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Japan Times
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Times
New Naoshima museum bets on Asia, not the West
A flight and a bus or several trains, a line, a boat, another line, a bus, a walk and 96 stairs is all it takes to get to Naoshima's newest art sanctum. Benesse Art Site Naoshima in the Seto Inland Sea, popularly shortened to just Naoshima or 'the art islands,' is a veritable art theme park of six museums and 22 spaces across four islands. Last week it welcomed a new member. The building, imaginatively named Naoshima New Museum of Art, opened May 31. Tadao Ando, Naoshima's inextricable architect, designed the space, making the museum his 10th contribution to the art site. Three floors of about 3,200 square meters of gallery begin at ground level and descend into the hill on which it rests. Architecturally the museum feels very much same-same as the rest of Naoshima, with a humble facade that looks out over the lesser-used Honmura port on the east side of the island. The staircase in the new Tadao Ando building creates a single line through the museum. | Thu-Huong Ha Unlike other Naoshima museums, whose collections are permanent, the new museum will change periodically, with the first update scheduled for February 2026. The new museum opens under the directorship of Akiko Miki with the exhibition 'From the Origin to the Future,' which contains installations and site-specific works by 12 living Asian artists. This is an important departure from the rest of Naoshima; the roster that's made it famous — Yayoi Kusama, Claude Monet, Walter De Maria, James Turrell, Hiroshi Sugimoto — skews heavily white and Japanese — although the new museum is consistent in that it's still predominantly male. The art site is jointly run by the Fukutake Foundation and Benesse Holdings, which were both founded by the Fukutake family. The vision for the art islands originally came from Tetsuhiko Fukutake, but when he unexpectedly died in 1986, his son, Soichiro, took over and presided over the island's cultural transformation over the next several decades. The billionaire publisher turns 80 this year, and the new museum, which draws from his collection, may well be his swan song. 'I started the Asian collection based on the hypothesis that the era of the West, of Europe and America, was coming to an end, and that an era of Asia would begin,' Fukutake told the press. 'And now, it feels like the times are actually heading in that direction, so I feel like it was the right decision.' Benesse signaled its commitment to the region in 2016, when it moved its ¥3 million Benesse Prize from its home at the Venice Biennale to the Singapore Biennale, with a new focus on Asian art. Works shown at the Naoshima New Museum of Art include past winners of the prize. Pannaphan Yodmanee, 'Aftermath' (2016/2025) and Henri Dono & indieguerillas, 'Consciousness of Humanity: a Journey to the Center' (2024-25) | Thu-Huong Ha Detail of Pannaphan Yodmanee, 'Aftermath' (2016/2025) | Thu-Huong Ha On the first floor, Southeast Asian artists make statements about religion, harmony, colonialism and memory. 'Aftermath' is an intricate and expansive mixed-media mural installation by Thai artist Pannaphan Yodmanee. The 11th Benesse Prize-winning work explores Buddhist cosmology using rocks and found objects. The artist paints traditional Thai art motifs directly onto stone and displays stupas below, while figures who seem straight out of Buddhist hell look on. Moving right across the mural, horse-backed Europeans shoot at loin-clothed natives in an endless cycle of suffering. Indonesian husband-and-wife pair indieguerillas, comprising Dyatmiko 'Miko' Bawono and Santi Ariestyowanti, collaborated with established Indonesian artist Heri Dono for seven pieces that make up the installation 'Consciousness of Humanity: a Journey to the Center.' Bright cartoon-like acrylics on wood draw on imagery from traditional Javanese puppet theater. The figurative illustrations were originally meant to be a public art work connecting a mosque and a church, says Bawono. But the commission didn't work out. '(The government) preferred a more neutral work with only shapes, like circles and triangles,' he says, adding that he's glad their vision could be executed on Naoshima. Do Ho Suh, 'Hub/s, Naoshima, Seoul, New York, Horsham, London, Berlin' (2025) | Thu-Huong Ha One floor down is a gallery containing Do Ho Suh's 'Hub,' an ongoing series that's brought the London-based Korean artist to global renown. Suh creates to-scale fabric and steel replicas of rooms and spaces he's lived in in Seoul, New York, Berlin, among others. For this iteration, he adds the hallway of a house from Naoshima, connecting it to previously made spaces. Though other works in this architectural series feature detailed fixtures like stoves, toilets and radiators, the ones here appear as one extended hallway, connecting place to place to place, smooth and nonspecific. On the lowest floor are three provocateurs of Japan's contemporary art world. Makoto Aida's newly commissioned 'Monument for Nothing — Red Torii Gate,' part of his ongoing project of the same name, critiques Japan and its leadership. A distorted torii gate sculpture looms over the space of the gallery, covered in low-res images collected from the news over the past three decades, a period in which Japan's economy has suffered and its birth rate has declined. The faces of Japanese politicians, with appearances by U.S. President Donald Trump and Steve Jobs, adorn the gate. One image shows