Living in Ando's World

Classic Ando, Inside Benesse House Museum 

Sugimoto Pictures of the Sea on an Ando wall

Water Lilies by Museum 

Site of the  The Lee Ufan Museum

Perfect for a rainy day

Hot Noodles

Torii Gates leading to Go'o Shrine

Glass Stairs leading underground

The Shrine

Yakinku Style

Sunset from our Hotel Room

We have previously visited the Chi Chu Museum, but wanted to return. This is a very special museum that doesn’t change its exhibits. It was been built by Ando around 3 very different and spectacular artists. Claude Monet: Water Lilies, are a perfect fit as you can tell from the beautiful water garden we passed by on the way to the museum. James Turrell and his continual playing with light. By far the one that moved us the most was Walter De Maria. You enter a very large Ando concrete room shaped like a shoebox. Stairs lead up the entire length of the room. Midway up the the stairs widen where a perfect gigantic polished stone sphere sits beneath an opening to the sky with light pouring down upon it. The stairs continue and one can climb up and sit down on them and contemplate. Gilded wooden columns surround the room The entire room has the austerity of the obelisk in 2001 combined with some pre-historic religious rite. We probably spent ½ hour just viewing it.

There is a fourth artist that makes it all possible. Tadeo Ando. All of the major buildings on this island have been built by him over many years. His use of concrete, light and space are a wonder to behold.

From The Chi Chu Museum we went to the new The Lee Ufan Museum which Ando also designed. I liked the setting and the design better than the objects. Oh well.

It was drizzling lightly on and off, and we bussed across the island to the village, where we had a Japanese lunch of Hot Noodles. It was perfect for the day. From there we walked thru the village winding up at the Go’o Shrine. This shrine designed by the photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto, was a must repeat for us. Above ground it looks like a Shinto Shrine with mystical glass steps descending into the earth. Walking around and below the shrine, you enter a very narrow tunnel designed by Ando. It is pitch black and the tunnel is so narrow you can’t walk with out brushing your shoulders against the walls. At the end of the tunnel you turn and see the bottom of glass stairs descending beneath the ground – illuminated from above. As you turn around to return above ground, you look down the narrow tunnel and realize it has been situated to give you a specific view of the sea.

We continued our walk back to the village and visited The Ando Museum. This small museum is about the work of Ando. It is in a small traditional wooden Japanese house that he has modernized with his concrete infrastructure and skylights, while keeping the Japanese essence of the house.

We returned to the hotel and drank Sake watching the sunset over the sea. We then took the bus to the port where we had an yakinku style dinner, it is very similar to Korean Barbeques in Los Angeles.

A taxi back to the hotel ended our night.