[Ishikawa Prefecture] Enjoy the restaurant culture in Komatsu, a hidden gem in the Hokuriku region

• Table of Contents
• Learn about Japanese culture and the land through Japanese cuisine
• The proprietress of "Kodama no Wa" will guide you through your first Japanese restaurant experience in Komatsu!
• The harmony of Kodama and Godiva's "musubi"
• Enjoy Komatsu's food culture and Kutani ware in Tokyo
• A secluded castle town built by Japan's greatest lord
• The charm of Komatsu's restaurants is their friendliness
• Access to Komatsu

Learn about Japanese culture and the land through Japanese cuisine

The characteristics of a region are reflected in its food culture. In particular, Japanese cuisine at traditional Japanese restaurants is packed with the essence of Japanese culture, which can be called a comprehensive art, not only in the quality of the ingredients and the chef's skills, but also in the presentation of the tableware and space, and the hospitality.

There are famous restaurants that impress foodies all over the country, including Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka, but of course, restaurants that offer first-class food and service are expensive and often booked up a year or two in advance, and in some cases, you may not even be able to step inside without an introduction.

The general image of traditional Japanese restaurants is that they are high-class (have a high barrier to entry), but the restaurants in Komatsu City, Ishikawa Prefecture, are characterized by their combination of aesthetic sense and friendliness.

The proprietress of "Kodama no Wa" will guide you through your first Japanese restaurant experience in Komatsu!

The female and young female proprietresses of such Komatsu restaurants formed the "Komatsu Proprietress Kotama no Wa" with the aim of "spreading the Komatsu restaurant culture where you can enjoy Kaga cuisine without feeling pressured." Each restaurant is working hard to create an atmosphere and hospitality that allows people who are visiting a restaurant for the first time, or those who are visiting Komatsu for the first time, to relax and enjoy themselves.

Komatsu's restaurants take advantage of the area's bounty of both sea and land, and use fresh, locally produced ingredients to prepare dishes using Kaga cuisine techniques. The dishes are served on attractive tableware such as Kutani ware and Wajima lacquerware, allowing you to enjoy a flavor and worldview that is a little different from either Kyoto or Kanazawa.

Furthermore, the female hosts of Kodama no Wa come from a variety of backgrounds, including a former Olympian, a qualified pastry chef, a sushi chef, and a shamisen instructor, and they offer hospitality and travel plans that make the most of their strengths and individuality. In addition to the delicious food, meeting these charming female hosts is sure to make your trip the most satisfying!

The harmony of Kodama and Godiva's "musubi"

To make dining at a traditional Japanese restaurant more casual, Komatsu Okami Kodama no Wa is holding a limited-time joint project, Kodama no Wa and GODIVA's "Musubi" Harmony, until Saturday, August 31, 2024. At the end of each course meal, the nine restaurants and inns participating in this project will serve a special dessert created by the hostess and supervised by the chef of GODIVA café, as a final dish to conclude the meal.

The original chocolate desserts, developed using local ingredients, are limited edition items that can only be enjoyed this summer, highlighting the individuality of each store. All are served as a meal set and reservations are required, but there are also restaurants where you can enjoy lunch as well as dinner, and inns where you can stay overnight, so be sure to try the dishes and desserts that incorporate an abundance of seasonal flavors at each of the Kodama no Wa stores.

HP: Komatsu proprietress Kotama no Wa

HP: Harmony of Kodama's Japanese Style and Godiva's Musubi

Offer period: Until August 31, 2024

Special plan available only online

For special plans that can be easily booked online, click here (you will be redirected to the reservation site)

Godiva collaboration dessert & Kaga cuisine (lunch or dinner) (Miyabi Kaiseki)

Godiva Collaboration Dessert & Kaga Cuisine Dinner Session (Kotamanowa Kaiseki)

Participating stores

Restaurant Ichiran (1 Sakaemachi, Komatsu City, Ishikawa Prefecture)

Japanese Cuisine Kajisuke (141 Yamatocho, Komatsu City, Ishikawa Prefecture)

Restaurant Korokuan (26 Omonjicho, Komatsu City, Ishikawa Prefecture)

Japanese Cuisine Shin (69-1 Shirae-cho, Komatsu City, Ishikawa Prefecture)

Ataka Pass Nagaoki (140, Atakacho, Komatsu City, Ishikawa Prefecture)

Japanese Cuisine Nakano (112 Yamatocho, Komatsu City, Ishikawa Prefecture)

Matsuya restaurant (730-1 Atakacho, Komatsu City, Ishikawa Prefecture)

Awadu Onsen Kitahachi (13 Iguchicho, Komatsu City, Ishikawa Prefecture) @awadu_kitahachi

Sushi Yonehachi (58 Matto-cho, Komatsu City, Ishikawa Prefecture) @sushi_yonehachi

Enjoy Komatsu's food culture and Kutani ware in Tokyo

GODIVA café, which cooperated with the Komatsu restaurant in developing desserts, is also offering limited-edition parfaits at its Tokyo, Iidabashi, Hibiya, Nihonbashi, Futako Tamagawa, Minatomirai, Omiya, and Koshigaya AEON Lake Town Mori stores, which incorporate ingredients such as barley grown in Komatsu and are served in original Kutani ware made by Asakura Ichika of Komatsu City's Kutani ware workshop, Asakura Isokichi Fukako Tougama.

