Ohno Karakuri Memorial Museum

This guide to the Ohno Karakuri Memorial Museum in Kanazawa starts inside a building shaped like the hull of a kitamaebune cargo ship, designed in 1996 by architect Shozo Uchii to echo the gears it was built to honor. It follows Ohno Benkichi, who settled in this port town in 1831 and spent his life building telescopes, pistols and mechanical dolls nobody expected from a fishing town on the Sea of Japan. Look up inside the museum and the radial roof beams fan out like spokes around you.