Image: Chichu Art Museum, Naoshima
Benesse Art Site Naoshima has announced its annual maintenance closure for January through March 2027, a scheduled pause that will affect several of the best-known museums and artworks in its island network. The closure, posted by the site on June 30, covers key venues on Naoshima and extends to some related facilities and works across the wider Benesse Art Site system.
Among the institutions listed are the Naoshima New Museum of Art, Lee Ufan Museum, Chichu Art Museum, ANDO MUSEUM, the Art House Project sites, Naoshima Bath "I♥湯," Benesse House Museum and Valley Gallery, Hiroshi Sugimoto Gallery: Time Corridors, and the installation Ring of Fire - Solar Yang & Lunar Weerasethakul. The announcement also notes separate winter closures for some Teshima and Inujima facilities, while stating that the Teshima Art Museum will remain open as usual on a limited winter schedule.
The longest closure in the notice is for Chichu Art Museum, which will be closed from January 12 to March 19, 2027. Other Naoshima venues have shorter shutdown windows: the Naoshima New Museum of Art, Lee Ufan Museum, ANDO MUSEUM, and the Art House Project sites excluding Kinza and Haisha are scheduled to close from January 12 to 18, while Kinza is closed through January 20 and Haisha through January 31. Benesse House Museum and Valley Gallery are also set to close from January 12 to 18.
The notice underscores that outdoor works will be affected as well. During the Benesse House Museum closure, all outdoor artworks there, including Yayoi Kusama’s Pumpkin, will be temporarily unavailable for viewing. That detail matters because Naoshima’s appeal has long rested not only on its indoor museum presentations but also on the integration of sculpture, architecture, and landscape across the islands.
Benesse Art Site Naoshima has built its reputation as one of the most closely watched contemporary art destinations in Asia, with an art circuit that links museums, artist installations, and architectural sites across the Seto Inland Sea. The annual closure is part of that infrastructure: a reminder that the maintenance of highly designed museum environments, especially those housing site-specific works, is itself a significant part of preserving the visitor experience and the artworks’ long-term condition.
For the art world, the announcement is notable less as a disruption than as a marker of how central Naoshima has become to international cultural tourism and contemporary art pilgrimage. Scheduled closures at this scale can affect travel planning for visitors drawn to the site’s major permanent collections and installations, while also signaling the continuing upkeep required to sustain one of Japan’s most influential art landscapes.
The site’s notice advises visitors to consult the Open Days Calendar for March opening days where applicable. It also states that art facilities on Inujima will be closed for winter from December through February. For a destination whose identity depends on the interplay of art, architecture, and island geography, the annual maintenance period is both routine and consequential.