▲GODIVA café Peach and Komatsu Barley Chocolate Parfait - Served in original Kutani ware

A secluded castle town built by Japan's greatest lord

Komatsu City in Ishikawa Prefecture has become even more accessible with the opening and extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen section between Kanazawa Station and Tsuruga Station in March 2024, and is gaining attention as a travel destination.

Komatsu Airport is located in Ishikawa Prefecture, almost in the center of the Japanese archipelago, and is convenient for accessing various places both domestically and internationally. As of April 2024, there are four domestic routes to Tokyo (Haneda), Sapporo (New Chitose), Fukuoka, and Naha, and three international routes to Seoul, Shanghai, and Taipei. With the opening of the Hokuriku Shinkansen in March, Komatsu can truly be called a transportation hub in the Hokuriku region.

It has been a key transportation point since ancient times, but in the Edo period, when Maeda Toshitsune, the third generation of the Maeda clan of the Kaga domain, known as "Japan's greatest feudal lord," used Komatsu Castle as his retirement castle, the castle town and culture blossomed all at once. The Maeda clan, lords of Kaga domain, owned the largest estates in Japan and were such powerful and wealthy feudal lords that they were wary of the shogun family.

The wealth of the "Kaga Domain, a domain of one million koku" was poured generously into encouraging arts and culture, leading to the development of crafts and manufacturing, including Kutani ware, in Komatsu. Komatsu invited Sensō (who later became the founder of the Urasenke school) to protect and promote the culture of the tea ceremony, and the tea ceremony is still widely practiced among the citizens, making it a town where you can feel the good old traditions of Japan.

The charm of Komatsu's restaurants is their friendliness

The Edo period was the age of the samurai, but it was the townspeople, known as machishu and dannashu, who carried the culture of Komatsu. The Otabi Matsuri and Kodomo Kabuki, two representative traditional cultures of Komatsu, are also things the townspeople have been proudly passing down for over 350 years.

The tea ceremony culture led to kaiseki cuisine and Kaga cuisine, and the restaurant culture was nurtured by townspeople such as merchants and Kitamae-bune cargo ship wholesalers. The generosity of Komatsu's restaurants, which value interpersonal interaction and harmony and welcome a wide range of people, seems to have originated from these townspeople.

Kanazawa is the most popular tourist destination in the Hokuriku region, where the Maeda clan's castle was located, but Komatsu, where the Maeda clan's retirement castle was located, is no less attractive. Another attraction is the calm, hidden atmosphere that is not yet overrun with tourists. Why not experience Japanese culture by tasting authentic yet friendly Japanese cuisine at Komatsu's traditional restaurants?

When you eat at a restaurant in Komatsu, you will be surprised by the deliciousness of the dashi stock that determines the taste of the food, and you will want to know more about its ingredients and origins. You will be captivated by the beauty of the dishes served on it, and you will want to visit the workshop of the chef. You will want to know what kind of fish the fresh sashimi and sushi toppings are, and where in the sea they were caught. The architecture and decoration of the Japanese-style rooms, and the seasonal flowers displayed there, will soothe your soul.

Your experience at a traditional Japanese restaurant will bring you inspiration and discovery with every dish, and with the hospitality and guidance of the hostess, you will have the opportunity to experience the profound depths of Japanese culture.

If you become interested in the profound depths of Japanese cuisine at a traditional restaurant in Komatsu, you can try out a workshop to make soup stock from kelp and dried bonito flakes, try your hand at the tea ceremony or roasting the locally beloved stick tea, make delicate and beautiful Japanese sweets, visit a Kutani ware studio, and try your hand at pottery. These cultural experiences, which can only be had here and which will satisfy your intellectual curiosity with Japanese cuisine as the keyword, are sure to leave lasting memories.

Access to Komatsu

Komatsu Tourism Guide

By plane: Komatsu Airport

About 1 hour and 30 minutes from Sapporo (New Chitose)

Approximately 1 hour from Tokyo Haneda

About 1 hour and 15 minutes from Fukuoka

About 2 hours and 10 minutes from Okinawa (Naha)

About 1 hour 45 minutes from Seoul (Incheon)

About 2 hours and 5 minutes from Shanghai (Pudong)

About 2 hours and 50 minutes from Taipei

Train: Komatsu Station

11 minutes by Shinkansen from Kanazawa, 30-40 minutes by IR Ishikawa Railway

From Tokyo, it takes just 2 hours and 40 minutes by Shinkansen

The shortest route from Osaka is 2 hours and 14 minutes. *Change to the Hokuriku Shinkansen at Tsuruga Station.

The shortest route from Nagoya is 1 hour 57 minutes. *Change to the Hokuriku Shinkansen at Tsuruga Station.

Car (rental car):

If you have your own car or a rental car, you can access the area via the Hokuriku Expressway.

By express bus:

There are express buses connecting Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and Nagoya.