2009/05/24

Kanazawa


I had a short visit to an old city of Kanazawa. It is one of the rare cities along with Kyoto and Nara that did not get air raided during the WWII. For this reason, many old buildings remain.

I could take a nice run around the city - Nagamachi is a district where middle to lower class samurai that served the lord of this area (Maeda Clan) lived.   Although this is very close from the central business district of the city, visiting this area is like a time-slip into the olden age.


Whenever I visit Kanazawa, I also jog around and in the Kanazawa Castle park. The history of the castle goes back to 1546, but the prosperity of the area was built by Maeda Toshiie who occupied the castle in 1583.



Although the city escaped the horrors of WWII, long before that in 1881, most of the old castle burned down by a fire. It is currently under re-construction. This page shows the amazing video of how the castle is being re-built using the old techniques and also explanations of the castle structure.


Above photo shows the inside of walls - old composite structure that could withstand earthquakes.

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