Today’s agenda was same, same, but different. That is, more art, but on the southeastern and northern coasts of Naoshima. We’d booked online at the Hiroshi Sugimoto Gallery, a museum within the Benesse House museum complex devoted to the eponymous photographer Sugimoto, and at the Benesse Art House Project, a multi-site exhibition that takes place in abandoned houses in Honmura, on the northern side of the island and home of Mitsubishi Materials.
The gallery was within walking distance of Naoshima Cottage so we set out on a crisp fall morning, the Seto Inland Sea our constant companion to the right.
- Hiroshi Sugimoto Gallery, Time Corridors
Like Benesse House, this gallery is both an art venue and a hotel, designed by Tadao Ando. Photography is permitted inside the gallery. Our entrance ticket included Matcha tea and a sweet, which we enjoyed in the lounge with its view over the grounds and out to the sea.
Born in Tokyo in 1948. He moved to the United States in 1970 and has lived in New York since 1974. His activities range in a wide range of fields, including photography, sculpture, installation, theater, architecture, landscaping, writing, and cooking, and he has gained widespread support in the world art scene. Sugimoto's art is based on the transient nature of history and existence, and with the knowledge of empiricism and metaphysics, it is intended to bridge the gap between the West and the East, and explores the nature of time, human perception, and the origin of consciousness. At Benesse Art Site Naoshima, he worked on the house project "Go’o Shrine", and exhibited his works at the Benesse House Museum.
Consistent with Ando’s other museum buildings on Naoshima, the interior of the gallery is austere and legible, and always in contact with the landscape.
Hiroshi Sugimoto, St. Benedict’s Chapel, 2000
Hiroshi Sugimoto, Sanshu no Jinji (Three Sacred Trees) – Yakusugi Cedar Trunk, 2022
They led to a tunnel-like passageway,
one of whose concrete walls was impregnated by a turquoise stain. It shimmered with a work of 15,000 little glass cubes that anticipate the sparkling sea to which the passageway ultimately led.
Teresita Fernandez, Blind Blue Landscape, 2009
Distributed around the grounds were whimsical ceramic sculptures.
Yayoi Kusama, Pumpkin, 2022
Niki de Saint Phalle, Cat, 1991
Niki de Saint Phalle, Le Banc, 1989
Niki de Saint Phalle, Camel, 1991
Karel Appel, Frog and Cat, 1990
The
path through the sculpture park and along the sea ended at the bus stop for Honmura.
- Honmura Town
We picked up a map of the Art House Project sites at the Information Center and looked for a place to have lunch. We settled on Aisunao vegetarian/vegan restaurant and guesthouse, where organic enzyme brown rice and amazake (a fermented brown rice drink) were on the menu.
There was a lot of construction going on in town, possibly a new hotel to accommodate the visitors to the recently opened Naoshima New Museum of Art, Ando’s tenth museum among the art facilities of Benesse Art Site Naoshima. Cuteness, as always, was on display.
This sign for Yamamoto Transport, is another sign of Japan's love for felines.
- Art House Project
According to the Information & Map we got at the Information Center:
The art projects are underway in Naoshima’s Honmura district. Artists and architects take empty houses scattered about the residential area and turn the spaces themselves into works of art, weaving the history and memories of the period when buildings were lived in and used.
Descriptions of each of the five art venues below are taken from the Information & Map. The images are ours.
1. Tatsuo Miyajima, Kadoya, 1998
In the installation “Sea of Time ‘98”, 125 digital LED counters count up from 1 to 9. The pace at which each counter advances was decided by the island residents individually.
2. Hiroshi Sugimoto, Go’o Shrine, 2002
The artist Hiroshi Sugimoto designed a new structure at the time of the restoration of this Edo period shrine. A glass staircase links the main building to an underground stone chamber, uniting the worlds below and above.
3. Yoshihiro Suda, Gokaisho, 2006
Through his artworks, Suda often presents the contrary opinions, such as the copy and the original, truth and falsity. Although a piece may be a wood carving, it looks exactly like the genuine article.
Following “The Falls”, a waterfall painting unveiled in 2006, works collectively titled “The Garden of Ku (emptiness)" were completed in 2009. It was inspired by Senju’s impression of the Seto Inland Sea’s rocky cliffs.
The deliberate charring of wooden walls serves to protect against the elements and insects.
5. Shinro Ohtake, Haisha, 2006
Haisha (literally means “dentist”), once the home and office of a local dentist, has been completely transformed by artist Shinro Ohtake. Various objects were put together, and you will find diverse elements in a range of eclectic styles.
- Gumbo Hut Shioya
Step inside the quaint restaurant and you’ll find walls adorned with portraits of blues legends like B.B. King and Muddy Waters. Out of the kitchen, the aroma of simmering gumbo drifts from a five-gallon pot. In a country known for miso and dashi, Buddy reaches instead for cayenne, okra, and andouille sausage.
November 28, 2025
Sad to say, but this day marked the beginning of the end of our month in Japan. We checked out of Naoshima Cottage and rolled our carry-ons the two kilometers into town, stopping to take a farewell photograph Yayoi Kusama’s red pumpkin at the Miyanoura ferry landing.
- My STAYS, Haneda Airport
Nothing fancy; close to the airport for our early morning flight on JAL to Bangkok. A room with a view---of an unidentified flying object.
- Yokohama
Given the chance to “see just one more thing” before leaving Japan, we jumped at Yokohama, Japan’s second largest city and the high-tech industrial hub of the Greater Tokyo Area, popular with expats, and less than a half hour by train south of Tokyo.
First a fishing village, Yokohama developed into a bustling port city following the establishment of foreign trade after the opening of Japan in 1854. It was the site where Commodore Matthew Perry landed and forced Japan to sign the Kanagawa Treaty ending over 200 years of isolationism by the Tokugawa Shogunate. At the forefront of the Meiji restoration, the first train line in Japan connected Tokyo and Yokohama. However, Yokohama was devastated by the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and again by the fire bombings of World War II, and never really regained its prominence. It remains a maritime city to this day and retains an international flavor.
- Record Bar 45
My husband found a terrific cocktail listening bar with Tannoy Turnberry speakers and a McIntosh amplifier high-end sound system on the second floor of an office building in the city center, close to the train station. Jazz, R&B, soul, album cover on display next to the snacks---just the way we like it.
Dinner was at a funky restaurant
we found while wandering around the center. The vibe was loud and young.
November 29, 2025
We checked out of Hotel My STAYS and took the hotel shuttle bus to Haneda Airport, where our return flight to Bangkok on Japan Airlines was ready for us, but we weren't ready for it.
- Haneda Airport
We took our last savory breakfast at the JAL lounge. Not an ounce of corn flakes in sight, but there was a cube of omelet.
- Japan Airlines Flight JL 31
When the JAL stewardess asked me if I had enjoyed my visit, I really couldn’t put into words how deep an impression the country and its people had made on me. I opened my mouth to explain but a couple of tears rolled down my cheek instead. Somehow, she seemed to understand, probably because she’d heard it all before. She set down my last real two-course Japanese lunch and, pressing my hand, said I could take the cute chopstick holders as a remembrance.
Then it was on to Bangkok for a few days before the last stop, Berlin.
Keep it real!
Marilyn
This time more art than food 😎 love the Kusama pumpkin design of the local bus!
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