YELLOW PUMPKIN, YAYOI KUSAMA, NAOSHIMA. Photo: MERYL BLUNDELL – TAASA Review September 2018

In the 1980s, Tetsuhiko Fukutake, a wealthy businessman together with his son Sochiro, a collector of contemporary art, had a vision of restoring and enhancing the fortunes of the islands and their small ageing rural communities by commissioning art and architecture set in the villages, fading rural industrial precincts and natural surroundings. This vision, first realised on the island of Naoshima through the funding and efforts of the Fukutake Foundation, has since been expanded to many of the neighbouring islands such as Teshima, Inujima, Megijima and Ogijima and to the ports of Uno and Takamatsu that support and facilitate access to the islands. My daughter and I recently visited Naoshima, Teshima, Uno and Takamatsu on our first trip to Japan.

So as to be close to the port of Uno and to visit the Setonaikai National Park, which affords the best views of the eastern end of the Inland Sea, we booked a stay in Wasyugama, a family-run Bizen pottery, with its kilns, small restaurant and pottery school located near the town of Kojima.

The accommodation is rural and expansive, the hosts generous and sharing...