Yunokuni no Mori Craft Village

One of our go-to places to bring visitors while living in Japan was a small and beautiful craft village called Yunokuni no Mori, located in Komatsu, the neighbouring city to ours. This village was composed of Japanese gardens and traditional Japanese houses, each featuring displays and the chance to learn how to make crafts native to the Hokuriku region. These crafts allowed guests to work with Wajima lacquerware, Kutani ceramics, Kaga yuzen, glass blowing and etching, washi paper, Yamanaka woodwork, or gold leaf. (Kanazawa is famous for gold leaf as it produces something like 99% of all gold leaf in Japan!) On our first visit which is shown below, we spent about an hour hand etching designs into our very own Wajima lacquerware chopsticks, which were inlaid with gold dust at the end. We then ventured to another building where we tried making our own soba noodles! It wasn’t difficult, but we found a new understanding as to why it takes a lifetime to master the technique of making perfect noodles. The rest of our time was spent wandering around the village, admiring the crafts and the beautiful gardens and nature that the houses rested between.