The National Crafts Museum holds Japan's finest collection of traditional crafts — ceramics, lacquerware, textiles, metalwork, and glass. The collection was built up from the Meiji era onward with the explicit purpose of preserving craft traditions that industrialisation threatened.
The Kanazawa building, near Kenroku-en, includes two relocated and restored industrial buildings from the Meiji period that give the museum an attractive, non-institutional character. The permanent collection covers all the major craft traditions, with particular strength in ceramics and Kaga lacquerware, both of which have strong Kanazawa connections.