On Japan’s art islands: A stay on Naoshima

Japan’s celebrated ‘art islands’ of the Seto Inland Sea are routinely spoken about as one of the most exciting destinations for site-specific contemporary art and architecture in the world, the result of a long and fruitful collaboration by media mogul Soichiro Fukutake and his beloved Japanese ‘starchitect’ Tadao Ando.

In this Q&A, Dr Kathleen Olive explains what makes a visit to the art islands so invigorating, and how to immerse yourself even deeper in the experience with a special stay on one of the islands. Kathleen has visited the art islands a number of times, both with groups and privately, so we asked her what has drawn her back repeatedly, and how she organises her time there.

Nonagenarian Yayoi Kusama’s pumpkin is an icon of Naoshima, swept away by a typhoon but later replaced

What’s so special about Naoshima and the other ‘art islands’? Contemporary art lovers talk about them in awe!

The development of Naoshima, Teshima and a number of other small islands in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea into an international art destination is essentially the work of one visionary. But they’re also the culmination of his dual projects: to heal a beautiful landscape degraded by industrial activity, and to restore the body and soul of visitors through a perfect combination of contemporary art and architecture.

Art lovers aspire to visit the islands because they’re one of the best places to see cutting-edge, site-specific art and architecture anywhere in the world – but to my mind they’re also a great place to understand the fascinating ways in which contemporary private art patronage can work. And when you have the amazing experience of staying inside the museum complex, you also get to see exquisite traditional Japanese hospitality, or omotenashi, play out in a cutting-edge, of-the-moment context. I’m always drawn to instances of Japan’s past and present fusing in a respectful but innovative way; as a nation, this is something they do well, and the art islands are a prime example.

So how did the project of the art islands come about?

In 1986, Soichiro Fukutake succeeded his father as the head of the Fukutake Publishing Co. Founded in the post-war period, the company moved from publishing educational books to a portfolio that included the popular mega-chain of Berlitz Language Schools and even a substantial number of nursing homes. This diversification reflects Fukutake’s company mission, that of fostering well-being. He even changed the company’s name to Benesse, a combination of the Latin bene (well) and esse (being), to reflect his aspirations.

Soichiro-san’s interest in the islands of Japan’s Seto Inland Sea pre-dated his accession to CEO of Benesse, however: he’d first met the local mayor to discuss ways in which the company could help with the rehabilitation of the islands in 1985. Once home to small fishing communities, Naoshima, Teshima, Inujima and a number of other islands had been badly polluted by heavy industry. Environmental decline and a lack of work also led to depopulation, with the Naoshima ports of Honmura and Miyanoura increasingly becoming ghost towns. From yurts used for temporary camps, the complex grew to include a museum/hotel, which opened in 1992. Benesse House was born. Projects on Teshima and Inujima soon followed, as well as another to revive a depopulated fishing village on Naoshima too. The Benesse Art Site has been hugely successful in attracting visitors to the Seto Inland Sea, from 36,000 in the year of 1992 to over 720,000 in 2016.

Okayama, with its reconstructed castle and Korakuen, one of Japan’s top-ranked gardens, is a good jumping-off point for independent explorations on the art islands

How easy is it to get there?

I’ve been to the art islands independently a number of times – in fact, I’m going back with a friend this November! – and they are reasonably well set up for this. If you’re looking for an overnight stay, which I do recommend, then Naoshima has the best infrastructure by far.

Take a bullet train to Okayama – itself a castle town with some excellent museums and one of Japan’s top-rated gardens – and you’ll find a designated local bus that heads due south to Uno Port. There, you embark on a ferry to Miyanoura, Naoshima’s main port. And once you dock, shuttle buses are waiting to take you around the Benesse Art Site and to the Art House Project in Honmura. The sites are too spread out to walk between them all, but you can hire bicycles near the ferry terminal. Learn from my experience, however: the bikes are fixies and there are some unexpected hills!

While getting there sounds complicated, this is Japan so the arrangements all coordinate smoothly. Do keep in mind that visiting the islands is a seasonal experience: aim for a visit in spring or mid to late autumn, to avoid typhoons. And yes, visiting in winter can be lovely – fewer visitors, for a start! – but you’ll have to concentrate on Naoshima only, as the sites on the other islands close over the season.

What do you see when you get there?

