National Crafts Museum

Kanazawa has long been considered Japan's foremost city for traditional crafts, and the National Crafts Museum sits at the heart of that legacy. Dedicated to the applied and decorative arts (lacquerware, ceramics, textiles, metalwork, and beyond), the museum offers an unhurried encounter with objects made to be used as much as admired. Its collection draws on Japan's living craft heritage, presenting work that feels neither archival nor remote.

When to go

The museum opens Tuesday through Sunday from 9:30 AM, closing at 5:30 PM. Arriving shortly after opening on a weekday gives you the galleries at their quietest. Kanazawa's famously moody seasons (cherry blossom in spring, deep snow in winter) lend the journey to the museum its own atmosphere, whatever time of year you visit.

“A great place to learning about crafts, see the creaftsmen create their art and appreciate their work. The exhibit on the process of making bashofu textile from banana tree cellulose in Okinawa is fascinating. The beauty and simplicity of patterns, the elegance of natural colors.”— Olivera TVN, Google review