Karato is one of the wider areas of Teshima. There are two main areas of Karato, the harbour/port area and the hillside area. The main route for the festival, assuming you start at Ieura, starts by heading around the north side of the central mountain before going through a short valley. The path then winds around a steep hill before arriving at the port. It is a nice and scenic route along the north side of the island but unfortunately from the bus you do tend to miss a lot. Considering I like to take photos as a hobby, taking the bus is not the most productive way to experience the island let alone bring opportunities to take photos. Cycling can allow you to see a lot of the island in a shorter time but photo opportunities are few and far between, especially with a large camera. For my own personal route from Karato, I took the bus out to Karato Port and walked around that area before taking the bus up the hill to get to the Teshima Art Museum. I then walked the rest of the way back to Ieura.
Arriving in the early morning on Teshima meant that I had a lot of free time. Taking the bus also meant I had a lot of free time. I arrived in Karato Port around 8:30am and had nothing to do for about one and a half hours. The main art project I wanted to see was located about 1-2 km away from the port and didn’t open until 10am. This meant I had a lot of free time so I took a small tour of the small village area next to the port and went to a tiny tea house where a nice old lady entertained me and my friend. We then headed to “No one wins – Multibasket” by Llobet & Pons. It was a simple basketball backboard that was in the shape of Teshima, along with several baskets. There were several basketballs next to the exhibit so I did what any natural westerner would do. I grabbed a ball and played a little basketball for about 10 minutes. It was fun to play and I worked up a small sweat but it was the most fun art installation of the entire festival. Down the road was the “Les Archives du Coeur” by Christian Boltanski. Christian Boltanski is a French artist who wanted to create an archive of heartbeats to open our eyes to our own mortality. The installation is a permanent exhibit next to the beach. The main art is a dark corridor lined with small mirrors and a solitary light in the centre. You hear various recordings of heart beats as the light pulsates to the beat. There is another room where you can select heartbeats and listen to them with a view of the beach and a recording room. I found the piece to be interesting but the 1500 yen price to record your own heartbeat was a bit steep for me, so I opted not to do it. From Les Archives du Coeur, I headed back to Karato Port and took the bus up the hill to the Teshima Art Museum. It is the major installation by Benesse. The tour of the museum starts with a walk around the grounds to see the rice fields of the surrounding hill and the Seto Inland Sea and Karato Port below. You then enter the main museum which was designed by Ryue Nishizawa in collaboration with the artist Rei Naito. It is essentially a large concrete dome with two holes cut into it. You are asked to be quiet so that the sounds of nature can enter the dome. There are also several holes in the ground. Some of them have water coming out of them while others are drains. It creates a very lovely looking floor but beware that your feet could get wet. Also be aware that some areas are “off limits” due to the flowing nature of the water and staff will ask you to move away from that area. It was a nice place but like most of the large scale Benesse museums, I was let down overall.
Karatoka is an area just above the Teshima Art Museum. It is home to 4 installations, with “Storm House” by Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller being the closest to the Teshima Art Museum. Storm House is one of the most memorable houses of the entire festival. It is a 10 minute “show” where you enter the small 2 room house and take a seat on the tatami floors. It starts with a simple aural experience as you hear the birds chirping. You then start to hear thunder and then you see flashes of lightning. The rain starts to pour harder and harder until the peak of the storm cuts the power. As the storm passes, things start to calm down and return to normal. It was a complete immersive experience that was very interesting and could challenge Disney in creating a lifelike experience. I then headed to “Shima Kitchen” by Ryo Abe. It was not so much art as much as a restaurant with artistic looks. There was a large outdoor terrace with a very interesting roof and the restaurant was done in collaboration with chefs from the Marunouchi Hotel as well as the obachans of Teshima. It was lovely to have lunch there and I highly recommend it to everyone. Behind Shima Kitchen was “Your First Colour (Solution In My Head-Solution In My Stomach)” by Pipilotti Rist. Utilizing a small store house behind Shima Kitchen, this artwork was very boring for me. Using a round screen suspended in the second floor, viewable through a hole in the floor, you can enjoy watching images of tulips and other relaxing things. I found it to be too simple so I didn’t stay for a long time. I then proceeded to “Particles in the Air/ Karato” by Noe Aoki. It was a series of rusted metal disks that were welded together and formed, for a lack of a better description, halos in the sky. It was located next to an old shrine where there was free flowing well water for you to wash your hands as well as get a drink of water. While I was there, a TV crew was also there and they asked me and my friend a few questions. They worked for Nishi Nippon TV but unfortunately I won’t be seen in Tokyo as the show is only for Okayama and Kagawa. From Particles in the Air / Karato, I walked all the way back to Ieura with a stop at “Tom Na H-iu” by Mariko Mori. It was one of the installations that I wanted to see as it was a white stone located in the centre of a pond that was surrounded by a bamboo forest. It was also located in an area that was difficult to access at times. It was so difficult to access that they offer rubber boots for the rainy season. While the art didn’t live up to my expectations, it was a very tranquil setting and I felt at one with nature. The white stone itself is hollow and I learned after visiting that the stone only lights up if a supernova in the universe is recorded. Unfortunately I didn’t see that on this trip.
While Teshima is a great island to visit, it felt like Naoshima, only more spread out. The major museum was as spectacular as when I went to the Chichu Museum on Naoshima. It was overly simplistic without getting my spirits up. I found more delight in seeing all of the smaller works, the art houses, and meeting the older generations still on the island. There are a lot of stories to be heard on Teshima but you really have to get out there and listen to them. Lots of the obachan are willing to tell you a story if you are willing to listen to them. With all the obachan I did meet, I was surprised I didn’t get more sweets. Unlike the Tokyo obachan, the obachan of the countryside are pretty sweet and will provide you with more stories than you could ever imagine.
Bonus Video: Just a short video of the ferry from Takamatsu to Teshima. I just thought the old man was really cool.
Teshima – Karato is part of a series of posts on the Setouchi Triennale, and half of a two part series on Teshima. Follow the links below to read more about the different aspects of the Setouchi Triennale.
- Dru’s Great Setouchi Triennale 2013 Misadventure
- Shamijima
- EAT&ART TARO on Shamijima
- Inujima
- Food of Inujima
- Teshima – Kou and Ieura
- Eating on Teshima
- Uno
- Ogijima (Part I)
- Ogijima (Part II)
- ONBA CAFE
- Megijima
- Naoshima (Benesse Art Site)
- Naoshima (Honmura & Miyanoura)
- Naoshima (Transportation)
- Takamatsu Revisited
- Takamatsu (Setouchi Triennale Edition)
- Ferries in the Setouchi Triennale
Information
- Teshima (Setouchi Triennale Official Site)
- Teshima (Benesse Site)
- Teshima (Japan Guide)
- Christian Boltanski Interview (Dazed Digital)
- Shima Kitchen (Official Site – Japanese)
I like the idea of the storm house, but ¥1500 to listen to my own heartbeat? Huh-uh.
I agree with you about countryside obachan! When I go hiking in the countryside, the obachan always chat to me and give me water and food. They usually chat in their own local dialect, which means I can’t make out head or tail, but they seem to be happy with a “so desu ne” response. 😀
Why are Tokyo obachan so scary? (>_<)
It’s only obachan. Ojisan too are super friendly in the countryside.
Quite a few chatted with us when we were in Takamatsu, and I couldn’t even understand a word to even pretend I know what they were talking about. I keep on apologising for not understanding and they kept on talking. xD
I’m not sure whether you’ve noticed this but obachan are really super nice when there is a small, well behaved kid in the group. 😉
I think the 1500 yen is for the recording, supplies, and storage in the long term. He does want the project to continue indefinitely.
Tokyo obachan are seasoned obachan. They are used to pushing everyone out of the way. I can’t really explain it but Tokyo just does that to people.
No photo of the shrine and the well? 🙁
“Obachan are really super nice when there is a small, well behaved kid in the group.” But I’m a small, well-behaved child and they’re not nice to me!
PS: You’re both right. Countryside people (of all ages) are great; Tokyo people can be a pain in the butt.
PS: I’ve got a name for our business: AABC, Africa/Asia (or vice versa) Business Consortium. 😀
Not sure I like AABC. Doesn’t look or sound nice. How about Ru 2 Dru: 2? Could become R2D2. 😉
Okay, maybe not a good name due to trademarks. Can we use NANPA (なんとかなんとかパッション!) NAntoka Nantoka PAssion. 😛 Okay, so I have no good ideas. Give me a bit more time.
As you may know, I have a soft spot for Karato. It is the place where I’ve met the nicest people definitely in Japan and possibly in my life. You mention the obachans, but it’s everyone really, and it’s one of the places where I’m the most frustrated to not be fluent in Japanese, even more so than on Ogijima (and I always say that if I don’t end up moving on Ogijima, I will move to Karato instead).
Concerning the art, I have a love/hate relationship with Les Archives du Coeur for some reason. Sometimes I find that it’s a hack, sometimes I find it beautiful. I guess it depends on my mood of the moment.
On the other hand, I’m a huge huge fan of Teshima Art Museum, while I have the same feeling as you have for the larger Benesse installation (and I can’t care less for Benesse House and a bunch of the Art House Projects), I think that Teshima Art Museum is the most amazing space I’ve been to. But I guess it really depends on the circumstances you experience it. My first time it was raining, and while I found it impressive, the water element (which makes the building “alive” in my opinion) was a bit lost in it. It’s the second time I went, with a wonderful spring weather that I simply couldn’t leave the place. And then, the third time I went, we had it all for ourselves, and that was magical.
Storm House is a great installation too. It really reminds me of hurricane days back when I lived in Florida.
Your First Colour is lame and typical European artist’s “self-important, masturbatory work” (Funny that it’s the European art that I tend to like the least)
Tom Na H-ui is a bit disappointing and looks much better on a picture than for real unfortunately. Maybe it’s better when you see it shining, but I’ve never read of anyone seeing it, so I’m not sure how often it happens.
Finally, I love the old guy on the Teshima Art Line ferry (the main pilot is a really cool guy) and I love how the company has really embraced the Triennale (when they’re not too busy/crowded, they give out flyers about Naoshima and Teshima, explain about Megijima and Ogijima along the way and such), although it’s true that they’re living thanks to it these days.
Yeah, I thought you did have a soft spot for that area. Maybe second to Ogijima. 🙂 I found it interesting, but I wouldn’t move there. Ogi, maybe. I need to be near “civilization” and will probably return home to retire. It is still way too early for me to return now.
The Teshima museum seems like a place I’ll have to return to. Maybe on a less crowded day, but during the Triennale, that seems impossible. 🙁
I don’t know how you feel, or how you went into each art piece, but I never cared who the artist was until I returned. I didn’t really know much about Arthur Huang until I returned and read your blog and the interviews with him. Made me appreciate the art more, but I prefer to see art without knowing who, rather where, they were from. I guess you just coincidentally had that feeling about Euro artists? 🙂
I would have loved to see Tom Na H-ui in the early morning or late evening when the light was fading. Just my thought, but I doubt I’d go back again. The place could have been a lot better if done a little differently. I doubt anyone would see it light up unless a supernova occurs, and I never heard of that…
Glad I’m not the only one to love the old guy. Even if he didn’t talk, I was enthralled by his character. Hope they continue to earn a good living.
Concerning the origins of the artists, I didn’t care much at first, but soon I realized that I really loved some art and not some other and I started to realize that most of the art I didn’t like was European. Incidentally, I used to really dislike contemporary art until recently (almost until the first Triennale really), and of course, most of the art I had encountered before was European.
I kinda thought you didn’t at first either. Just voicing my own thoughts. 🙂
Funny enough, I never thought much about art, contemporary as well, until I visited Naoshima for the first time. I think the entire area is magical.
Hello! Lovely blog you have here. I’m planning a visit to the Seto islands this November, in fact I went to the Setouchi festival in 2010 but Teshima art museum was still in construction, so I really want to check it out this time. I notice that you did quite a bit of walking, which is what I intend to do as well since the local bus is infrequent in non-festival season. May I know how much time it took you to walk from Teshima art museum to Storm House (some say this opens on the wknds, I’ll take a chance), from Storm House to Shima Kitchen, and from there back to Ieura?
Hi Morae!
Thank you for the compliment. I hope you have a great time on the islands!
As for the timing, I can’t remember too well. It has been over 2 years since I last did it. I would say less than 30 minutes to get from the Art Museum to the Storm House. Storm House and Shima Kitchen are pretty close to each other. To get back to Ieura, about an hour, I think. I also visited an artwork between Shima Kitchen and the port, so it is hard to guess how long it would really take.
It also depends on how fast you walk. If you walk fast, it won’t take long. Just take the bus out and roughly triple that time. 🙂
As Dru’s memories are a bit blurry, I’m giving more precise information 😉
– Walking from the Art Museum to Storm House takes about 10 minutes, even less if one walks fast and finds the Storm House right away.
The Storm House is indeed open on week-ends and holidays (until the end of November, then it’ll be closed until the Triennale 2016).
– Walking from the Storm House to Shima Kitchen takes a couple of minutes, they’re pretty close to each other.
– Walking from Shima Kitchen to Ieura (I assume you mean the ferry terminal, the village itself is a bit spread out) is about 4kms long, mostly going downhill, so depending on your walking speed it should take you between 30 minutes and an hour.
Dru mentions an artwork in between. It’s Mariko Mori’s Tom Na H-ui, but it’s currently closed for renovation (not sure if it’s long term renovation – i.e. it’ll stay closed til the Setouchi Triennale 2016 – or short term – as in it may have reopened already – I was there about a month ago).
If you have any other question about Teshima and the other islands, do not hesitate. 🙂
Thanks for the help David. I Googled the walking time and it said 9 minutes from Teshima Art Museum to Storm House.
Also, I was in a big rush to write a reply. No excuse, but thanks for clearing things up a lot. 🙂
You’re welcome.
I find walking times on Google Maps to be a bit slow at times, but maybe that’s because I’m a fast walker.
Thanks both for being so helpful. David I ‘stalk’ your blog as well for all things related to setouchi. 🙂