Naoshima: why you shouldn’t miss Japan’s gorgeous art island

Getting to Japan’s art island Naoshima takes a bit of effort but it’s 100% worth it and shouldn’t be missed on any trip to the south of Japan. The combination of beautiful scenery and fabulous art will leave you feeling nourished body and soul.

Naoshima is one of the Seto Inland Sea islands and despite being hugely scenic and a national park, the islands were neglected for years. That was until the cultural foundation of publishing company Benesse decided to start revitalising the island communities by creating art and architectural projects. Naoshima has been the main focus of this to date but other islands are also being developed into art sites.

Across Naoshima there are currently six galleries designed by Tadao Ando plus installations and a multitude of outdoor sculptures. That includes several by Yayoi Kusama, one of Japan’s best-known contemporary artists (and I’d guess oldest at 95).  One of the first pieces of art you see on arrival at Miyanoura ferry port is Yayoi Kusama’s huge Red Pumpkin.

Honmura Art House Project

On our first day we arrived in Miyanoura at lunchtime so after a bite to eat at Sparky’s (a great coffee shop for breakfast and lunch) we walked over to the island’s smaller port Honmura, to visit the Art House Project sites. Naoshima is so small it’s very easy to walk everywhere, but there are also plenty of bikes for hire if you’re short on time. The multi-site ticket for the project is sold at the Honmura Lounge and Archive which has a lovely shop with lots of tempting items for sale. You’ll be allocated a time slot for Minamidera, a collaboration between Tadao Ando and James Turrell. Ando designed the large wooden building and Turrell created what’s inside. I won’t spoil it but be prepared for complete darkness…

The Art House Project involves the restoration of empty houses and the six sites are scattered around Honmura. We rather liked ‘Sea of Time 98’ at Kadoya which displays 125 digital LED counters. The pace of each counter was set by a Naoshima Island resident. We were also impressed with Haisha which was once a dentist’s home and office but has been transformed into a striking sculptural work of art.

Honmura is a nice small town to meander around and there’s a cute little ice cream shop Naoshima Gelato where you can sit on a bench and admire the sea view. This is right by Honmura port where there’s a huge sculpture of fiberglass balls. On closer inspection, we found it was a bike park. Everything is a piece of art in Naoshima!

Chichu Art Museum

Chichu Art Museum was a definite highlight of our stay on Naoshima and you need to book a slot in advance to be sure you’ll get in. There’s also no flexibility on your entry time so don’t be early or late! It’s about a 30-minute walk around the coast from Miyanoura so the views on route are fab and of course, there’s art to admire. Then you go slightly inland to reach the gallery which is on a hilltop. That’s because the gallery is mostly underground and lit by natural light. Which means the artwork and space change through the day and seasons.

I’ve certainly never been anywhere quite like it and if the building itself isn’t enough, what’s displayed inside is equally impressive. In one room there are five of Claude Monet’s Water Lily series. Originally produced for the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris and not what I expected to see on a tiny Japanese island. Another space has a beautiful installation by Walter De Maria and the third has three ‘playing with light’ pieces by James Turrell. The museum also has a great cafe with a terrace offering gorgeous views of the Inland Sea. We were so taken with the whole place that we paused to celebrate the day with a late-morning glass of fizz.

Lee Ufan Museum & Valley Gallery

Our next main stop was the Benesse House Museum but on route we stopped off at the Lee Ufan Museum which has some impressive stone and iron outdoor pieces including a huge arch. Then you come to Valley Gallery where Narcissus Garden is installed both inside and outside. This spectacular Yayoi Kusama installation consists of dozens of mirror balls, most of which are slowly shifting across a pond. Also at the gallery is Slag Buddha 88 by Tsuyoshi Ozawa which features 88 Buddha statues created using slag from industrial waste.

Valley Gallery, NaoshimaBenesse House Museum

Benesse House Museum is a complex with both a hotel and a museum overlooking the Inland Sea. It’s on a hilltop and has an excellent range of artworks from artists including Hiroshi Sugimoto, David Hockney, Andy Warhol, Frank Stella and Bruce Nauman. The latter’s ‘100 Live and Die’ displays sentences combining words which express human behaviours and emotions through neon tubes. The museum also has a nice cafe on the 2nd floor which is a good (and not too expensive) lunch spot. The Benesse restaurants are generally quite pricey.

Around the museum are 17 outdoor sculptures from a variety of different artists which makes for some interesting contrasts. For example, Niki de Saint’s colourful animals are very different to Kazuo Katase’s ‘Drink a Cup of Tea’. And of course, there is the crowning glory and de facto symbol of Naoshima, Yayoi Kusama’s iconic Yellow Pumpkin. It’s the last piece on the east side of the museum and fortunately, there is a handy bus stop to save the walk back to Miyanoura.

Staying in Miyanoura

Some people just visit Naoshima for the day but I think that’s a missed opportunity to really absorb and enjoy it at a leisurely pace. We stayed for two nights which was perfect. As mentioned, Benesse House offers a range of upmarket and expensive accommodation options. They looked lovely but aside from the cost, once there you’re pretty much captive and we like to explore local towns and eateries. So we chose to stay in Miyanoura town at Quaint House. It’s only a few minutes walk from the port and close to a good size 7-11 shop (I think there are only two supermarkets on the island, though we did spot a great mobile shop on a walk).

It’s also a stone’s throw from the I Love Yu Naoshima public bathhouse which is of course a work of art. And other brightly coloured buildings which look amazing. And there are plenty of nearby restaurants and cafes. I already mentioned Sparky’s where we had breakfast and lunch and our favourite place for dinner was New Olympia. It’s a family-run restaurant with great food including super fresh sushi and friendly service. We also loved Bar Queens-Q. We really didn’t expect to get classic cocktails on Naoshima, but the great bartender can and will make whatever you want.

Getting to Naoshima

I’ll just finish off with a bit of information about how to get to Naoshima. As I mentioned at the start it’s not without effort and while it does depend on where you’re coming from you’ll likely start by travelling part of the bullet train route that runs between Osaka and Hiroshima. We were in Himeji the day before, so it was a bullet train from there to Okayama, then a train to Chayamachi to catch another train to Uno port, where you get the cash-only ferry to Miyanoura. If you arrive before your accommodation check-in time there are handy coin-operated luggage lockers at the port. It sounds like a lot of travelling but public transport in Japan is so good that it’s all pretty easy if you plan your journeys in advance. We never missed a connection in two weeks.

There’s more information on planning a trip to Japan in this post and details of where else I went in my highlights post. I loved everywhere I went on this trip but if there was one place I absolutely wouldn’t have wanted to miss it’s beautiful Naoshima Island.

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