nagasakibana in kunisaki peninsula, oita pref. is fun for everybody

It has the big blue sky, the placid ocean all around, seasonal flowers including canola and sunflower from which plant oil is being made, camping grounds, and above all outdoor art installations and a stimulating art museum. 

You can be there for two hours - please stay at least two hours - or more, even stay overnight in a cabin or a tent. It's good for everybody.

I went there because of art specifically installed there and appreciated both artworks and environment.

Though kunisaki peninsula has a lot to offer, nagasakibana is carefree and healthy and you do not need a lot of planning.

Their new establishment, an art museum named the Art Museum of Nature and Human Non-homogeneity is, though philosophical, can be good for families, too. 

Here's a one-minute introduction to the cape called nagasakibana, once abandoned farmland but now a beautiful resort filled with seasonal flowers.

what art can do to communities

Gormley's statue

 Now there are many art festivals all across Japan. Such festivals can be said to have started with the one in the north of Japan called ECHIGO TSUMARI Art Triennale that started in 2000, followed by the Setouchi International Art Festival or Seto-gei which has been a great success since 2010.

In 2014, the Kunisaki Peninsula Art Festival was celebrated and it left its traces in many places of the peninsula, enhancing the innate potential the places had had.

One of the assets the festival left is a symbolic iron-cast statue made by Antony Gormley. It stands in the middle of the old local religious center and when it was planned to be installed, people discussed if it would be appropriate to install a naked iron statue cast by the real body of the artist. 

But now, the statue looks philosophical if not religious. For some people, however, the statue seems to be equivalent to a Buddhist statue to which, naturally, they would like to offer small money just like they do at temples and shrines. 

It was a heck of a job to carry the 630-ton iron statue up the mountain, for which local professionals helped. The process already involved locals and that must be a great contribution by art already.

The statue has been exposed to the elements and has been aging. He showcases passing time specifically here in the Kunisaki Peninsula.

The 630-ton statue was wired up

up the mountain path

 

 on the way remains a pair of guards

more on the way and now the statue is down below 

money offered at the bottom of the statue

 cave-like hall for the deva king 

 down the mountain

GEORGES GALLERY & KOHIRA CAFE, Shodoshima

Let me start with a few pictures from my recent Shodoshima album

before elaborating on the Georges Gallery.

angel road in January 2022 near tonosho port
A sand bar appears at low tides
connecting three islands ahead
This is one of the typical seascapes
of Shodoshima

a view from Shiho-zashi observation point,
777 meters high
This is higher than the hilltop cable station area
and often shrouded with fog but with good luck
a mystic view appears 

And now the gallery:

front of the Georges Gallery

back of the gallery

There are many places you shouldn't miss in Shodoshima. Therefore, I recommend you stay at least two nights. After all it's an island and you need to take some time to go there itself. 

Shodoshima is the second largest island in the Seto Inland Sea and the whole area is called Setouchi. If you can drive and rent a car in Japan, it will be the easiest way to explore the island. If you are physically fit, you can rent a bike but should limit your cycling zone to effectively use your time. Bus services are available but not so frequent and you will need good planning.

Having said that, however, the Tonosho maze town area and Hishio-no-sato area where the gallery is located should be relatively easy to explore even if you do not have a car.

This time I'm writing on this art gallery and its art installations in Umaki, Hishio-no-sato where soy sauce manufactures stand close to each other. 

The gallery and installations have been very popular since they were open to the public in 2018 on the occasion of the Setouchi International Art Festival which has been held every three years since 2010. 

Without any further ado, here's what you see at the gallery. There are more to see of course; after all, the photographs were the final artworks of Georges Rousse. You have to see them. And the old house itself which has been beautifully resurrected. 

What's more, their contemporary art museum and its annex preliminarily opened last year and the grand opening is coming this March. And their cafe is super good, I have to emphasize.

installation of gold and brass leaf
SHODOSHIMA2018©︎GEORGE ROUSSE

The story of this gallery has to start with the devastation caused by the Great Hanshin-Awaji earthquake in 1995. When it happened, ISHII Jun was working for a big established company where he was assigned to the mecenat division. He thought there had to be something his company could do to support the affected areas with art. 

He came across with photographer and artist Georges Rousse and invited him to Kobe where the artist was commissioned to eight artworks - the final works were photographs; the subjects of the photos were gone because Rousse makes geometric installations in the ruins or buildings doomed to be demolished and then takes their pictures before they are forever gone. 

The photos taken in Kobe were eventually donated to an art museum in Kobe. 

