Japan's Art Islands — Naoshima, Teshima & Setouchi

The most famous of the art islands and where everyone begins — its symbol is Yayoi Kusama's polka-dot pumpkins, the yellow one perched on a stone jetty reaching into the sea, the red one at Miyanoura Port. The whole island is scattered with museums, outdoor art, and old houses turned into installations. You can cover it in a day by bike or by bus.

Tadao Ando designed this museum to be almost entirely underground, with natural light drawn down into bare concrete rooms. The highlights are a chamber displaying Monet's water-lily paintings and installations by James Turrell and Walter De Maria — few works, but each one meant to be taken slowly, room by room. People say with one voice that it's the highlight of the whole trip.

Benesse House (designed by Tadao Ando, opened in 1992) is a museum that's also a hotel, set on a hillside overlooking the Seto Inland Sea — stay here and you get free museum entry and after-hours access to some buildings. Over in Honmura village, the Art House Project turns old wooden houses into artworks, like Minamidera, which Ando rebuilt around a James Turrell light installation inside.

One work, but you won't forget it — a concrete shell shaped like a water drop about to land, without a single supporting column. It's a collaboration between artist Rei Naito and architect Ryue Nishizawa, and inside, tiny beads of water seep up from the floor and trickle together all day, while openings let in wind, light, and birdsong. People go in and sit silently watching the water for an hour. Teshima is much quieter and more rural than Naoshima.

The smallest island in the group, and the strangest — the star is the Inujima Seirensho Art Museum, built on the ruins of a 1909 copper smelter that ran for only about ten years before being abandoned. Architect Hiroshi Sambuichi designed it to use the original chimneys, slag brick, and natural energy instead of air conditioning, paired with work by Yukinori Yanagi. Walking through industrial ruins turned into art feels like slipping into another world.

A contemporary art festival held every three years, spreading works across the islands of the Seto Inland Sea (more than a dozen sites including Naoshima, Teshima, Inujima, Shodoshima, and the port towns of Takamatsu and Uno). It runs in three seasonal sessions (spring/summer/autumn) for roughly 100 days, and the most recent edition was the sixth, in 2025 — during the festival the islands buzz and far more works open than usual, though the crowds grow to match.