Nishi chaya-gai is a geisha district located south west of downtown.
Nishi geisha district is small, however geisha girls are still working.
About geisha district
Nishi chaya-gai was built in 1820 under the permission of the lord Maeda family, who governed Kanazawa during samurai feudal period.
Nishi chaya-gai is a little bit far from Kanazawa castle (30 minutes by walking and the bus connection is not good), so not many tourist, especially foreign tourists, visit there.
Like other two geisha districts, Higashi and Kazuemachi, Nichichaya-gai has wooden building and lattice in front of the building is beautiful.
What is geisha? What is geisha restaurants?
Geisha is a performer who entertains customers by playing instruments or performing dance.
During feudal samurai period, geisha restaurants were opened to only the members and even becoming a member was difficult. To become a member, member’s introduction was necessary.
Nowadays, geisha restaurants in not membership-only restaurant any more and tourists can enter. As mentioned above, 22 geisha are working in Nishi chaya district and you can enjoy entertainments if you can afford to it.
What to see
The district is small and the main street is only a couple of hundreds metres so it doesn’t take time to look around.
Nishi chaya siryou-kan
You are lucky if you have time to come here because you can come into this house for free. You have to pay 500 yen to see the almost same thing in Higashi chaya-gai though. They have traditional guest room in which traditional instrumental and things used during samurai period.
