Ogijima is without a doubt my favorite island in the Setouchi area. While I was already enamored with the island before the Setouchi Triennale started, the artworks that can be found there made me love the island even more. Add to that some of the friendliest people you’ll ever meet and you get a place that’s unique and wonderful despite its small size.
It is also the island that has probably benefited the most of the revitalization efforts in the area. The island that you will discover during your visit has nothing to do with the sleepy and slowly dying island that it was in the late 2000s.
Thanks to the islanders’ hard work, the island has become attractive enough to attract new residents on a regular basis. These new residents, in turn, bring their own skills, specialties, and energy to make the island even more attractive, interesting and sustainable. The island is on the right path not only to survive but possibly even to strive in the near future. Don’t forget that the Setouchi Triennale’s mission is not just to create “art islands” like you can read here and there at times. Its main goal is to save this wonderful region that is in danger of dying because it suffers from the triple threat of the general depopulation all over the country, rural flight that hits the countrysides all over the world and finally “island exodus”, a insular variation of rural flight that accentuates the pattern even more on small islands.
- Land area: 1,38 km2
- Circumference: 5 km
- Highest Point: 213 m
- Population: around 160 people
Getting there
The usual way to go to Ogijima is by a ferry called Meon and that departs from Takamatsu.
A one-way trip lasts about 40 minutes and costs 520 yens.
Ferries leave every two hours. On even-numbered hours to the island from Takamatsu and odd-numbered hours from the island to Takamatsu.
Getting around the island
While you can rent electrical bicycles on the islands, you cannot use them inside the village where most of the art is located. They will only be useful if you want to quickly reach the island’s lighthouse located to the northern end of the island.
Inside the village, the only way to get around is to walk. Wear comfortable shoes, some streets are steep.
More
For more information feel free to check out Hinomaple’s Ogijima Page:
Artworks
Usually, outdoor artworks are free and accessible in permanence.
Unless stated otherwise, indoor artworks are open every day during the Setouchi Triennale (and closed every day in between sessions of the Triennale).
Entrance to indoor artworks usually cost 300 Yens without an Art Passport. Entrance is free for children and teenagers younger than 16.
Art on Ogijima
Here a list of new artists (or new projects) who are joining the Setouchi Triennale for 2019 (they’ll be added to the main list in time):
- Team Ogi has a new project.
- Toshikatsu Endo
- Goro Murayama
- Nicolas Floc’h
- Gregor Schneider
- Sarah Westphal
- Takeshi Kawashima and Dream Friends Gallery will either have a new installation or modifications will be made to Kaleidoscope Black and White.
- Sea Vine by Haruki Takahashi will return (in a new form or the same, I do not know yet).
Ogijima’s Soul
Jaume Plensa (2010)
- Open every day from 6.30am to 5.00pm (the outside of the building is viewable in permanence).
- Access is free.
- On the site: main article – more.
- Hinomaple’s article.
Review: The building is wonderful. I just can’t get tired of it. Note that it is not only art but also a visitor center where one can find information, souvenirs, ferry tickets and more.
