When Suzanne Ross, an English-born artisan based on Japan’s Noto Peninsula, began her 40-year career making traditional Japanese lacquerware, she was told repeatedly that only men could make Wajima-nuri. To create Wajima-nuri, one of the oldest forms of lacquerware in Japan, one must painstakingly apply urushi (lacquer made from tree sap) to the object—say, a bowl or dish—let it dry, then repeat the process dozens of times. This technique, born in the city of Wajima, builds the resilience of the wood and the durability of the finished products. It also depends on the persistence and perseverance of its practitioners, such as Ross. Decades into fine-tuning her craft and growing her business, she never faltered—until a year ago, when the ground in her Wajima studio opened up beneath her feet.

On January 1, 2024, the Noto Peninsula in Japan’s Ishikawa Prefecture was hit by a magnitude 7.6 earthquake. More than 400 died and thousands of buildings were destroyed, including the studios and homes of many Wajima-nuri artisans, thus jeopardizing the future of the centuries-old craft. Ross is one of thousands of residents from Noto who have since relocated to Kanazawa, Ishikawa’s capital. Kanazawa’s appeal among those impacted by the Noto earthquake is not only its proximity to the peninsula, but also its support for evacuees and craftspeople. The city is offering displaced artisans—Wajima-nuri artists, silk painters, kimono makers, and more—who have been forced to relocate to Kanazawa subsidies of up to ¥500,000 (about $3,300) to set up new studios, no repayment necessary. Ross says that her immediate instinct after the earthquake was to leave Japan, but she ultimately concluded, in part thanks to the city-offered subsidy, that she would remain and rebuild her business in Kanazawa.

On top of the ¥500,000 subsidy, the city has also waived fees and sales commissions for Noto artisans exhibiting in Ginza no Kanazawa, an art gallery in Tokyo, and listed the names of artisans for free in the city’s online craft catalog (artists usually pay a fee for inclusion). The Kanazawa city government has also compiled sample itineraries that include local tourism experiences, from tea ceremonies to silk-dyeing workshops, and it donates a portion of the revenue from bookings to Noto’s recovery. The city has also been organizing trade events, including the Support Noto craft fair held in Kanazawa Station in November 2024, where Noto artisans working in Wajima-nuri, Suzu-yaki pottery, and textiles came together to sell their products.

At the helm of the craft fair was Koichi Ofuji, an energetic Wajima-nuri artist who was the first to receive the city’s relief subsidy. The money allowed Ofuji to open the Urushi no Sato Ofuji gallery in the northern part of Kanazawa, which also functions as an operational base for reconstruction efforts on the Noto Peninsula. He convinced other displaced artisans to join him, saying, “We will make a big business in Kanazawa. Just see.” The gallery exhibits products that survived the earthquake, in addition to housing craftspeople who lost their homes and workshops, so that they can continue making and selling. This sense of dignity is important to Ofuji: Department stores around Japan offered to buy his old wares, but he refused, saying that he wants to receive orders for new pieces, rather than pity.

Kanazawa’s support of Noto’s craft heritage is guided by a long history of cultivating of the arts in times of upheaval. It goes back all the way to the 16th century, when the region’s samurai lords transformed a weapons factory into a craft workshop to appease the ruling shogunate and maintain a hard-won peace. In November 2023, a report by the Nikkei, a Japanese news organization, determined that, among major Japanese cities, Kanazawa spends the most per capita on arts and culture projects (¥3,034.50, or roughly $20, per resident: 1.6 times more than Toyonaka, in Osaka Prefecture, the second-ranking city).