Chris spent a full day on Naoshima 直島 to see its contemporary art installations and museums. This is the first of a series of posts on this trip.
Naoshima
Naoshima is a small island in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea 瀬戸内海. The Seto Inland Sea lies between three of the four main islands of Japan (Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu), extending roughly 450 km east to west and anywhere from 15 km to 55 km south to north. In 1934, the section of the Seto Inland Sea bordered by Kagawa, Okayama and Hiroshima prefectures became Japan’s first national park.
David Sylvian was commissioned to make a piece of environmental soundscape for the Naoshima Fukutake Art Museum Foundation on the island of Naoshima, as part of the “naoshima standard 2” exhibition which ran from October 2006 to April 2007.
The weather on this day in late March was fine but it was still chilly. We departed from Takamatsu 高松 on the Shikoku side. The ferry which also carried cars took less than 1 hour to reach the island.
Miyanoura 宮浦
The first piece of art visible from the ferry is the Akakabocha – a hollow half red pumpkin (赤かぼちゃ, 2006) by Yayoi Kusama 草間 彌生, installed on grass on one of the piers of Miyanoura 宮浦 port. Some of the black spots are actually holes and one can climb inside this sculpture.
The renowned Japanese architectural firm SANAA (Sejima and Nishizawa and Associates; Kazuyo Sejima 妹島 和世 and Ryue Nishizawa 西沢 立衛) designed two infrastructure projects on Naoshima. The first is the Marine Station (Umi no Eki, 海の駅) at Miyanoura port where we landed and boarded the Naoshima town bus. This humble innocuous structure is lightweight and modern. A slender roof of metal sheet covers the esplanade of the ferry loading dock, forming a flat, single-story volume that accommodates the ticket office, a cafe and a waiting area. The minimalist roof is visible as a long straight horizontal edge in our photo at the top of the page.
A bit of local geography …
Honmura 本村
The Naoshima town bus runs from Miyanoura Port to Honmura 本村 situated on the other side of the island, and then to Tsutsuji-so つつじ荘 where passengers can transfer to the Benesse shuttle bus. This free shuttle bus service is for exploring the Benesse Art Site which is a private property.
The second Sanaa project is an organic-looking ferry terminal located at Honmura port. It cannot look anymore different from their other terminal at Miyanoura port. This small terminal provides a comfortable waiting area, bicycle parking, and restrooms. The design has an eight-meter-tall, three-dimensional form reminiscent of cumulo-nimbus cloud. It is constructed by the use of stacked, four-meter-diameter, fiber-reinforced plastic spheres, resting atop a wooden frame. Illuminated from within, the semi-transparent structure allows it to function as a beacon at night. Many things came to mind when I(Chris) first saw it: scoops of matcha ice cream, a clutch of insect eggs, bubbles from a muddy hot spring …
Another pumpkin by Yayoi Kusama, a yellow one (1994), was situated on an old pier near the bus interchange at Tsutsuji-so. Having the Inland Sea as a back drop, the sculpture was designed with this location in mind. In August 2021, strong winds from a typhoon blew the original pumpkin out to sea and broke it into three pieces. The current exhibit is a heavier, reinforced replacement which was installed in October 2022.
Naoshima covers an area of 8 square kilometers and has a population of about 3,000. Emperor Sutoku (崇徳天皇, 1119-1164) gave the island its name when he was exiled to this area in 1156. The art installations and museums are all located on the southern half of the island with sandy beaches and pine groves, while the northern side has been occupied by a metal smelter and refinery since the early 1900’s. Mitsubishi Materials 三菱マテリアル, the current owner has expanded the facility in 2016 to process E-scrap, such as disused circuit boards from computers, phones and home appliances. We find it hard to imagine a heavy industry is located just on the other side of the island.
Historically, situated on a strategic trade route, the island developed a powerful navy under the ruling clan in the 15th century. Subsequently, many islanders engaged in the lucrative marine cargo trade. The Seto Ohashi Bridge 瀬戸大橋, a bridge for vehicular and rail traffic opened in 1988, connects Shikoku to Honshu.
The Naoshima Pavillion in Miyanoura at night – designed >> in 2017 by Sou Fujimoto Architects.
In recent decades, the islands have experienced a decline in population vitality due to a diminishing and aging resident base. In response to this challenge, a novel initiative was launched in 1992.
This initiative sought to revitalize the island communities by introducing contemporary art into the magnificent setting of the Inland Sea.
The Benesse Corporation, an Okayama-based leader in education and publishing, spearheaded this effort. It created the Benesse Art Site and stated, “With this vision in mind, the world’s first symbiosis between islands and art began on Naoshima.”
We will be posting photos of our visits to the Ando Museum in Honomura, and at the Benesse Art Site – the Hiroshi Sugimoto Gallery, Benesse House Museum, Valley Gallery and Chichu Art Museum. Stay tuned.