Naoshima is an island located in the Seto Naikai (Inland Sea) of Japan. It is renowned for its collection of contemporary art galleries and exhibits.

 

Naoshima is best known for the Benesse House complex. There has been extensive domestic attention to the Chichu Art Museum completed in 2006. The island itself has been settled as long as there have been Japanese. The original settlement is the now the small fishing port of Tsumuura. The most prominent settlement on the island is Honmura which was established as a coastal castle town in the 16th century. A number of houses in this town have been radically transformed for the Art House Project.

 

Though the island is much closer to Honshu, administratively it belongs to Kagawa Prefecture in Shikoku. It has 3,307 inhabitants.

 

Naoshima's main attractions:

 

Chichu Art Museum: Designed by the architect Tadao Ando it integrates art and architecture. You can find the work of Claude Monet, Walter de Maria and James Turrell here.

 

Benesse House: The original contemporary art museum and remains one of the best. A superb fusion of nature, art and architecture that display the works of Andy Warhol, Richard Long, Bruce Nauman and others. The Museum building (now one of 4 buildings in the complex) was designed by world famous Japanese architect Tadao Ando.

 

Lee Ufan Museum:  The third art museum in Naoshima, which opened on 15th June, 2010. It's also designed by Tadao Ando. Displays the works of Lee Ufan only.

 

Art House Projects: Old village houses converted into art spaces showcasing Japanese and international artists.  Included are:

• Minamidera “Backside of the Moon” by James Turrell and house with lavatory by Tadao Ando

• Kadoya “Sea of Time '98”,"Naoshima’s Counter Window" ,"Changing Landscape" by Tatsuo Miyajima

• Go'oh Jinja (Shrine) “Appropriate Proportion” by Hiroshi Sugimoto.

• Ishibashi "The Falls" by Hiroshi Senju

• Haisha "ZETSUJOMU" (Dream tasting on the tongue), "BOKKON peeper hole" by Shinro Ohtake

• Gokaisho “Camellia” by Etsuhiro Suda

"I Love Yu" Bathhouse: A Japanese traditional public bath that is a fully functional art installation. Designed by Shinro Ohtake. Naming the bath "I Love Yu" is a pun, word playing on "you" and "yu" which means hot water in Japanese.

 

007 Museum: This attraction is a curiously small showroom erected as a museum to feature Raymond Benson's recent Bond novel "The Man with the Red Tattoo". An important part of the story takes place in Benesse House during a G8 summit. The museum aims to present Naoshima as a Bond location on a national scale, introduce visitors to the story of "The Man with the Red Tattoo" with a short animated documentary, art work imagined from the novel and exhibits material and memorabilia related to the Bond novels and films. Although it's named as a "museum," it is not as large as Benesse House nor Chichu Art Museum.

 

Text courtesy of Wikitravel