Naoshima New Museum of Art Opens, Dedicated to Asian Artists
Tadao Ando's tenth building for Benesse Art Site opened on 31 May 2025 beside the old village of Honmura, with an exhibition of artists from eight Asian countries.
The Naoshima New Museum of Art opened on 31 May 2025 on Naoshima, the small island in the Seto Inland Sea that has become one of the world’s best-known destinations for contemporary art. It is the tenth building designed by Tadao Ando for Benesse Art Site Naoshima, and the first museum there devoted to artists from Japan and the rest of Asia.
The museum stands on a hill near the Honmura district, the old village on the island’s east coast where the Art House Project has placed works in traditional houses since the late 1990s. As at the Chichu Art Museum, Ando has put most of the building into the ground. Its dark outer walls and low profile are meant to sit with the tiled roofs of the village, and a top-lit staircase leads down through the galleries.
The inaugural exhibition, From the Origin to the Future, brought together twelve artists and groups from eight countries: Japan, China, South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, India, the Philippines and Malaysia. Under its director, Akiko Miki, the museum both exhibits and collects, and it plans changing exhibitions and public programmes, a difference from the island’s other museums, which are built around permanent installations. The stated aim is a place of exchange that people, including the island’s residents, will return to.
The story of Naoshima began in the late 1980s, when the Benesse publishing company and Ando started work on what became Benesse House, a museum with hotel rooms. The Chichu Art Museum followed in 2004 and the Lee Ufan Museum in 2010, and the Setouchi Triennale, held across a dozen islands, has brought visitors every three years since 2010. The new museum opened during the 2025 edition.
For travellers, it adds a reason to stay a second night. Naoshima is reached by ferry from Uno, near Okayama, or from Takamatsu, and its museums require advance booking in busy periods. The surrounding sea can also be explored by water, on a cruise of the Seto Inland Sea aboard guntû, and the region’s hotels include Azumi Setoda on Ikuchijima.