Japanese gold leaf, a 400-year-old Kanazawa tradition

The city of Kanazawa, located in Ishikawa Prefecture (formerly Kaga Province), is well-known for its gold leaf production.
Gold leaf has been used to decorate the surfaces of a variety of Japanese traditional crafts, as well as examples of historically important architecture such as the Kinkaku-ji Temple (Golden Pavilion) in Kyoto, and the Nikkō Tōshō-gū Shrine in Nikkō.
With a thickness of just 1/10,000 mm, the art of Kanazawa gold leaf was developed to incorporate unique traditional craft techniques, passed down from the Edo period (mid-17th century), which was the time frame of the first Kaga feudal lord, Maeda Toshiie.