former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wearing his infamous 'Abenomask,' while another shows him flanked by other former heads of government and cracking up. Thin sprouts rise up from all over the deformed figure, intended to represent hope for Japan's future — but they only manage to make the form look even more grotesque and diseased. Chim↑Pom from Smappa!Group, 'The Sweet Box: Michi in Transit' (2024-present) | Thu-Huong Ha The artist collective popularly known as Chim↑Pom shows elements from its Michi (as in, 'street') work in Tokyo's Koenji neighborhood, part of their 'Sukurappu ando Birudo' ('scrap and build') project. Documents, sofa parts, hoses, pipes and other debris from the demolitions of the former Parco building in Shibuya and Kabukicho Shopping District Promotion Association building are squashed into a box reminiscent of a shipping container, in a statement on Japan's constant construction and rebuilding. Stretching between the two works is Takashi Murakami's 13-meter-wide 'Rakuchu-Rakugai-zu Byobu: Iwasa Matabei RIP,' based on Iwasa Matabei's Edo Period (1603-1868) National Treasure screens depicting life in Kyoto, which the artist has updated since 2023. Finally, 99 life-sized wolf sculptures in Cai Guo-Qiang's 'Head On,' which has traveled all over the world from its debut in Berlin, now live on Naoshima as part of Fukutake's collection. Cai Guo-Qiang, 'Head On' (2006) | Thu-Huong Ha After the subterranean wolves, there's respite at the museum cafe. Breezy at the same time that it feels slightly weighted by the sea air and charged by the energy of trees tossed by the wind, the space contains a newly commissioned work by Indian artist N. S. Harsha. Harsha seized the chance to work on the cafe. 'I really like when art is positioned in a place where it's not exactly a museum, it's at the threshold,' he says. 'Happy Married Life' consists of panels telling three stages of a story about a wedding. 'It's been a longtime idea of mine to get a microscope and telescope married. I wanted them to get married. It's time!' the artist says, chuckling. It's playful and joyful — Harsha's name means 'happiness,' so it sort of goes with the territory, he says — but the work also represents a union between what he sees as two components inside each of us, internal and external visions. That cheer is somewhat at odds with the depictions of suffering and political critiques on display throughout the rest of the museum, but it's a nice moment of whimsy against Ando's sleek, spare monochrome. It's worth noting that the new museum is one of the few art spaces on Naoshima that allows photography. Perhaps that's why the museum leans a bit too heavily on large-scale, Instagram-worthy crowd-pleasers. Which is unfortunate because the mix of critical Japanese works and works by younger Southeast Asian artists makes the Naoshima New Museum of Art otherwise a welcome addition to the larger Western-focused Benesse complex. N. S. Harsha, 'Happy Married Life' (2025) | Thu-Huong Ha Most of the indoor Naoshima spaces have long had a no-photo policy, which allows for more actual art-viewing, as opposed to the kind of look-at-me-looking-at-art experience that has become the norm at clogged art shows. One has to wonder if the new photography policy is pandering in a way Naoshima has largely been able to avoid (with the exception of its famous pumpkin, the rare public artwork that has its own self-governing line). Fukutake's shift to Asian art is more than a lofty vision of the world's future creative center — it's a shrewd commercial move for the tycoon who's already completely remade the island and region. Takamatsu Airport serves daily low-cost flights to and from Seoul, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Taipei, making Naoshima an international weekend getaway that's as convenient (or inconvenient) from East Asia as from Tokyo. Streets of old-style Japanese houses are wedged in with cafes catering to foreign tourists, and a quiet slope is quickly interrupted by visitors shouting to each other as they fly by on motorized bicycles. The ferries and long queues are filled with the bustling excitement of languages from around the world, people holding up their phones, ready to look and be looked at. The entrance to the Naoshima New Museum of Art displays its oddly hard to read logo. | Thu-Huong Ha For more information about the Naoshima New Museum of Art, visit
Condé Nast Traveler
31-05-2025
- General
- Condé Nast Traveler
Where to Go in Japan That Isn't Tokyo, Kyoto, or Osaka
Here's where to go in Japan when you've already seen the big cities—and want to come home to your besties (and make them jealous) with travel tales from further afield. Naoshima in the Seto Inland Sea is a living museum, where contemporary art and striking architecture are woven seamlessly into the landscape. Unsplash Naoshima, for art aficionados Are you an art lover? Then you should check out Naoshima. Lara of First in Service says that this tiny island in the Seto Inland Sea is a living museum, where world-class contemporary art and striking architecture are woven seamlessly into the landscape: 'Think Yayoi Kusama's iconic dotted pumpkins sitting by the water's edge, Tadao Ando's minimalist masterpieces carved into hillsides, and entire fishing villages transformed into open-air art projects.' Neufville of Neufville Travel agrees, and recommends that travelers also check out the other Seto Islands, which also have a plethora of contemporary art installations and galleries. Since there are many outdoor exhibits, the best time to visit Naoshima is whenever the weather is nice: spring, early summer, and late autumn are best. That window of time also coincides with the Setouchi Triennale 2025, a contemporary art festival which happens every three years and showcases even more art on various islands in the Seto Inland Sea (tickets for the fall session, from September 1 to November 9, are now on sale.) Getting to Naoshima can be tricky: It involves taking a train from Kyoto Station or Shin-Osaka Station to Okayama Station; a car transfer from there to Uno Port; then a ferry from there to Naoshima's Honmura Port. Treat yourself after the journey to a sleek stay at Naoshima Ryokan ROKA, where you'll find 11 minimalist guest rooms of wood, washi, and tatami; and wonderful sunken bathtubs with walls of glass opening onto green vistas. