Japanese famous ‘Golden Craft art’ attracting tourists

May 21, 2020

Kanazawa (Japan), May 21 (ANI): This thin sheet of Gold is called Kinpaku in Japanese. It is symbol of wealth and prosperity. For the last 400 years Kanazawa City is famous for this traditional craft of making gold leaf and today 99% of the Japan’s domestic gold leaf is produced here. Though the city produces many traditional crafts, however gold leaf is the most eye-catching one. Kinpaku workshops in Kanazawa have developed a high-level technique to produce a gold leaf that is one ten thousandth of a millimeter. The process is simple but time consuming. It starts with a small square sheet of gold placed in between stacks of paper. After this the gold is hammered with a special machine for several days and by the end of each day the gold becomes thinner and thinner and by the end of the hammering process, we get an incredibly thin leaf of gold that you can almost see through it. Higashi Chaya, a famous traditional district in Kanazawa city. This Edo style street is a popular destination among tourists. Here, many shops sell gold coated souvenirs made up from beautiful gold leaf like lacquer ware, calligraphy paintings, cosmetics and several other products. Few shops even offer food items covered with paper-thin gold leaf, like gold covered ice-cream which is very popular among visitors. With this rich history of gold craft, Kanazawa is proving its status as gold capital of Japan.