Kanayamachi

Locally knownKnown to people who live here. Not in the international guidebooks.

Researched and written by Hinato

KanayamachiTakaokacopperwaresenbon-goshipreservation district

Illustration of Kanayamachi, Toyama — Illustration — not a photograph

A quick walk through Kanayamachi tells you less than a slow one — the details are where the history actually lives.

When Maeda Toshinaga founded Takaoka in 1609 he brought in seven metal casters from a village in Tonami and gave them land, and four hundred years later this street is still the centre of the Takaoka copperware industry that supplies a large share of Japan's bronze temple fittings and statuary. In 2012 it became the first foundry district in the country to be designated an Important Preservation District.

The street runs about five hundred metres, paved in stone set to resemble the cross-section of a casting mould, and the houses along it are fronted in senbon-goshi — fine vertical lattice, hundreds of slats to a panel, which lets air and light through while keeping the interior dark. The effect at either end of the day, when low sun rakes across the lattice, is the reason photographers come. The preserved area is small, about 6.4 hectares, and takes forty minutes to walk properly.

What to know before you go

When to go

Year-round | Early morning and late afternoon for light on the lattice fronts

Opening hours

Street open at all times | Workshops and showrooms keep their own hours

Closed: Open year-round

Time to allow

40–60 minutes | 2 hours with Yamachosuji

Fee

Free | Workshop experiences priced separately

How to reach it

Access notes

Kanayamachi, Takaoka. About a short walk from the north exit of Takaoka Station on the Ainokaze Toyama Railway, or by car from Takaoka IC. Free to walk. Yamachosuji is nearby on foot.

What locals know

**Go at either end of the day.** Low sun across the senbon-goshi lattice is what the street is photographed for. At midday the fronts flatten out and the effect is gone. **Look at the pavement.** The stone setts are laid in a pattern representing a casting mould in section — a detail almost every visitor walks over without noticing. **Some workshops open.** Several casting businesses along the street have showrooms and a few run experiences making small tin or bronze pieces. Availability varies; the Takaoka tourist office keeps the current list. **Do both districts.** Kanayamachi is the foundry town; Yamachosuji, ten minutes away, is the merchant street rebuilt in fireproof earthen construction after the 1900 fire. They were designated twelve years apart and look nothing alike. **Six point four hectares is small.** This is a forty-minute walk, not an afternoon. Pair it with Zuiryuji or the Great Buddha to make a half-day.

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