While on my Future Nostalgia tour back in 2022 (where has the time gone?!) I got to island-hop Japan’s art islands, Naoshima, Inujima and Teshima, and can’t begin to describe the joy I felt, soaking up all the culture they had to offer. Filled with surreal installations, cutting-edge museums, and architectural excellence, the amount of creativity on display there was immense, and I left feeling so inspired.
It might have been a while since I’ve been there, but I continue to follow the artists I discovered (I even went to the NGV’s Yayoi Kusama exhibition in Melbourne earlier this year) and their work has stayed with me. If you ever get the chance to visit Japan’s art islands, these are the places to hit up.
1. Benesse House Museum – A museum integrated within a hotel, this is an amazing place to stay on Naoshima.
2. Valley Gallery – This geometric Naoshima gem, designed by Tadao Ando, capitalises on its secluded setting and houses Yayoi Kusama’s incredible Narcissus Garden installation.
3. Chichu Art Museum – With a name literally meaning ‘art museum in the earth’, this Naoshima museum is built underground and is a work of art itself.
4. Yayoi Kusama’s Yellow Pumpkin – It is very cool to see the iconic installation in real life, in the heart of nature on Naoshima’s coast.
5. Inujima Seirensho Art Museum – This art gallery, built in the ruins of a former copper refinery, was built around the idea of ‘using what exists to create what is to be’, and it’s just epic.
6. Inujima Art House Project – A collection of galleries that transforms the town into a museum!
7. Teshima Art Museum – This has the most striking architecture and was designed to be an artwork that interacts with its environment.
8. Teshima Yokoo House – A collaboration between artist Tadanori Yokoo and architect Yuko Nagayama, who renovated an old private house to create a gallery like no other.
Dua x
