A pre-trip note for Kanazawa, Toyama, and Komatsu covering the late Edo and bakumatsu years: Kenroku-en and Seisonkaku, Zeniya Gohei and Ōno Benkichi, Ishiguro Nobuyoshi and the Toyama medicine trade, revived Kutani and the Haneda insect mound, the Hietsu earthquake of 1858, foreign ships and an Englishman's overland journey through Kanazawa in 1867, and the Kinmon Incident, the Tengu party, the assassination of a Toyama senior retainer, the Utatsuyama development, and the Hokuetsu campaign of 1868.