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial (a.k.a. Genbaku Dome) was the only structure left standing in the area where the first atomic bomb exploded on August 6, 1945. Pexels Hiroshima, for a piece of world history Hiroshima offers a moving, essential experience for any and all travelers visiting Japan. This city was largely razed to the ground in World War II by one of two atomic bombs detonated by the United States in 1945, during World War II (the other exploded in Nagasaki, on the island of Kyushu). Today, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park contains the ruins of Genbaku Dome, one of the few buildings that was left standing after the historic event. Referring to the dome, the park, and the city more broadly, Lara of First in Service says, 'It stands as a powerful symbol of peace and rebirth, making it a great place for those drawn to the deeper currents of history and human endurance.'
New York Times
31-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
The Billionaire Behind Japan's Art Islands Has One Final Jewel in His Crown
On a tree-dotted hill on Naoshima, an island in Japan's Seto Inland Sea, a museum was being completed, with construction equipment on hand and workers finishing their day. Opening Saturday, the Naoshima New Museum of Art, a concrete structure by Tadao Ando, has a few unusual touches for a building by this Pritzker Prize-winning architect. There's a pebbly wall along the walkway to the entrance. To harmonize with the townscape, it has a black plaster exterior, exhibition spaces that are largely underground, and a single story above, topped by a sloped metal roof. The iridescent sea is visible from the top floor. The museum is the latest star in the constellation of more than three dozen museums and projects called Benesse Art Site Naoshima, which spread across three islands. The New Museum is the first to focus exclusively on contemporary Asian art. And it is likely to provide more fuel for global art pilgrims — some six million of them since 2004 — who have flocked to the islands, most taking a couple of trains and a ferry to experience major artworks in unusual settings. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
BBC News
30-05-2025
- Business
- BBC News
The Japanese island that was saved by art
Once polluted and suffering from depopulation, Naoshima has become Japan's hottest contemporary art enclave – and there are signs that life there may be finally rebounding. Shinichi Kobayashi has idyllic memories of growing up on Naoshima, one of the nearly 3,000 islands scattered across Japan's Seto Inland Sea. "We would go clam digging," said the 75-year-old, who became the island's mayor in 2018. "During the summer, I would spend entire days swimming in the sea, catching turban shells and fish, getting deeply tanned." "I don't recall seeing any foreign visitors," he added. Kobayashi's home island is no longer off the tourist radar – thanks to the power of modern art. Since the 1989 launch of what has become Benesse Art Site Naoshima – a multi-island art initiative initiated by billionaire Sōichirō Fukutake – more than 500,000 visitors now flock annually to Naoshima, whose fishing villages, rice fields and craggy coastlines have become the canvas for mesmerising art installations and ambitious museums. In 2010, the Setouchi Triennale launched. The contemporary art festival – which is now one of Japan's foremost international art events – attracts roughly one million visitors to the region each Triennale season. The sixth edition kicked off on 18 April this year and will run until 9 November; the longest Setouchi Triennale ever. Forty years ago, few would have imagined such a transformation. In the early 20th Century, Naoshima had cemented its reputation as a copper smelting hub, but by the 1980s, it was heavily polluted; the raw, rocky land around the Mitsubishi Materials industrial plant denuded of vegetation. The population dwindled dramatically as the young left to seek opportunities in larger cities. Fukutake's father, publishing magnate Tetsuhiko Fukutake, and Naoshima's then-mayor, Chikatsugu Miyake, aspired to revitalise the bleak area by founding a children's campground. Tetsuhiko died before the project was completed, leaving it to his son. Shocked by Naoshima's pollution, the younger Fukutake purchased a large swathe of the island's unblighted south side. His new plan: to transform the region by erecting attractive museums against its serene coastal landscapes. To enact his vision, he tapped Osaka-born architect Tadao Andō, who had become known for designing buildings that blended seamlessly into their surroundings. "I was surprised by the idea and thought it would be difficult to achieve," Andō said in a 2018 interview where he and Fukutake discussed