Michelin Green Guide Kanazawa & Noto — Three-Star Kenroku-en, Eihei-ji, Sado Island and All 34 Starred Sights

What the Michelin Green Guide is — 34 starred sights in Kanazawa and Noto

This is the Michelin Green Guide (Le Guide Vert), which rates destinations rather than restaurants. The Japan edition is published in France: the 4th edition in 2015, the 6th in 2020, and the current one in 2025. Every star below is given with the edition that awarded it.

In the 2015 edition the city of Kanazawa is two-star and Kenroku-en three-star. Kanazawa grew as the castle town of the Maeda lords of Kaga and escaped wartime bombing, so its teahouse districts and samurai quarters survive. The stars cluster in the city: reckon on two days in Kanazawa and one for Noto or Fukui. Tokyo to Kanazawa is about two and a half hours on the Hokuriku Shinkansen, and the extension to Tsuruga has made Eihei-ji in Fukui easier to reach. If you are covering Hokuriku and Hida by rail, an area pass is worth pricing.

Three-star Kenroku-en, and the 21st Century Museum

Kenroku-en is three-star in the 2015 edition. Successive lords of Kaga built it up over generations, and it ranks among the three great gardens of Japan. It is known for the two-legged stone lantern by the pond and for the yukitsuri ropes that protect the pines from snow in winter. Early morning is when you can walk it without crowds. Next door, Seison-kaku, a villa a lord built for his mother, is one-star.

Across the road, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art is two-star: a circular glass building whose best-known work makes visitors appear to stand at the bottom of a swimming pool. Ceiling glass fell in the 2024 earthquake, but it has been repaired and the museum remains open. A major renovation will close it from May 2027 to March 2028, so check if you are travelling then. The Ishikawa Gate of Kanazawa Castle is one-star.

Higashi Chaya, the Nagamachi samurai quarter, Omicho market

By the Asano River, the Higashi Chaya district is one-star in the 2015 edition, a street of teahouses behind red lattice. Shima and Kaikaro, which open their Edo-period teahouse interiors, and the Ohi Museum of Ohi ware are one-star too. On the west side of town, the earthen-walled samurai quarter of Nagamachi is one-star and the Nomura samurai house, with its garden, is two-star.

In the temple district, Myoryu-ji — the “ninja temple”, named for its hidden stairs and trapdoors — is one-star; guided visits are by reservation. Kanazawa’s kitchen, the Omicho market, the Kutani-ware kiln Kutani Kosen and the Kanazawa Shinise Kinenkan, housed in a former pharmacy, are one-star. Some buildings in the teahouse districts are private homes, so do not photograph interiors where you have not been invited.

Two-star Eihei-ji, and Natadera in Kaga

Eihei-ji in Fukui was newly listed at two stars in the 2015 edition. Dogen founded this head temple of the Soto Zen school in the 13th century, and more than seventy buildings climb the forested slope, linked by covered corridors under huge cedars. Monks still train and live here: walk the corridors quietly, do not photograph the monks, and stay out of areas marked closed.

Natadera in Komatsu, Ishikawa, was newly listed at one star in the same edition — halls built onto caves and strange rock formations, at their best in autumn colour. Eihei-ji is about 30 minutes by bus from Fukui Station; Natadera is reached by bus from Kagaonsen Station. To do both from Kanazawa in a day, a tour with a car is the efficient way.

The Noto Peninsula — Wajima, Shiroyone Senmaida, and recovery

The 2015 edition gives one star to the Noto Peninsula and to Wajima, and two stars to the Wajima Kiriko Art Museum, which displays the giant festival lanterns. The Wajima morning market, the Wajima Lacquerware Museum, Soji-ji (the Soin), the coast at Sosogi, the coastal path above the terraced fields and Noto Ogi are one-star.

Noto was badly hit by the earthquake of January 2024 and by heavy rain later the same year. The Wajima morning market street burned, and the market now trades as a “travelling Wajima morning market” at a shopping centre in the city. The Kiriko Art Museum is temporarily closed. Soji-ji Soin resumed normal visiting in April 2025. Roads, lodgings and facilities keep changing, so check the current situation with Ishikawa Prefecture or the city of Wajima before you go. When you visit, keep clear of reconstruction sites and residential areas.

Sado Island, and model routes

Sado Island in Niigata is one-star in the 2015 edition, and the rock capes of Futatsugame and Onogame at its northern end are two-star. The Sado gold mine, inscribed as World Heritage in 2024 as the “Sado Island Gold Mines”, the port towns of Ryotsu, Mano and Ogi, Konpon-ji associated with Nichiren, and the Ogi Folk Museum are one-star. At Ogi you can ride a taraibune, the round tub boat. Niigata port to Ryotsu is about an hour by jetfoil, or two and a half by car ferry.

Michelin Green Guide Kanazawa & Noto — FAQ

Star ratings: ★★★ worth a special journey / ★★☆ worth a detour / ★☆☆ interesting. Stars come from the 4th (2015) or 6th (2020) edition of the Michelin Green Guide Japan, as noted for each sight, and are reviewed with every edition. “Starred sights” counts every entry the guide awards stars to — including buildings inside a site, museum pieces, viewpoints and routes — so it is not a count of separate locations.