Naoshima, Teshima and Inujima are the main destinations. Teshima has a major work of delicate beauty, a cocoon-like cement building designed by ‘starchitect’ Ryue Nishizawa in the middle of terraced rice fields. Inside, artist Rei Naito has devised a simple but astonishing artwork, where delicate threads are moved by the breeze and water droplets well up in the concrete floor, gather together, pool, are drawn apart again – all as if by magic. Plan your visit here carefully as ferry services are fixed and the island is not open out of the season.

Inujima, where new works continue to be added, offers a fascinating contemporary perspective on environmentalism, sustainability and rehabilitation of architectural spaces in particular. Perhaps you’re already picking up on how many of the Benesse projects combine delicate, fragile or ephemeral natural elements with the cold rationalism of heavy concrete buildings. This thoughtful tension is beautifully explored on these two islands.

Rei Naito’s moving work “Matrix”, on Teshima

Naoshima is different, although it continues to explore the same themes. It’s the main island of the group and it is where Fukutake initially concentrated Benesse’s energies, so as a result there are already more than ten museums, galleries and site-specific installations – or “art sites”, as Benesse prefers to call them – spread over the two ports of Miyanoura and Honmura, and the Benesse Art Site.

Much of the initial work on Naoshima was done together by Fukutake and his preferred collaborator and architect Tadao Ando. Flying over the island together, they chose the locations for the Benesse Art Site and worked out how to situate its buildings without disturbing the soon-to-be-rehabilitated landscape or sea views. They also worked together to ensure that the artworks inside the buildings would be seen to their best advantage, that the complex would offer visitors and lodgers the best of Japanese hospitality, and that the whole thing could run as ‘lightly’ as possible.

So in the Chichu Art Museum (2004), for example, a collection of large water lilies by Claude Monet float on the concrete walls of Tadao Ando’s underground bunker. (“Chichu” means “underground” in Japanese.) The space has been designed to be lit only by natural light, so the season and time of your visit influence how you experience the artworks. Continuing with the question of light, Fukutake commissioned an installation by light artist James Turrell for Chichu, and the museum also houses one of my favourite works on all Naoshima, Walter De Maria’s geometrically pure and moving meditation, Time/Timeless/No Time (2004).

Benesse House Museum is a small but very efficient multipurpose complex, housing a hotel, a gallery, a restaurant and an information centre. It’s the fulcrum of the Benesse Art Site, although I personally find Tadao Ando’s building design more engaging here than the artworks. If you stay at one of the Benesse accommodation options – Benesse House or Benesse Park – you can access the Benesse House Museum after hours on your own, which I think offers the best experience.

At the Lee Ufan Museum, you can appreciate how mid-century Korean minimalism is underpinned by a careful knowledge of classical Asian artforms such as calligraphy, and a new installation in the Art Site focuses on multi-talented Japanese artist Hiroshi Sugimoto. And don’t forget Yayoi Kusama’s spotted pumpkin, perched photogenically on the end of a wharf near Benesse Park, swept away by storms a few years ago but replaced with a replica in the time-honoured Japanese fashion.

Detail of Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Go’o Shrine (2002), a restoration of an abandoned Shinto shrine on Naoshima: the glass steps connect an underground chamber to the shrine perched on top of the rocks at right (image: Paul Keller, Flickr, CC BY 2.0)

Perhaps my favourite art site on Naoshima is the Art House Project. Here, in 1998, traditional houses that had been abandoned by the departing local fishermen were restored one by one as art sites, each transformed by a different artist. Many of these works were site specific, such as Kadoya, the first house to be transformed. The 200-year-old structure contains the installation Sea of Time ’98, in which 125 LED counters cycle from 1 to 9 at a pace determined by the then-remaining local residents. The southern temple area or Minamidera, once the location of a castle, a shrine and five temples, now hosts an Ando-designed building with another Turrell light installation. Gokaisho was an abandoned community hall where Honmura’s residents came to play the board game Go; today, its traditional structures have been restored, and Yoshihiro Suda’s Tree of Spring sees delicate camellia flowers carved from wood placed carefully on the tatami of one of the old halls. The simple raked gravel garden contains – you guessed it – one perfect living camellia bush.

I wish I could show you more images of these beautiful installations, but photography is prohibited across much of the Benesse Art Site. This is initially quite frustrating, as our instinct is so often to capture the beautiful moment. But in the end, you realise that the visitors to the museums and installations around you are really looking at what they see, and this can lead to some great conversations with your fellow travellers.

How long does it take to visit the sites?

