Kanazawa · Kenrokuen
21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art
The museum opened on 9 October 2004, designed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA. The building is round, 112.5 meters across, with no front and no back, and you can enter it from several directions. Four inner courtyards with glass walls bring light into the center.
The public part, the 'exchange zone', is free and open until 22:00. The exhibition galleries charge a fee. Among the permanent works is Leandro Erlich's 'The Swimming Pool' from 2004: from above you see people as if they were underwater, and you reach the space beneath it through the galleries of the collection exhibition.
The building was damaged in the 2024 Noto earthquake. From May 2027 until about March 2028 the museum will close for a major renovation: repairs to the building and the earthquake damage, and replacement of the electrical and air-conditioning systems.
Good to know
- In the space under the pool you are asked to stay no more than 5 minutes.
- The 'Bunka no Mori Odekake Pass', ¥1,000, covers 17 sites over two days, including Kenroku-en, the castle buildings and the collection exhibitions here, but not special exhibitions. You buy it online, at 7-Eleven, FamilyMart, Lawson and Ministop, or at two tourist information centers.
- Until 18 April 2027 the museum also shows two free exhibitions: 'Shared Landscape' by Hitoshi Ushijima and Hiraki Sawa, and NEUTRAL COLORS NEW CIRCUIT.
What is nearby
Approximate walking minutes from the entrance of 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art.
- Here21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art
- ~3 min
Cafe & Brasserie Paul Bocuse, Shiinoki Food
Inside the Shiinoki Cultural Complex, the former prefectural office building from 1924, which is free to enter. Lunch, afternoon tea and dinner, and in the evening by reservation only.
- ~5 min
Tatemachi Street Clothes and crafts
A straight shopping street of 430 meters with more than 150 shops: clothes, artisans' accessories and long-established tea shops.
- ~6 min
Daiwa Department Store, Korinbo Shopping
The department store at the Korinbo intersection. In the basement there is a food hall with sweets and local Ishikawa products to buy as gifts, and on floor 8 there are restaurants open until 22:00.
- ~8 min
Le Musee de H Kanazawa Cafe
The cafe and patisserie of pastry chef Hironobu Tsujiguchi, inside the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art. Cakes and desserts made from ingredients of the Hokuriku region. You do not need a museum ticket, it is open even when the museum is closed, and you can take away.
- ~9 min
National Crafts Museum More to see
A national museum of crafts and design, in two military buildings from the Meiji period that were moved here and restored. From 9 October 2026 to 11 January 2027 the exhibition 'Design Chronicle' is on show, ¥1,200. Between exhibitions the museum is closed.
More in Kenrokuen
Appears in: Kanazawa: Omicho Market, the geisha district, Kenroku-en Garden and gold leaf