Award-winning architect Tadao Ando designed this stunning museum and hotel on the south coast of the island. Among the works here are pieces by Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Jasper Johns and Japanese artists such as Shinro Ohtake. Art installations are dotted across the adjacent shoreline and forest, blending architecture into nature.
Benesse House Museum
Naoshima
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
20.79 MILES
Konpira-san or, more formally, Kotohira-gū, was originally a Buddhist and Shintō temple dedicated to the guardian of mariners. It became exclusively a…
15.7 MILES
Kōraku-en draws the crowds with its reputation as one of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan. It has expansive lawns broken up by ponds, teahouses…
8.56 MILES
One of the most beautiful gardens in the country, Ritsurin-kōen dates from the mid-1600s and took more than a century to complete. Designed as a walking…
1.01 MILES
In Honmura, half a dozen traditional buildings have been turned over to contemporary artists to use as the setting for creative installations, often…
16.32 MILES
This is Kurashiki's premier museum, housing the predominantly Western art collection amassed by local textile magnate Ōhara Magosaburō (1880–1943), with…
22.51 MILES
This kiln and gallery-shop is run by the Kimura family, one of the six original families granted official permission in the early 1600s to produce pottery…
19.47 MILES
Zentsū-ji, Temple 75 of the sacred 88, is the largest of the temples – most of the other 87 could fit in its car park. This is where Kōbō Daishi was born,…
6.49 MILES
Teshima's art 'museum' impresses for its architecture – a monumental concrete shell, forming a low teardrop-shaped dome on the hillside, designed by Tokyo…
Nearby Naoshima attractions
0.19 MILES
Adding to the Benesse Art Site's suite of museums is yet another design from the irrepressible Tadao Ando. It houses works by the renowned Korean-born…
0.22 MILES
A work of art itself, this museum designed by Tadao Ando consists of a series of cool concrete-walled spaces sitting snugly underground. Lit by natural…
0.27 MILES
This yellow pumpkin sculpture, by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, has become a symbol of Naoshima. It's perched on the end of a small jetty. Pumpkins are…
0.97 MILES
Minamidera, one of the sites within the Art House Project, is a James Turrell experiment with light. Queue up to enter in total darkness…and wait…
1.01 MILES
The shack-like Haisha by Shinro Ohtake is a highlight of the Art House Project collection of sites, notable for its Statue of Liberty sculpture, which…
1.01 MILES
In Honmura, half a dozen traditional buildings have been turned over to contemporary artists to use as the setting for creative installations, often…
1.07 MILES
One of the sites in the Art House Project collection, this is Hiroshi Sugimoto's play on the traditional Go'o Shrine, with a glass staircase and a very…
1.22 MILES
You can actually walk inside this larger sculpture, a sibling to Naoshima's iconic Yellow Pumpkin by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. The red artwork is…