Kagawa · Teshima IslandNo.652★★★Open in map →
Teshima Art Museum
A museum on a hillside above the Inland Sea holding a single permanent work. Under one seamless concrete shell, water rises from the floor and moves across it all day, and the weather comes in through the ceiling.
- FromTakamatsu Port
- ~1 hrFerry, then island shuttle
- Get off atTeshima Bijutsukan-mae stop (Teshima Shuttle Bus)
- On foot
- Teshima Art Museum
Where it is
25 more notes in Kagawa · open the map →What to look for — in walking order
- The rice terraces on the approachstepped paddy fields on the slope between the coast road and the museum
- The ticket officea separate low building where the dated ticket is checked before the path begins
- The approach paththe footpath from the ticket office to the entrance, with the Inland Sea open below
- The two ceiling openingsthe pair of cuts in the shell that let weather, sound and light into the room
- The cafe and shopa second, smaller shell nearby, and the one interior where photographs are allowed
How to actually get there
- Takamatsu Port → Ieura Port, Teshima (ferry, about 35 min, 1,450 yen).
- Ieura Port → Teshima Bijutsukan-mae (Teshima Shuttle Bus, 400 yen).
- Teshima Bijutsukan-mae → the ticket office, then the path to the museum (a few minutes on foot, uphill).
- Ferry from Takamatsu to Ieura
- Takamatsu Port to Ieura Port on Teshima takes about 35 minutes and costs 1,450 yen for an adult. From Ieura the island shuttle bus runs east along the coast to the Teshima Bijutsukan-mae stop. Sailings are limited, and the last boat back shapes the day more than the first boat out.
- Back to Ieura and the last boat
- The shuttle returns along the same road, and the island's timetable thins out sharply through the late afternoon. Check the departure time of the last sailing to Takamatsu before you leave the port in the morning, because missing it means staying on the island. Crossings are also cancelled in rough weather.
About the place
The building is a shell of concrete roughly forty by sixty metres, poured in one continuous operation so that it carries no joints and needs no columns inside. Openings are cut into the ceiling, and through them come rain, wind, birdsong and the whole day's change of light. The floor is the artwork. Water seeps up through fine points in it, gathers, runs and pools according to the pitch of the ground, so the room is never in the same state twice. Visitors take their shoes off and walk on the surface the water is using.
How to enjoy it
Through the main season the doors open at 10:00 with the last entry at 16:30, and the light inside is completely different at the two ends of that span. Tickets are dated and timed, so choose the slot first and build the ferry around it. Inside, photography is not permitted and shoes come off, which is fair warning that the visit is meant to be slow.
Background & history
The museum opened in 2010, built around Rei Naito's permanent work Matrix, with the shell designed by the architect Ryue Nishizawa. It arrived with the Setouchi art programme that has been reshaping the islands of the Inland Sea, and it is run by the Fukutake Foundation. The hillside it stands on is terraced rice ground, and the fields around the building are part of what a visitor sees. The museum was placed to sit inside that landscape rather than on top of it.
Before you go
- Cash
- Admission is 1,800 yen bought online and 2,000 yen at the window, and it is free for under-15s. The island shuttle is 400 yen a ride for an adult. Carry cash for the bus.
- Before you go
- The museum closes on Tuesdays through most of the year, and for longer stretches in winter, so check the calendar before booking a crossing. In bad weather the fragile part of the day is the ferry rather than the museum. Because the shell is open to the sky, rain does not close the room. It changes it.
- Another way
- Teshima is also reached from Uno Port in Okayama, about 40 minutes to Ieura for 780 yen, and some sailings run instead to Karato Port on the museum's side of the island. Electric rental bicycles are available at Ieura and at Karato, and the hills are the reason to make them electric.
- After you get off
- From the Teshima Bijutsukan-mae stop the museum is a short walk up the slope. The entrance is not the building itself but the ticket office, and the path to the shell starts there.