The polka dotted pumpkin is one of her most well-known motifs, and lots of people were enjoying the sculpture along with us by climbing into it and taking selfies with it.
Naoshima Island is less than 15 square kms, but we were glad to see a town bus that we could take to the town of Honmura. On Naoshima the buses are painted like Kasuma's sculptures.
We noticed polka dotted traffic cones in the town.
Around Honmura people display their own artworks in their front yards.
We saw lots of flowers, too.
We spotted these three charming dog sculptures as we walked.
The Yaoshima Cat Cafe exterior was painted with colorful pumpkins and cats.
On several walls we saw yarn artworks like this cat.
The yarn leaves echoed the plants and flowers in pots below. We really enjoyed strolling around the town.
And this yarn art had a small sign that identified the artist as Ishikawa Kazuharu. We later learned that he started creating these artworks in 2006 and that there are seven of his pieces in Honmura.
We met the artists #Naoshima695 as they were finishing this wall.
We noticed this contemporary building and went for a closer look.
Later we learned that all Honmura's public buildings were designed by Kazuhiro Ishii, and our favorite was the community center.
How did amazing art and architecture end up on Naoshima? An educational company named Benesse (includes the Berlitz language titles) wanted a place to showcase their CEO's art collection, and the mayor of Naoshima dreamed of developing a cultural and educational area on the island. Benesse bought land on Naoshima in the late 1980s, and partnered with architect Tadeo Ando. We went to the Ando museum that opened in 2013.
From outside we noticed the olive motif on the noren, traditional Japanese fabric curtain, over the entrance gate . . .
. . . and the details on the front wall.
Inside the courtyard we could see that the museum was housed in a traditional Japanese minke house, although we wondered about the glass cone on the ground.
In the museum we read that Tadeo Ando often designed buildings so that the exterior did not give away the interior space and thus people wouldn't have preconceived ideas. They would relate to the space as they experienced it. The Ando Museum beautifully reflects this idea, as a new interior concrete structure was completely hidden from the outside.
The Art House Project started in Honmura in 1989. It consists of seven buildings that, formerly vacant traditional buildings, now are restored as contemporary works of art. The first Art House we visited was Japanese Minamidera temple with The Dark Side of the Moon by James Turrell within a building designed by Tadao Ando. We were excited to go inside.
We entered Minamidera at the right side of the building in total darkness, and were led to a bench by a guide. It took a few minutes for our eyes to adjust so that we could see a barely illuminated "screen" at the left side of the building. We experienced Turrell's idea of "slowly finding light", which was amazing and expanded our ideas about seeing.
Next we went to the nearby Edo era Go'o Shrine. Hiroshi Sugimoto's glass staircase that resembles blocks of ice now leads up to the traditional Shinto shrine.
We liked how the Art House Project required us to walk all around Honmura, including through the nearby Hachiman Shrine.
It was clear that the shrine is still used, as the blooming cherry tree had white garlands of paper wishes tied to it.
We visited Ishibashi that now features Hiroshi Senju's artworks. Unfortunately there was very little light inside and we weren't allowed to take photos. But the traditional building was really impressive.
In the garden were these beautiful stone walls.
All around Honmura we noticed interesting walls and buildings.
Hungry for lunch, we spotted another noren curtain. It was displaying a bowl and chopsticks so we went inside.
Their menu was macrobiotic Japanese food, and it was tasty and healthy.
Their cute model looked something like what we ate.
We visited Tadeo Ando's cherry blossoms park. Most of the trees were just starting to bud.
But a few trees on the edges were already flowering and beautiful.
After a ten minute bus ride we arrived at the Chichu Museum. Kristina is in front of the museum, which is also owned by Benesse and designed by Tadeo Ando. It opened in 2004.
Chichu literally means "in the earth." This aerial photograph of the museum shows that the buildings are mostly underground.
We climbed down into the triangular concrete building to view the permanent collection that includes Monet's Water Lilies plus recent Turrell and Walter De Maria artworks.