In case of Shodoshima, the installations made by Rousse remain and are open to the public. This is the only place in the world his installations can be seen permanently by the audience. 

Rousse was invited by ISHII who wanted to revive his grandpa and grandma's house in Shodoshima. Rousse chose two sites in the house and a small humble warehouse, five-minutes-on-foot away from the house.

As a young kid, he was at the house on special occasions; in fact his parents held a wedding reception there; but the last resident, ISHI's grandma died and nobody lived there for 26 years. He wanted to revive the house where family memories were still felt but would be forgotten if the house was left alone. 

He asked Rousse if he was interested in applying for the Setouchi International Art Festival and his answer was affirmative. He first came to the island in 2017 to check on the house and its vicinities and then came back in 2018 to make three installations and take photos. 

He took the pictures and this time, accepted these installations should remain as they are.

Now they are amazing art installations, particularly the one in a Japanese-style room - the picture shown above. The pictures were taken, of course, but it's the remaining installations that have made ISHII's grandma's house breathe again. The memories have been conjured up and they are side by side with the visitors to the gallery living the present time.

The Setouchi International Art Festival 2022 will start in April and the gallery can be visited with the festival passport that you might purchase. But the gallery along with their contemporary museum/annex is permanent. You can go there before and after the festival. 

PS

Goishi-zan mountain is nearby. Its view and the temple along with the temple monk there are hard to miss. You can ask him to perform a prayer ritual for your wish like healthy life by buying a small wooden slat where your wish is written - 500 yen. It's a fifty-minute walk and hike from the gallery.

Including this holy place, there are more than 88 pilgrimage places related to Kukai, the founder of Shingon school of Japanese esoteric Buddhism active in the 9th century. He's been loved as a cultural hero with compassion and was ubiquitous at multiple places at the same time - impossible but that's the way people believed due to their faith to him.

His temples are open to everybody and many, I feel, go with the present issues and are aligned with the time we live.

Immovable King at the edge of Goishi-zan

KARAMI slag bricks in naoshima & inujima

This time, so-called artworks in both islands are not talked about but this article only writes about KARAMI slag to give you rather unnoticed perspective to appreciate your island visit in Setouchi.

KARAMI bricks at 'I love ❤︎ you' public bathhouse in naoshima

KARAMI is a byproduct of refining copper or other minerals. In a word, it's slag. Due to lack of technology, slag contained more than just waste once; that was rather okay because it still had good content and could be made into other products such as bricks, tiles, and blocks. They are not available any more because the raw material KARAMI is now simply waste thanks to the advanced technology and can't made into such items but still used for construction material, for instance.

Even now, the KARAMI products can be found in Naoshima without being noticed specially. 

A set of KARAMI blocks that is easy to find is on the front porch of I ❤︎ you, an artistic public bathhouse in Miyanoura, the port area.

Inujima, one of the three major Benesse-related islands more reminds you of the KARAMI bricks than Naoshima and those in Inujima were used to expand the copper refinery premises. The Inujima copper refinery started its operation in 1909 and operated only for 10 years. The KARAMI bricks speak to us now, remaining on the grounds of the refinery-turned art museum. 

In Naoshima, you should look up or down to find the remains of KARAMI. They can be found along the alleys and roads while you walk in the neighborhood of, particularly, Miyanoura Port where you arrive by ferry to start your Naoshima exploration. Considering the history of islands in the Seto Inland Sea and Japan's rushed industrialization in the 20th century, what still remains there are our food for thought and deepen our understanding of the islands and human acts.

a picture of KARAMI roof-tiles

Gallery 6, a former pachinko parlor
made into art space
is currently exhibiting KARAMI project materials 

KARAMI brick displayed in the gallery

where KARAMI remains in Naoshima

THIS is KARAMI

KARAMI roof tiles:
a former tabbaco shop
in the left of the house  
is now living as an ice cream and soup take-out store
named KOBATA (wine and beer are also served),
a minute-walk from Miyanoura Port
& a barber's shop in the right


NOW from naoshima to inujima by passenger boat

to the Seirensho Museum focusing on KARAMI bricks this time

   

the refinery grounds were expanded 
with the KARAMI slag bricks

the rail made of slag

museum terrace paved with the slag bricks

three round smokestacks remain and
one is integrated into art gallery 

old chimney on the hill as a legacy of industrialization; this one is octagonal 

now going back to the gate

the last day before the Museum closes
during the 2021-2022 winter time;
much less visitors due to covid

Zuiko-zan Kiyomizu-dera temple, literally meaning the temple of mystical light and pure water

last steps to the main hall of the temple

a large stone lantern & main hall

great big cryptomeria trees

A Buddhist temple, located in a remote community in Yasugi, Tottori Prefecture, has a history of over 1400 years. The central deity enshrined in the main hall is the Kan-non Bodhisattva (Avalokiteśvara), a twin of the one now housed safely in the treasure hall of the temple. 

