Kinpakuya Sakuda Gold Leaf Shop & Workshop (Gold Leaf Sakuda) — Local services in Kanazawa

The production of goldleaf in Kanazawa, kinpaku, dates back to the 16th century and the Tokugawa Shogunate. The city now makes 99 percent of all gold leaf produced in Japan.

The Sakuda store has been operating for over 100 years, manufacturing beautiful, fine gold leaf gifts, using traditional techniques. Stepping into the storefront you are momentarily dazzled. Everything around you glows warmly, from the art on the wall to the intricately patterned ceramics and the cosmetics on a shelf. Creating the thin layers of goldleaf requires the experience and skill of expert artisans - it is literally mesmerising them make sheet after sheet, with the final thickness of one ten-thousandth of a millimetre.

We had pre-booked a hands-on goldleaf experience, which is easily done on their website, https://goldleaf-sakuda.jp/, needs to be done 2 days in advance. The staff work you through a step-by-step process on how to apply gold leaf onto lacquerware, using stencils and razor blades. The session takes about 60 minutes, but I was concentrating so hard on trying to be as perfect as possible I didn't notice the time pass by. When you are there ask to use the restroom, you need to see it to believe it.

This was such a unique experience that I thoroughly recommend trying if you are...

Kinpakuya Sakuda Head Shop & Workshop is a lovely gold leaf shop in Kanazawa, that specializes in making gold leaf products. You can watch them at work with their intricate craft. Our tour group squeezed into their shop to watch as their workers peeled paper-thin gold leaf, with chopsticks and carefully decorated objects with them. A lot of the work is using carefully controlled breaths of air.

The owner explained how they pound gold leaf between sheets of paper. They beat it with a mallet until it is super thin. It was very interesting to learn how hard it is to make and how delicate it is to place. My wife said she could watch the lady who was working at it all day, as it was very relaxing.

They have a beautiful store as well, that had many items at reasonable price to purchase. The framed art was especially gorgeous. A very interesting experience in a...

This was a really fun task for a hot day. We selected our items (hand mirror and chop sticks) to foil, then got to work Traci g patterns and masking the items. Once masked the instructors applied a glue. We waited and then laid foil on the glue. Once covered, we dabbed with a pair t brush to work the gold into our patterns. More foil was added and once smooth and clean, we peeled the tape off revealing our gold art. We then celebrated by buying gold foil icy snacks. The projects were relatively inexpensive and are now great souvenirs of our time in Kanazawa. The items on display for purchase were lovely and the art gallery upstairs was worth a walk through. I would...