The building was incredible. We noticed interesting angles and cut outs in the walls.
Our favorite piece in the Chichu collection was Walter De Maria's Time/Timeless/No Time. An underground cavern lit by a skylight was designed by Tadeo Ando housed De Maria's enormous polished granite sphere and 27 gold leaf sculptures. We could walk all around the piece and watch how the light changed over time.
To exit the permanent collection we walked up through an underground square building. We saw interesting vistas, angles, and juxtapositions of materials as we walked up the stairs.
Like many contemporary art museums, we found the building itself to be as interesting as the artworks within it.
Just down the hill from the Chichu was the Lee Ufan Museum, which contains works of the Korean-born artist Lee Ufan.
Ufan was both painter and sculptor whose works express the material from which they are made. We could feel the tensile strength of steel, the plasticity of concrete, and the solidity of stone in the sculptures near the museum's entrance.
The art and architecture felt perfectly balanced with each other. Their relationship was a union with each complementing the other to create a sum greater than its parts.
Like the Chichu, the Lee Ufan Museum was designed by Tadao Ando. The museum opened in 2010 and it exclusively houses artworks by Lee Ufan. The entrance was a long passageway with high concrete walls that seem to be a signature of Ando's designs.
As we turned the corner, a surprise was revealed: Ufan's piece Relatum-Suggestion from 2008 was high up on the wall.
We weren't allowed to take photos inside the museum, but there were plenty of outside artworks to photograph. This is Ufan's Relatum-Dialogue from 2010.
And Naoshima offers many wonderful views of the Seto Inland Sea.
We walked from the Lee Ufan Museum to the Benesse House Museum, which is nestled in the hillside with views of the sea.
The Benessee House Museum was also designed by Tadao Ando. Unlike other museums, though, this one is also a hotel.
We were fortunate to get a last-minute reservation. It was going to be a night at the museum!
Being in a museum, each room contains some original artworks.
And each room has a spectacular view of the Seto Inland Sea.
Pete took up residence on the balcony.
We also had a nice view of George Rickey's sculpture Four Lines.
It's a kinetic sculpture that was moving gracefully in the breeze, its aluminum surface reflecting the sunlight.
The Benesse complex includes four separate guest houses and a number of outdoor artworks, including this colorful piece entitled Frog and Cat by artist Karel Appel.
One of our favorite artists, Niki de Saint Phalle, has a number of whimsical pieces here. Her works often are functional, like this serpentine conversation bench appropriately entitled The Conversation.
Kristina is reading over the shoulder of this gentleman in Le Banc.
In addition to Red Pumpkin at the ferry terminal in the Miyanoura port area of Naoshima, Yayoi Kusama's yellow and black Pumpkin is also a popular artwork.
Pumpkin sits on the end of a pier near the Benesse complex.
Another intriguing feature about the Benesse complex is that artists could choose their desired location for their artwork. Kusama's choice for her vibrant pumpkin stands in contrast to the serene Seto Inland Sea.
What is it about polka dots that seem so cheerful?
The sun was setting as we continued our walk along the bay and it made for a lovely view of Shipyard Works: Stern with Holes by Shinro Ohtake.
We walked to the nearby community of Tsumuura for dinner. We started with grilled chicken livers that were oishii desu (delicious).
Then we ate a pair of okonomiyaki pancakes topped with the okonomiyaki sauce, mayonnaise, seaweed flakes and bonito flakes.
On our way back to the Benesse House we stopped to enjoy the night-time view and photograph Pumpkin.
From the hillside above the bay Pete took this photo of the blue moon over the water. In the 45 seconds exposure the waves on the bay became blurred, giving the sea a soft, glassy appearance.
Because we were staying at the museum, we were allowed to explore the galleries until 11pm. We stepped outside for a view of Shinro Ohtake's Shipyard Works: Bow with Hole.