 

The twins were once kept in the chest facing each other’s back. The front one was originally enshrined in the main hall but was stolen and about to be shipped overseas from the port where it was found just before being shipped. 

 

Due to this happening, the temple decided to have the statue retired and kept in the treasure hall. Instead the twin which was in the back of the chest came to be enshrined in the main hall. 

 

A large sublime statue of the Amitabha Buddha in the treasure house quietly sits and sees you; nearby is the smaller version of Amitabha Buddha flanked by two Bodhisattvas whose posture is interesting from the viewpoint of art history. 

 

It’s a cozy little place with just enough items to appreciate fully. I stayed in the treasure hall for quite a while and the lady in charge was kind enough to answer my questions. It was much worth than spending time at a famous but busy temple in super-popular places. I felt something like telepathic connection with the deities.

 

One of the deities in the treasure hall, whose details have not known much and only several statues of which have survived to this day, is supposed to be hidden from public view. But here you have such a special opportunity to be able to witness his smiling face. 

 

That was because the statue saved itself from the fall of a big tree in 1983. The tree was right next to the hall where it was enshrined. The tree collapsed due to heavy snow but after the accident the statue was just peacefully sitting on the snow away from the ruins of the hall. The temple believed the deity was willing to show up and decided to house it in the treasure hall for the view of general visitors. 

 

The wooden relief of the Bodhisattva in the lotus pond, among others, was something to see. I’ve never seen anything like this before.

 

pagoda with tree projecting roofs

from the balcony of the top floor

large standing lantern:
believed to have made as a 
study for building the pagoda

A remarkable wooden pagoda with three projecting roofs stands on the large premises of this temple. The pagoda of traditional style was buit by three generations of local carpenters. Almost all of the Buddhist pagodas in Japan are off-limits and they were not made to go in and up the floors. In fact, they basically do not have multiple floors. But most of the pagodas with three projecting roofs have the ceiling for the ground floor and they are in a sense two-storied. 

 

This one has three floors, which is quite exceptional. What’s more, you are allowed to go in and up the tower, a very rare case of all the wooden traditional pagodas in Japan. You can even go out of the second and third floors of the pagoda and walk around it on its balcony.

 

The Buddhist vegetarian dishes can be enjoyed at two restaurants/inns on the temple grounds.

There's a trail on the hill in the back of the temple.

Now you know you will easily spend half a day here.

okunoshima now quiet while people are staying home

Once the ferry and passenger service was packed with tourists on the weekend and sometimes, or oftentimes rather, people had to wait for the next service to go to okunoshima because the island became too famous, first among tourist from abroad then followed by Japanese, due to the YouTube post of rabbits stampeding after a woman from Taiwan.

Now the island is taking a break and quiet again. 

Since I live just one hour away by car and ferry from the island, my husband and I took advantage of it and went to the island again in winter. Almost half a year has passed and now I am eager to go back (it's easy). 

Many tourists came to Hiroshima before the covid but most didn't have time to come down to the island. It will be the same from now on too after the covid case is closed (hopefully we can close the case). 

So now I'm thinking about providing an online meeting on the island. That way, those who cannot come can still experience the island more intimately. Or those who are planning to come some day can prepare for that. I wonder what I can do but at least due to covid, people became much closer to online activities. I learned the technology is out there. 

Here are two pics from several years ago. The baby in the picture is now six years old and attending primary school. In the other picture, kids from abroad are happy with the rabbits, feeding and playing with them. The parents must have been smiling beside them. The days like it will be back some day but let us be a little wiser and think about sustainable tourism. 

 尾道柿園   ONOMICHI KAKI FARM

In many countries, kaki, which represents Japanese fruits, is called kaki. Kaki is sometimes translated persimmons in English but precisely speaking, they are different types. 

About one hour and a half away by car from hiroshima city center lies the farm where lots of kaki grow. They make dried kaki in fall. The scenery in November is particularly dreamy with lots of orange-colored or rather kaki-colored fruits hanging all around the place. 

This scenery was once at the brink of extinction. But there was a man who was born and raised here and now wanted to come back with his family. He has tried to restore the kaki forests with added values and sustainability. 

Here's the video from our visit that I went there with a friend.