Photo: jam_232 / CC BY 2.0A sheet of Kanazawa gold leaf is around one ten-thousandth of a millimetre thick — thin enough that light passes through it green. Essentially all of Japan's production happens here, and the reason is the weather.
Checked against official sources · updated · Takumi Yamada
The city's name means "golden marsh." In 1593 the Maeda lord ordered silver leaf beaten in Kanazawa and gold leaf in Nanao. From 1696 the shogunate banned leaf-beating outside its own Edo guild, and Kanazawa won back the legal right to beat leaf only in 1864. After that it took over the industry. Today the city produces something on the order of 99% of Japan's gold leaf.
Why here, specifically
Gold leaf is beaten between sheets of specially treated paper. That paper has to hold a precise moisture content, and dry air ruins it. Kanazawa sits on the Sea of Japan coast under grey, humid skies for much of the year — the same weather that makes the winters miserable makes the paper behave.
There is a local saying that you should not forget your umbrella even if you forget your lunch. The gold industry is what that weather bought.
One gram of gold beats out to about a square metre of leaf. It is applied with a bamboo tool and static electricity, because a breath will destroy it and a fingertip certainly will.
Where it goes
Kanazawa leaf is on the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto, on Nikko's Toshogu, on Buddhist altars in hundreds of thousands of Japanese homes, and on the lacquerware and ceramics this region produces.
It is also, now, on ice cream. A soft-serve cone wrapped in a whole sheet of gold leaf is Kanazawa's most photographed object, launched at ¥1,189 (check the current price at the counter), and tastes exactly like soft-serve — gold has no flavour. Everyone buys one anyway, including Japanese tourists, and there is no reason not to.
Doing it yourself
Several workshops in the city run haku-oshi sessions where you apply leaf to a small box, plate or set of chopsticks. It takes about an hour, costs a few thousand yen, and produces something genuinely worth carrying home.
It is also the fastest way to understand the material. You will destroy your first sheet. That is the lesson.
How it happened
- 1593Maeda Toshiie orders leaf beating
Silver leaf in Kanazawa, gold leaf in Nanao
- 1696The shogunate controls all leaf-beating
Beating outside its Edo guild is banned
- 1864Kanazawa may beat leaf legally again
The start of the modern industry
- MeijiThe city becomes the national supplier
Temples, altars, lacquer, ceramics
- today~99% of Japanese gold leaf
Made possible by humid Sea of Japan weather
Where this becomes real on your port day
Do a one-hour gold-leaf application workshop. You will ruin the first sheet, and that is when you understand it.
The vocabulary of gold leaf
- Kinpaku 金箔
- Gold leaf. Around one ten-thousandth of a millimetre thick.
- Haku-uchi 箔打ち
- Gold beating. The paper matters as much as the gold.
- Haku-oshi 箔押し
- Applying the leaf. What you do in a workshop, badly, at first.
- Kanazawa 金沢
- "Golden marsh." The name predates the industry, and then fitted it.
FAQ
Why is gold leaf made in Kanazawa?
Because of the humidity. Gold is beaten between sheets of treated paper that must hold a precise moisture content, and Kanazawa's grey, damp Sea of Japan weather suits it. Combined with Maeda patronage and the return of legal beating rights in 1864, the city ended up producing around 99% of Japan's gold leaf.
Is gold leaf ice cream worth it in Kanazawa?
As a photograph, yes; as a purchase, it is soft-serve — gold has no flavour. It launched at ¥1,189 (check the current price at the counter) and everyone buys one, including Japanese visitors. The souvenir with actual value is a small lacquer or ceramic piece with leaf applied, or an hour in a gold-leaf application workshop.
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