Art House Project

photo by 松岡明芳 · CC BY-SA 3.0

photo by KimonBerlin · CC BY-SA 2.0

Seven abandoned houses turned into artworks: the first, ‘Kadoya’, was restored in 1998.

In the Honmura district, still lived in, seven old houses have been restored and turned, one by one, into an artwork by a different artist. The first, ‘Kadoya’ (1998), uses LEDs by Miyajima Tatsuo, partly programmed by the island's residents themselves. At ‘Minamidera’ you enter in darkness and wait for your eyes to adjust to a work made only of light by James Turrell; at ‘Kinza’ you go in alone, one visitor at a time, by booking, for a quarter of an hour.

Begun in 1998 with ‘Kadoya’, the project restores empty or disused houses in the historic Honmura district instead of constructing new buildings, interweaving the memory of those who lived there with the work of the artist called in to reinvent the space. Today seven houses are open: Kadoya, Minamidera, Kinza, Gokaisho, Ishibashi, Go'o Shrine and Haisha.

ℹ️ Combined ticket for six houses (excluding ‘Kinza’) 1,200 yen online / 1,400 at the ticket office; ‘Kinza’ is separate and requires online booking, one visitor at a time, 600–700 yen. Opening hours vary by house (roughly 10:00–16:30), closed on Mondays (if a public holiday, closed the following day). Starting point and ticket office: Honmura Lounge & Archive.

🚉 Nokyo-mae (Agricultural Co-operative Office) · 1 min walk

Sources: benesse-artsite.jp

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