While you can see much of Naoshima in a one-day visit from Okayama, it would be long and a little hurried, so it wouldn’t be my first choice. If you also want to see Teshima or Inujima, the two other main islands in the group of art sites, you’ll definitely need to allow at least 48 hours. So it’s much better to make return visits over a few days – by boat from a base in nearby Takamatsu, for example – or to stay on Naoshima.

Keep in mind too that this destination is not a ‘hidden gem’: it’s popular with Japanese and international visitors alike, and numbers in the museums are carefully monitored to ensure a good experience for all. In practice, this means some turn-taking can be required, making the visits last a little longer than you anticipate.

The deck outside the breakfast room of the Benesse Park Hotel, also a highly-regarded French restaurant by night

So how do you stay on the island?

The main accommodation provided on Naoshima is offered by Benesse. Benesse House, the more expensive option, is located entirely inside the main museum, but there is also Benesse Park, a newer hotel which is … somewhat less expensive! Both hotels are in a modern Western style and were designed by Tadao Ando. It’s hard to describe the impact of staying within the very project of Fukutake and Ando itself, but it certainly does heighten your appreciation of their collaboration. And letting yourself into Benesse House after hours to stroll around and look at the museum’s magnificent artworks on your own, or having Kusama-san’s pumpkin to yourself before the mainland visitors arrive, well – these are special experiences!

Organising to stay at Benesse is complicated in a typical Japanese fashion: neither hotel is particularly large, and bookings open precisely 180 days before your check-in date, so you have to be poised with your fingers on the mouse to reserve your room before someone else does. If you’re late making your online booking by one day, good luck! You should book your dinners in Benesse House’s Japanese restaurant Issen, or the French restaurant Terrace in Benesse Park; again, they’re not inexpensive but Issen offers a modern take on traditional kaiseki, or course-style dining, so they will be memorable experiences. There are kombini or convenient stores in Honmura, so plan ahead if you’re thinking of a “hotel picnic” later.

Naoshima offers only a few alternatives for independent accommodation, much of it traditional in style. While guest houses or ryokan will be more economical than the Benesse complex, be sure to check sleeping and bathing arrangements – beds or futons? private bath? – to make sure they offer what you need. A final option would be to stay in a modern hotel in Takamatsu and make the journey over to the art islands by boat. It’s far less romantic, but Takamatsu does have some worthy museums, including the garden of Isamu Noguchi.

By the way, guests in the Benesse hotels have priority boarding on the shuttles that carry visitors between art sites. And did I mention that every hotel room, whether it’s in Benesse House or Benesse Park, has its own private artwork?! On my last stay, I was rewarded with an Antony Gormley, and before that I grew very attached to “my” Sol LeWitt.

Visitors to Hiroshi Sambuichi’s project The Naoshima Plan “The Water” (2011) can immerse their feet in the water surrounding a renovated house in Honmura. The idea is to fuse wind and water - crucial elements in a port town - within the same architectural structure

You’ve been to the ‘art islands’ a number of times. Are they still developing and changing?

The Setouchi Triennale, a contemporary art festival held every three years, ensures that Naoshima, Inujima, Teshima and the other islands in the group are continually rejuvenated by new site-specific installations and artworks. The festival is held over the spring, summer and early autumn and the next one is in 2025.

While Fukutake, Benesse and the islands’ presiding genius, removed himself to New Zealand some years ago so that he could live in an environment less spoiled by human intervention, he hasn’t lost his interest in this project. Since I was last on the islands, three new sites have opened, with really interesting work taking place on the island of Inujima. It focuses on how to rehabilitate a former copper refinery and turn it into a low-impact and architecturally cutting-edge space for displaying art and installations, a fitting continuation of Fukutake’s interest in restoring the mind and body connections through contemporary art and architecture.

So there’ll always be a reason to return, if only to immerse oneself - day and night - in the art islands’ extraordinary and restorative melding of natural beauty and human ingenuity.

We are delighted to have secured accommodation in Benesse Park Hotel for our group visiting Naoshima and the art islands in May 2024. Led by Dr Nick Gordon, this new 17-day tour focuses on the connections between traditional and contemporary arts, crafts and architecture in South Korea and Japan.
The 10-day Japan portion of this tour can be undertaken independently of the itinerary to South Korea. Also led by Dr Nick Gordon, it surveys cutting-edge galleries and architectural precincts in Fukuoka and Tokyo, and includes two special nights staying within the Benesse Art Site precinct on Naoshima.