended in Kanazawa Castle Park, where Gyokusen-inmaru Garden sits below the castle’s stone walls. On July 22, we took a day tour out to Nanto and Shirakawa-go.

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  • A paved crossroads between latticed wooden townhouses and a white building with arched windows.

    A morning walk through Kanazawa’s old streets.

    2026 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring

  • A garden pond with arched bridges below a hillside of pines and terraced stone walls.

    Gyokusen-inmaru Garden, laid out for the lords of Kaga in 1634 and rebuilt in 2015.

    2026 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring

  • A bronze statue of a robed figure on a tall rock pedestal among pines, under summer clouds.

    Yamato Takeru, the legendary prince, on the Meiji Memorial in Kenroku-en.

    2026 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring

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