Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum
During a recent visit to Shikoku, Magda and I made a stop a the Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum in Takamatsu.
Surrounded by a precisely-stacked, curving stone wall, the large compound contains the home and studio of Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi.
Noguchi lived and worked here for about six months each year during the last 20 years of his life.
Its preservation is the fulfillment of Nogchi's wish that his studio in Japan be kept open as an extension of his museum in New York to inspire artists and scholars.
The collection includes approximately 150 sculptures, many of which are still unfinished, preserving a working atmosphere of the place.
Access to the site is restricted to a few walking tours (reservations required) a week. Tour information is presented in both Japanese and English. No photographs are allowed during the tours, and this rule is fairly strictly enforced. A single tour takes about an hour and starts in the visitors center.
The first stop on the tour is Noguchi's house where a number of beautiful objects are shown in traditional Japanese-style rooms. These include rare Akari lamps, and a sculpture-like musical instrument from Indonesia. An unusually minimal - yet beautiful - landscape can be seen through the back windows that overlook the backyard.
The tour continues up a stone staircase to an adjacent sculpture garden. At the top of the staircase a steep, round grassy hill presents itself to be further climbed. From the top of the hill, one can see the Seto Insland Sea (ahead) and open rock quarries on a nearby ridge (to the side) from whence some of Noguchi's raw materials came.
The next stop on the tour is down an allée of trees bordered by a low section of the above-mentioned stone wall. This wall is often shown in photographs (above) because it functions like a large sculpture that shapes and contains the property.Through a gate, in a small barn are some of Noguchi's tools including variously-sized hammers and chisels.
The last stop on the tour is an exhibition space that Noguchi converted out of a defunct sake brewery that he relocated to the property. It is the home of his famous work "Energy Void". The ground level interior of the barn is dark, but sliding doors allow natural light in as well as views of trees that surround. More Akari lamps light up the barn's loft space.
In my opinion, this is the best part of the tour. The building's interior is intricately crafted from wood, connecting the efforts of Japanese carpenters from long years ago to those of a stone carver from more modern times.
As far as artist home/studio museums go, the Noguchi Garden Museum is one of the best I've been to and worth a visit if you find yourself in Shikoku.
If you can't visit museum in person, you can visit virtually here:
