Inujima Refinery Museum

photo by Kentaro Ohno · CC BY 2.0

photo by Ludger Heide · CC BY-SA 2.0

No grid electricity: the museum is heated and lit by the sun and geothermal energy.

Opened in 2008 on the remains of the copper refinery that operated on the island for only a decade and closed in 1919 when the price of copper collapsed. The architect Sanbuichi Hiroshi incorporated the ruins (chimneys and copper-slag bricks, the karami-renga) into a structure that uses no grid electricity, heated and lit by passive solar and geothermal systems; the water is purified by phytoremediation. In the six rooms, the artist Yanagi Yukinori has arranged a route that weaves the industrial ruins together with Mishima Yukio's writings on the modernisation of Japan.

Recognised in 2007 as part of the heritage of Japan's modern industrialisation (近代化産業遺産群33). Part of the Benesse Art Site Naoshima network.

ℹ️ Paid admission; check the seasonal opening hours before setting out (winter closures are possible).

Sources: benesse-artsite.jp

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