Chichu Art Museum, Art museum in Naoshima, Japan.
The Chichu Art Museum is an underground museum on Naoshima presenting works by three artists in separate building sections. The rectangular and triangular rooms connect through narrow corridors and receive natural light through openings in ceilings and walls.
Japanese entrepreneur Soichiro Fukutake commissioned Tadao Ando in the late 1990s to design a museum for newly acquired paintings by Claude Monet. The building finally opened in 2004 and expanded the art project on the island that had already begun in the 1980s.
The architecture sinks entirely below ground level, so visitors first see only gentle hills and grass surfaces. Daylight falls through precisely cut openings in the concrete and transforms the subterranean rooms into shifting light sculptures.
The daily visitor number is limited, so early booking is advisable, especially on weekends and during summer months. The entrance sits on a hill above the harbor, reachable by a steep path or by shuttle bus from the ferry pier.
A garden beside the entrance displays more than 150 plant species that Monet cultivated in Giverny and captured in his paintings. The arrangement follows the original French beds and shifts its color palette with the seasons.
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