How art redefined a remote Japanese island

+ notes and tips from my visit to Naoshima art island

I remember years ago when my husband and I became obsessed with the idea of going to Japan. Not a quick trip, but really going: a month or more. Around the same time, my brother gave me one of those cool guidebooks focused on off-the-beaten-path places rather than the obvious highlights.

Somewhere in its pages, I saw it: a giant yellow Yayoi Kusama pumpkin sitting alone on a shoreline. That’s how I discovered that the pumpkin was on a so-called art island, a place called Naoshima. In my opinion there is not too much awareness about Naoshima in the west despite the fact that it houses a couple of prominent western names. So, it went straight onto my mental list of art places I needed to visit one day — not urgently, but inevitably.

Over the years, I saw Kusama pumpkins in many contexts: museums, exhibitions, public spaces. But that original image — the yellow pumpkin on the edge of the sea — stayed with me. So when we finally decided to go to Japan this January, Naoshima wasn’t a question.

( this reel sums up my trip, wherever I was allowed to film ofc )

What struck me almost immediately was how improbable the whole thing feels. Technically, Naoshima isn’t that far from Osaka — that’s where we travelled from — but in practice, getting there requires several train changes and a ferry ride. When you arrive at the final station and then at the port, where the most prominent landmark seems to be a lone 7-Eleven, you genuinely wonder: why am I here?

For a place so significant, information about Naoshima is surprisingly fragmented. I knew there was a Kusama pumpkin somewhere. I knew there were James Turrell works somewhere else. Beyond that, most advice boiled down to: there are several art sites, rent a bike, carry snacks. What I later learned is that