Contemporary art and tourism on Setouchi Islands, Japan

The Seto Inland Sea is surrounded by the Japanese islands of Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu. It has been an important transport route linking the Kinki region, including Kyoto, Nara, Osaka and Kobe, with the Kyushu region and other Asian countries. Since the 1980s, Naoshima Island, one of the islands in the Seto Inland Sea, has housed several contemporary art projects, such as museums, outdoor artworks and workshops. Known as the Benesse Art Site Naoshima (www.benesse-artsite.jp/en), these projects have been supported by Benesse Holdings, Inc., an Okayama Prefecture-based correspondence education and publishing company, and the Fukutake Foundation, which was established under Benesse’s patronage. As Naoshima became known as “the island of contemporary art”, similar art projects spread to other islands. This long-term art project is the first topic of this case study.