Naoshima, Japan’s Enchanted Island
The moment you step off the ferry, your gaze is drawn to a familiar silhouette: Yayoi Kusama’s iconic Pumpkin, which seems to welcome visitors as a gateway into the singular world of Naoshima, an island where art breaks free from the confines of 
walls and unfolds in a constantly evolving dialogue with its surroundings.
Before long, you find yourself on a bicycle, exploring the island’s beautiful beaches and verdant hills. Along the way, artworks appear almost unexpectedly, revealing themselves as part of the landscape.
In the village of Honmura, the Art House Project transforms former traditional homes into artistic spaces. You open an unassuming door and discover an installation. Each house tells a story, blending vernacular architecture with contemporary creation in a form of poetry where art is as much inhabited as it is observed.
Within the island’s museums, architecture itself becomes a medium. Impressive volumes harness natural light to shape space and reveal artworks differently throughout the day. The recently opened
New Museum of Art, inaugurated in 2025, pushes these boundaries even further.
Perched atop the island, Benesse House, designed by Tadao Ando, is both a museum and a hotel. Guests fortunate enough to stay there enjoy the rare privilege of experiencing the artworks after the day’s visitors have departed, just steps from their rooms and overlooking the vast sea—as though the museum existed solely for them.
Then there are the essential moments of pause. Les Terrasses restaurant is a perfect example. Here, French cuisine is delicately reinterpreted through a Japanese sensibility under the influence of a Michelin-starred chef, showcasing local ingredients. Its expansive bay window creates the impression of dining directly on the beach. As the sun begins to set, Yayoi Kusama’s Yellow Pumpkin comes into view. Resting at the end of a pier, bathed in golden light, it seems to float between sea and sky in this open-air museum, where every turn reveals a new encounter and where visitors feel as much like guests as spectators.
Naoshima embodies a contemporary vision of Japan, where tradition and innovation meet. A remarkable example of rural revitalization through culture, it has become an essential destination for lovers of contemporary art and architecture, where nature, culture, and design coexist in perfect harmony.
Global Goodness would like to thank the following organizations and individuals for their support in planning and organizing our press trip:
- Tokyo Convention & Visitors Bureau (https://www.tcvb.or.jp/en/)
- Japan Communication Company (Jpncom.com)
- Japan National Tourism Organization (https://www.japan.travel/)
- Fukutake Foundation (https://benesse-artsite.jp/en/nnmoa/art/)
We would also like to extend our special thanks to our friend Emiko Ishikawa, who introduced us to a side of Japan beyond the usual tourist routes and who also accompanies travellers throughout Japan.
Our sincere thanks as well to Priscilla Portsmouth, Shin Kawai, Sumi Sato, Sébastien Moncus (Hosho Theatre and My Taiken), Kunie Takatsu, Yukari Ota, and Sanae Ota.
ainsi qu’à Priscilla Portsmouth, Shin Kawai, Sumi Sato, Sébastien Moncus (Hosho Theatre and My Taiken), Kuni Takatsu, Yukari et Sanae Ota.
