A pre-trip note for Kanazawa, Toyama, and Komatsu covering the Kamakura period: the Hokuriku front of the Jōkyū War of 1221 and the Nagoe shugo line, the layers of tradition behind the Ataka barrier and Kanjinchō, Kamakura-period artifacts of Tateyama worship, and Shinran's Jōdo Shinshū in later Hokuriku history.