the project's origins. "It was so inconvenient! Who would come here?" "This project began as an act of resistance," explained Fukutake in the interview. "It was my conscious intention to build a kind of heaven on Earth – the very first paradise that harmonises art, nature and the local community." In 1989, Andō designed the Naoshima International Camp, fulfilling the elder Fukutake's vision. In 1992 came the Benesse House Museum, a hotel and contemporary art museum housing works by luminaries including Bruce Nauman, Frank Stella and Hiroshi Sugimoto. The island's evolution into a globally renowned open-air museum and international contemporary arts hub was all but assured in 1994, when Yayoi Kusama's yellow and black-spotted Pumpkin was added to the landscape's growing collection of public artworks. This iconic work has since become emblematic of Naoshima itself. "[The] initial goal wasn't to promote tourism," said Soichiro Fukutake's son, Hideaki, who now helms the Fukutake Foundation. "But rather to revitalise the region through art and help locals feel a renewed sense of pride in their hometown." But the mission hasn't just been about building anew. Since 1998 and the start of the Art House Project in the nearby fishing village of Honmura, "using what exists to create what is to be" has been a guiding principle, leading to many defunct buildings on Naoshima and the neighbouring islands of Teshima and Inujima to be reborn as art. These include two projects by artist Shinrō Ōtake: Haisha, an old dentist's building transformed with collage, reclaimed materials and a partial giant copy of the Statue of Liberty; and Naoshima Bath "I♥︎湯", a public bathhouse now plastered in a patchwork of patterned tiles on the exterior to the full-scale model of an elephant striding across the dividing wall between the male and female bathing sections. Some locals were initially sceptical about the general appeal of such artworks. In the 1980s Toshio Hamaguchi worked for Naoshima's town office and guided executives from Fukutake's company around the island when the International Camp was first being planned. "I did not expect that we would attract many people by such a project, and particularly by art," recalls the retiree. "However, we have so many visitors thanks to art now." Since his initial commissions on Naoshima, Andō has designed nine other projects on the island, including the Chichu Art Museum, of which a large portion is built directly into the earth; and the Naoshima New Museum of Art, opening 31 May, which will showcase contemporary art from Japan and Asia. The inaugural exhibition – titled From the Origin to the Future – will feature works by the likes of Japan's Takashi Murakami and Makoto Aida, Cai Guo-Qiang from China and the Korean artist Do Ho Suh. Like the Chichu Art Museum, the Naoshima New Museum of Art blends seamlessly with the environment by burying two of its three storeys beneath the ground. "It's one of the most ambitious and exciting projects we've undertaken," said Hideaki Fukutake. The success of Benesse Art Site Naoshima in attracting visitors to a once-neglected location has been an inspiration for similar projects in other rural parts of Japan. Art Base Momoshima on the island of Momoshima is helmed by renowned conceptual artist Yukinori Yanagi, while on Ōmi-shima, another Inland Sea island, architect Toyō Itō has established the Toyō Itō Museum of Architecture. As mayor, Kobayashi notes the economic benefits: "Thanks to the increasing number of visitors, guesthouses and restaurants have flourished, helping make everyday life more vibrant for the locals." He added: "That said, we've also seen some changes, like more people locking their doors, which wasn't common in the past… For me, what matters most is that the residents can live cheerfully, energetically and happily." Threatening this is the island's persistent issue of depopulation: Naoshima currently has 3,000 residents, around half the number it had in the 1980s. "Personally, I strongly wish to increase it," said Kobayashi. "Even if just by one person." More like this: • How the bullet train transformed Japan• How Japan's tsunami-ravaged coastline is being transformed by hope• Japan's 97-year-old cherry blossom guardian However, there are glimmers of hope; a 2024 Asahi Shimbun article cited that though the island's population was in decline in 2022, the number of newcomers has risen slightly but steadily each year since. Over the past five years, 500 people – mainly married urban couples in their 30s and 40s – moved to the island, attracted by its unique artsy beauty. Many Benesse Art Site Naoshima staff have relocated to the island while others have come to fill jobs in the booming hospitality industry – so much so that Naoshima is now facing a housing shortage. Mitsubishi Materials has also significantly cleaned up its copper smelting operations, improving the overall quality of life. Speaking at a conference on Naoshima in 2023, Eriko Ōsaka, a respected curator and general director of The National Art Center, Tokyo, credited Benesse Art Site Naoshima organisers with changing the island's image "from being a negative one to a positive one through the power of art". In Ōsaka's opinion, visitors to Naoshima "can experience serendipity that they can find nowhere else and discover something unknown within themselves". For her, the success of Benesse Art Site Naoshima means that some of those islanders who have moved away "will come back one day". -- For more Travel stories from the BBC, follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram.
