Documenting the evolution of a fishing village into a global art sanctuary—and the industrial soul that remains.
"The smoke that built the museums."
Long before the first pumpkin was installed, Naoshima was an island of fire and metal. Since 1917, the northern side of the island has housed a major copper refinery. This industrial presence provided the economic stability that allowed the island to survive when other Setouchi villages were being abandoned.
The refinery is still active today, operating as a world leader in "Urban Mining." It extracts precious metals from recycled electronics, symbolizing the island's ongoing theme of transformation.
Copper refinery operations begin, shaping the island's demographics.
Naoshima International Campground opens, marking the start of the 'Art Island' era.
Naoshima’s rebirth was not an accident, but a "Triple Alliance" of philanthropy, local leadership, and architectural genius.
The former head of Benesse Corporation. Driven by the philosophy of **"Benesse" (Well-Being)**, he invested his family's publishing fortune to save the island from industrial decay, proving that art could be a tool for regional survival.
As the mayor of Naoshima in the 1980s, he famously met with Fukutake to propose a cultural children's camp. His willingness to pivot the island away from pure heavy industry paved the way for the Art House Project.
A self-taught "Pritzker Prize" winner who spent 30 years reshaping Naoshima's landscape. His ability to build "subterranean temples" allowed art to exist without disturbing the island's maritime silhouette.
Naoshima is home to a world-first industrial invention: **The Advanced Recycling Refinery**. While it still smelts raw ore, its true innovation is the ability to extract gold, silver, and palladium from "e-waste" (discarded electronics).
This "Urban Mining" makes Naoshima a global pioneer in sustainable metal production—the perfect industrial parallel to the island's artistic repurposing of old houses.
Efficiency Status
"Naoshima recovers enough gold annually from recycled phones to rival major traditional mines."
In the Art House Project, heritage is not preserved in a vacuum—it is given a new pulse. Artists take 200-year-old wooden structures and turn them into permanent site-specific installations.
A restoration of a 200-year-old residence. It features a water pool where digital LED counters flicker under the surface—each one set to a different speed by the local villagers, representing their individual life-rhythms.
An Edo-period shrine reimagined by Hiroshi Sugimoto. An optical glass staircase links the subterranean stone chamber to the main hall above, bridging the gap between the underworld and the heavens.
To understand Honmura's heritage, you must look at the walls. The traditional houses use **Yakisugi** (charred cedar). This ancient technique provides natural protection against the salt-laden air and pests, giving the village its signature black, textured appearance.
"The matte black of the Yakisugi walls is the perfect backdrop for the sharp, grey concrete lines of Tadao Ando's museum—a dialogue between ancient durability and modern precision."
"Naoshima’s true masterpiece is the harmony between its industrial origins and its creative rebirth, a silent pact between the earth, the sea, and the human hand."
The heritage of Naoshima is not a story of replacing the old with the new, but of allowing them to sit side-by-side in quiet mutual respect. The same precision used by the refinery workers to extract gold from copper is now used by the Takumi of the Art House Project to preserve the soul of a 200-year-old wooden beam.
As you walk through the black-walled lanes of Honmura, you are walking through a living archive of resilience. We invite you to see the island as a beacon of Harmony, a place where history is loved, and where every visitor becomes part of the ongoing curation of peace.
The Heritage Covenant
"In every oxidized copper plate and every silver-grey concrete wall, there is a story of a community that chose beauty as its path forward."