Book a Photoshoot
in Kanazawa

Kanazawa kept its old quarters through the war and now offers much of what people go to Kyoto for, with a fraction of the queue. Kenroku-en is the set piece — a garden built over two centuries, at its best under snow in January, when the pines are roped into their winter cones, and in the first week of April under blossom. The Higashi Chaya district is two streets of wooden teahouses, gold-leaf shops and lattice facades that photograph well in flat afternoon light. The samurai quarter of Nagamachi has earthen walls and water channels, and the contemporary art museum gives a clean white counterpoint if the session wants one. Kanazawa is two and a half hours from Tokyo by shinkansen and pairs naturally with Takayama and Shirakawa-go.