Takamatsu and Noashima

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At some point during the train ride to Osaka, we decided it would be better if we went as far south as we had intended to go and work our way back. To this extent after arriving at peak hour in crazy Osaka we jumped on the next train to Takamatsu.

Takamatsu is located off the mainland on the island of Shikoku. The reason for going their intiatally was it’s close proximaty to the tiny island of Noashima - on which is located the Chichu Art Museum that was designed especially by the famous Japanese architect Tado Ando.

Takamatsu proved to be a wonderful city. I highly recommend going there to anyone visiting Japan and want to get away from busy cities for a while. It is quite a metropolitan town, but without the mayhem. On our first day in town we toured the Takamatsu-jo (jo means castle) and its elegant gardens. The original castle had moat along 3 sides, and the fourth side of the moat was the actual sea. This is no longer the case. I am fast learning that most Japanese castles have been burned down or demolished at some point or another, and something or replicas have been built on top. A few original walls remain here and there, as a lot of the buildings can still be quite old but most of what was originally there has vanished.

After our tour through the castle, we took a short train trip out to Yishima. Yishima is a hilly headland (which used to be an island) that has about 80 temples and shrines on it. It took us about 30 minutes to climb from the base of the hill to the main temple, and unfortunately by the time we got there after about 30 minutes the weather turned really bad. It was bitterly cold and raining. And also to my disappointment the museum was not open that day.

We decided to head back down the hill, and with the aid of some girls in the tourist shop called a taxi to take us to a Udon noodle place at the bottom of the hill. Takamatsu is famous for its udon noodles - and they are very good. Especially good if you’ve been freezing up a hill somewhere!

The next day we took a ferry out to Noashima and the visted the numerous works of art that are scattered around this tiny island. The story goes that there was an extremely wealthy businessman in Japan who collected so much art he decided it was a shame that only he could see it. So he commissioned a gallery to be designed by the famous Japanese architect Tado Ando and also built a hotel guesthouse that has its own private gallery.

(Yep, etremely rich. You can also tell this by the helipad and private harbour that is located close to the gallery!)

The Chichu Art Museum is not a traditional gallery in the sense that it only has one room with paintings on the wall - Monet’s water lilies. The rest of the art work is installation designed by James Turrell and Walter de Maria . The works are designed for you to have an experience with space. Everything is designed so you are having a physical experience of the work without actually touching anything as such. Hard to explain, but a lot of beautiful rooms with objects and lights that distort your experience of space in some way. Very clever.

All around this tiny island is scattered public art. On a sunnier day we could have rented a bicycle and ridden around to various sculptures. There is so much stuff to see - and most of it is really worthwhile.

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Photos

A beautiful art work on Noashima
This is the aboveground view of the piece...

A beautiful art work on Noashima
Then you walk through an underground tunnel....

A beautiful art work on Noashima
And you see this! (But the photo really doesn't do it justice)