Higashi chaya district, Kanazawa

Located in an area without major earthquakes, far from the Boshin War and without any major destruction during the WWII, Kanazawa offers today some of the best preserved old districts in Japan.

The Chaya houses, some of them more than 200 years old, survived in three geisha districts. Photographed here is a part of the largest district, "Higashi chaya", located as the name says (Higashi means "East"), in the eastern part of Kanazawa.