It’s fitting that a city as stately and elegant as Kanazawa should count gilding among its traditional crafts, and Hakuichi is the city’s leading practitioner. At its store, beside Kenroku-en, you can shop for delicate lacquerware boxes, chopsticks and tableware adorned with gold leaf, plus a range of cosmetic creams and face masks infused with the precious metal. Try the shop’s signature gold-leaf ice cream — a soft-serve cone wrapped in an indulgent edible sheet of gold.

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The city houses three Hakuichi gift shops, and I encountered a branch just downhill from Kanazawa Castle that hosts a soft serve ice cream window with wood slats. Hakuichi specializes in creamy soft serve ice cream garnished with luxurious gold leaf and pink sugar flower in a Laurel Too flower shaped cake cone at a fraction of the cost of gilded cones right in the tourist zone. Stumbling upon this window during a cherry blossom viewing session saved us from walking to the Hagashiyama location and provided a sweet treat on a blustery day.

Known for its high-quality gold leaf, Hakuichi is one of the go-to stores for all things gilded in Kanazawa. Further to selling facemasks, pottery and gold-covered ice cream, Hakuichi also runs gold-leaf workshops at two of its locations: 1) the visitor center Hakukokan and 2) the Asano store in the Higashi Chaya District (close to the corner ice-cream store). While the former has a more extensive class list, the latter is much more accessible and is focused on traditional crafts.

Aside from a legend where a farmer around the area found gold while digging for potatoes, Kanazawa has a deep history in the art of gold leaf crafting. I will not “ gold” into too many details (another article has already touched on that), but in Kanazawa, one must try eating gold, and what better way than to try it on some good ol’ soft-serve ice cream?

Hakuichi's Higashiyama branch has become quite famous due to their TV appearances and other media featuring their gold leaf ice cream. The ice cream is representative of the confectionary scene in Kanazawa, so much so that celebrities often pop by. They also sell other products including cosmetics and alcoholic drinks.

For the uninformed, Kanazawa also happens to be the country’s capital of gold leaves. So don’t be too surprised when you find out that soft serve with gold is a thing here. With a sheet of 24k gold foil wrapped around the ice cream, this sweet and cold treat is pretty darn eye-catching and IG-worthy!

This part of Kanazawa has a stunning, step-back-in-time Edo Period atmosphere, with historic wooden buildings featuring everything from traditional teahouses to museums and sweets stores – one of the best known is Hakuichi, which is famous for selling gold leaf-topped soft serve ice creams.

For more gold leaf than you can shake a stick at, check out Hakuichi. This shop only sells gold leaf items, including gold skincare, edible gold leaf for food, and even gold golf balls. Most people come here to gawk and eat the gold leaf ice cream.