Historic Centre and Culture and Art
in Early modern Japan

From the 17th to the 19th century, the Kaga Domain boasted one of the greatest economic powers in Japan. Two of the most prosperous cities in the Kaga Domain were Kanazawa and Takaoka. Kanazawa was a castle town with one of the largest populations in Japan, while Takaoka flourished as one of the domain's leading commercial and industrial cities. Both cities still retain their streetscapes from the early modern period, and these landscapes tell us the policies (urban development) that the Kaga Domain implemented. Furthermore, these streets gave birth to many of Japan's most representative cultural and craft works, and they also had a major influence on the culture and arts of modern Europe. The cityscapes of Kanazawa and Takaoka reveal the urban landscape of early modern Japan's feudal domain politics and the culture and arts of that time that continue to thrive today.