A visit to Japan’s art and architecture island

Many different trains, buses, and ferries are necessary to arrive at the tiny remote island of Naoshima. A silent place where time seemed to stop and life transpired between impressive pagodas and shrines. To move around Naoshima is to walk in utter calm, guided by the slow rhythm of a quiet villa. Hundred-year-old neighborhoods welcomed the concrete-built ultra-modern art museums, right next to a modest sashimi family restaurant.

Located in Japan’s Seto Inland Sea, the Benesse Art Site Naoshima comprises eight museums, galleries, and installations. It is the dream of visionary businessman Soichiro Fukutake who started the project back in the 1980s. and commissioned most of the buildings to no other than the master of “spatial haiku” Tadao Ando.

 

Naoshima. Left: Signs detailing the Benesse House Area comprising the majority of Ando’s work. Right: The Gokurakuji Buddhist Temple from the early Heian period (around 850). Typical architecture of the island features a variety of Shinto shrines and buildings characteristic of the Edo period 

 

After many years of idyllic romance with the profession, Japan has catalyzed my profound love for form and space. Stepping inside Tadao Ando’s concrete buildings, the ominous pictures I have seen so many times as an architecture student back in Colombia (in delectable Taschen books) are now materialized, alive in a kind of sensual dialog behind the rigorous forms.

favorite sightings and experiences:

Naoshima map location. The south of the island comprises the majority of museums and art installations.

 

Chichu Museum and Claude Monet’s water lilies

If I can only choose one experience out of Naoshima’s vast array of art offerings, it would be Monet’s painting at the Chichu Museum. Unfortunately for this article, but most fortunately for the experience, photography is not allowed in this space. My brief recount of the experience is below. Spoiler alert, don’t read if you plan to visit.

Perfectly groomed young ladies in white uniforms welcome you as if an episode of black mirror is about to unfold. You must remove your shoes and slip into extra cushioned and soft slippers provided by the museum to sense the slightly curved ultra-white mosaic tiles under your feet.

The space narrows in darkness as you walk in perfect silence, pointing towards the white omnidirectional light. The clever use of the lighting to erase any corners or borders allows for an infinite expansion of white space experienced as you still walk on some sort of fluffy clouds. The preamble is exhilarating and, for an architect, quite emotional. Monet’s white lilies become the ultra climatic cherry on top right at the end of the tunnel.

Precincts preceding the museum’s four main chambers.


Interior spaces at Chichu museum 

The green “unmanicured “natural areas interact with solid concrete shapes 

 

Lee Ufan Museum

The syncretism of Naoshima is evident in the sheer contrast between an ancient villa and the voluminous concrete structures that landed on the island like visitors from outer space, evoking some sort of “Kubrick-esque” feeling a la “2001 space odyssey.” The Lee Ufan Museum, with its monolithic structures and wide-open emptiness, brings the out-of-this planet-feeling by playing with the scale and the semi-underground forms that seem to acquiesce and merge with the environment

Left: Detail of  Ando’s signature concrete holes, the result of bolts that hold the form molds together. A sensual concrete surface perfectly finished  ( photo courtesy of atteza jewelry) Right: entrances embracing the concept behind Japanese Kamis in Shinto 

 

Contemplation spaces are very common along the entire island and included in multiple outdoor art installations 

Benesse House Museum

The Benesse House Museum, another masterpiece designed by Tadao Ando opened its doors in 1992. The concept was to integrate a museum with a hotel based on the concept of “coexistence of nature, art, and architecture.” The project overlooks the Seto Inland Sea from the high ground structure featuring large apertures that serve to open up the interior to the magnificent surroundings. Just like in Shinto, Tadao comprises the cultural ethos of the Japanese soul through spotless architectural execution. The multiple spaces at the Benesse House museum mark the intangible transition from the mundane to the sacred.

As with any Ando building, the space is treated cinematographically, impeccably structured, whispering stories of past times and forgotten emotions in such a sensual way it becomes almost irresistible.

Benesse House Museum. restaurant view and detail of the stairs

View of the horizon framed by the structure 

Left: Interior Patios featuring minimal cushions and a wide-open view of the sky Right: concrete corridors

Yayoi Kusama’s pumpkin

I saw the Yayoi Kusama’s pumpkin for the first time at the Modena Musset in Stockholm, Sweden. Then we crossed paths again in London while visiting the frieze art fair. Finally, Naoshima brings us together. The birthplace of the dot-obsessed pumpkin sits like a solitary, silent scream along with hundred-year-old pagodas, remote beaches, shrines, and temples.

Sadly, on August 9 2021 the artwork was swept away by a typhoon. According to the Asahi Shimbun, the artwork – perched on the edge of an old pier since 1994 – has since been rescued, albeit damaged by the waves. It has been taken away for restoration work.

Yayoi Kusama’s pumpkin

This little Japanese Island had curated the most exquisite art performances, framed inside ominous Ando buildings. Be prepared to walk around the spaces in wonder and get tear-eyed at the sheer beauty of this evocative architecture. No pictures are allowed. Only a fraction of the experience transpires in these pixels full of profound contentment.

Naoshima

Text by Fania Castro
Photography Fania Castro
GreenLab design teamArchitect / Designer / World Traveler