Kazuemachi Chaya District

This guide to the Kazuemachi Chaya District in Kanazawa follows a geiko in white makeup hurrying across the Asanogawa river at dusk, a scene that could belong to 1869 or tonight. It traces how the district grew almost by accident, when teahouse owners settled this river bend under the wealth of the Maeda clan, the second-richest domain in Japan, and how forty-eight teahouses here dwindled toward disappearance by the late twentieth century before Kazuemachi reclaimed its old name in 1999. You'll also walk the Dark Slope once climbed by the young novelist Izumi Kyoka on his way to school. Pause by the lattice windows at dusk and listen for the shamisen drifting from behind them.