The next morning we had a Japanese-style breakfast at the museum's restaurant. It's not every day that we get to eat breakfast sitting next to Andy Warhol's Flowers.
In typical Japanese fashion, each dish was exquisitely prepared and presented. The meal included grilled salmon, house-made tofu, a variety of vegetables, a vegetable-starch bun with yuzu, pickles, miso soup and rice.
And it included one of Kristina's favorite dishes, chawan mushi, which is a savory egg custard with mushroom and shrimp served in a lovely small pot.
After breakfast we revisited some of our favorite pieces, including those by Richard Long. Long is a well-known British land artist who visited the museum in 1997 to create his three works. He and the museum staff collected and cleaned the driftwood for Inland Sea Driftwood Circle from nearby beaches that he then assembled into a circle on the floor of the gallery. And he painted River Avon Mud Circles by the Inland Sea using mud from the Avon River.
Long says he "makes art by walking in landscapes" and each of his pieces reflects a specific place. This is Full Moon Stone Circle displayed on a balcony just outside his other two works.
In a nearby gallery was another circular piece. Constructed of miniature Ultraman's and Ultra 7 figurines it is actually a quarter of a circle installed in a mirrored corner. Entitled Banzai Corner1996 by artist Yukinori Yanagi. It was one of Pete's favorites, but it could have something to do with the fact that Ultraman was one of his favorite television programs growing up.
Installed in an outside courtyard, Ken Yasuda's The Secret of the Sky consists of two large, smooth marble stones. When Tadao Ando designed the building, there wasn't a specific piece intended for this location.
Yasuda's piece transforms the space, providing a comfortable place from which one can try and discern what exactly is the secret of the sky.
Walking up an internal staircase in the Benesse House Museum, Pete was shocked to see weeds growing from an expansion joint in the concrete wall. Our guide also pointed them out and told us that although they look real, they are actually made of wood by the artist Yoshihiro Suda. The piece is appropriately entitled Weeds.
Artist Jennifer Bartlett created Yellow and Black Boats from photographs of the sea view taken over different seasons. When she visited the museum for the installation, she thought of including the two models of the boats in front of the painting, making it three dimensional.
When she turned around and saw the view of the beach out the window, she was struck by the similarity to her piece so had two boats created and installed on the nearby beach.
In the cliff above the beach we saw what looked like another artwork, a photograph.
Our guide explained that it was one of the horizon views photographed by artist Hiroshi Sugimoto in Time Exposed. The photographs are installed outside so that the effects of weather and the passage of time can be recorded on the photographs.
The photos are hung so that if you stand at a particular location in the courtyard, the horizon in the photographs closely aligns with the horizon of the Seto Inland Sea.
Nearby was another piece by Walter De Maria that echoed his installation from the Chichu Museum.
Entitled Seen / Unseen Known / Unknown, it consists of two huge granite spheres and gold-leafed posts at either end of the space. The highly polished granite surfaces made for some wonderful reflections.
We noticed that throughout the space, whenever Tadao Ando used stonework, it was always laid in a simple grid pattern. The one exception we saw was this circle right in front of the De Maria piece.
We love looking at art, and Naoshima was amazing because there is so much interesting artworks throughout the island. We came upon Cai Guo-Qiang's Cultural Melting Bath: Project for Naoshima composed of limestone boulders and a hot tub. Originally visitors could actually use the hot tub.
A metallic blue bowl sits on a sturdy stone platform facing the sea. Entitled Drink a Cup of Tea by the artist Kazuo Katase, this piece takes its name from a famous painting by the Zen monk Sengai Gibon.
Sengai's painting is an enso, a circle made with a single brushstroke. Next to it he wrote the verse "Eat this and drink a cup of tea." We learned that there are other sculptures like this one by Katase in other parts of the world.
Catching the morning light and slowly swaying in the breeze, we saw this kinetic sculpture by George Rickey entitled Three Squares Vertical Diagonal.
We left Naoshima so glad that we had made the trip and headed back to the cherry blossoms of Kyoto.
