NAOSHIMA 19 May

Naoshima is an island about 50 minutes' drive from Kurashiki.  Today it is a centre for contemporary architecture and art, due to an enthusiastic mayor who wanted to create employment and an industrialist, Fukutake who combined with Benesse, a corporation involved with educational courses and materials.  They commissioned Ando, a self-taught architect who shared their ideals.  He designed four hotels and museums.
  Quote from Benesse website: 

"Benesse Art Site Naoshima" is the collective name for all art-related activities conducted by Benesse Holdings, Inc. and Fukutake Foundation on the islands of Naoshima and Teshima in Kagawa Prefecture and on Inujima island in Okayama Prefecture.
Our fundamental aim is to create signicant spaces by bringing contemporary art and architecture in resonance with the pristine nature of the Seto Inland Sea, a landscape with a rich cultural and historical fabric.
Through contacts with art and nature, sceneries and inhabitants of the Seto Inland Sea region, we seek to inspire visitors to re flect on the meaning of Benesse's motto - Well-Being. In all our ongoing activities, we are committed to foster a relationship of mutual growth between art and the region, aiming to make a positive contribution to the local communities. 

 

Uno port area

Artists were attracted to the area, installing sculptures at the nearby port, Uno, and on Naoshima.

Yayoi Kusama also designed the more famous, smaller Yellow Pumpkin on Naoshima

 The sculptures below are near the hotel Benesse House.

 

Our cheerful guide, Nobuko

Chichu museum is built into a hillside. No photos allowed inside, plain concrete walls, some built at an angle.  Ando aimed to use light and shade in a building which did not intrude on natural spaces.

 

The museum houses 3 Monet paintings including a 6m version of Waterlilies.  The garden leading up to the musuem reflects the plants inside Monet's garden.  I prefer the Monet in Paris. 

There are also works by Walter de Maria and James Turrell.  Photo and text come from Benesse Art Site on the web. The entire art space, containing a sphere 2.2 meters in diameter and 27 gilded wooden geometric forms, was created under the direction of Walter De Maria as an artwork. Viewers experience this space under the natural light coming in from the ceiling, producing dramatic changes in the room's illumination depending on the hour.

James Turrell:  Open Field

In this Turrell work, you walk slowly up the stairs to the blue space, turn and walk down to see a yellow 'field'. I enjoyed this experience, though most of the other light-based artworks did not appeal.  

Local people living  in other parts of Naoshima were not interested until Ando redesigned an old house preserving the outer shell.  He created Art House Project and other homes were similarly turned into art spaces internally.  No photographs are allowed in any internal spaces of houses or museums.

This little house had 2 artistic features inside - ?? what they were.

Accidental photo!  Numbered lights in water 'owned' by specific citizens

Go'o Shrine designed by Sugimoto Hiroshi was rebuilt with glass steps leading to an undergound chamber.

Go'o Shrine designed by Sugimoto Hiroshi was rebuilt with glass steps leading to an undergound chamber. 

Cedar pre-burnt to repel insect attack.

Shinto shrine

As the tanuki, the Japanese raccoon dog has been significant in Japanese folklore since ancient times. The legendary tanuki is reputed to be mischievous and jolly, a master of disguise and shapeshifting, but somewhat gullible and absentminded. It is also a common theme in Japanese art, especially statuary.  This figure was outside a house.
Finally, some natural history from Naoshima - mimosa, pine cones, heron: