We spoke with Yasuyuki Katayama, Representative Director of the Matsushima Branch School Art Museum, and Takashi Wakimura, Community Revitalization Cooperator
Could you tell us how the Matsushima Branch School Art Museum came to be?
Katayama (honorifics omitted)
It began with a roundtable discussion attended by artists in 2010. People involved in the arts gathered in Shimotsui.
The following year, we held a somewhat larger art event. Thinking that we would need an office if we were going to continue, we started looking for a property.
What we were introduced to was a vacant property that had formerly been an art museum in Shimotsui.
I thought, “It doesn’t need to be this big. An office would be fine,” but I felt that chances to do something in a place that had once been an art museum were rare. Despite facing challenges such as gaining the community’s understanding, securing funding, and finding parking, we opened the Fukiage Art Museum in April 2015.
I already knew there was a closed school on Matsushima. When I heard it might be demolished, I began thinking about how it could be put to use.
For three years, while running the Fukiage Art Museum, I negotiated with the local government. In 2017, we decided to move the entire museum to Matsushima.
Renovations were completed in 2018, but adjustments to the operation took time, partly due to the July 2018 torrential rains and the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the summer of 2021, Kurashiki City entrusted us with the site, and we began operating the Matsushima Branch School Art Museum.
What kinds of art do you showcase?
Katayama
Since the building was renovated in 2018, we’ve focused on two main things.
One is an artist residency, where artists stay here and create their work.
Surrounded by the Seto Inland Sea, it’s a quiet place where artists can focus on their work.
Artists who create sculptures and prints, as well as video artists, have stayed here, and their completed works have been exhibited here too.
The other is holding exchange events.
In May 2019, we held day-trip events for five consecutive days.
We offered pottery workshops using clay from nearby islands, dishes made with wakame seaweed from Shimotsui, and curry made with seafood from the Seto Inland Sea. We also held open studios where visitors could see artists at work.
They were so popular that reservations filled up right away.
We’re also planning activities such as kintsugi workshops using teeth from red sea bream caught nearby, and a workshop to make cups using molds taken from driftwood washed ashore on the island.
For example, Bizen ware is valuable because it is made from the local clay.
We want this to be a place that showcases art that can only be created here.
We’ll continue the artist residency program, and plan to create opportunities for people to visit the island regularly and experience its art and island life.
How did you come to make Matsushima your base of operations, Wakimura?
Wakimura (honorifics omitted)
I moved from Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture, to Kojima in August 2020 as a Kurashiki City Community Revitalization Cooperator.
When I was attending university in Kochi Prefecture, I joined a community development organization. Through its work in rural mountainous areas, I came to feel that country life could be nice too—that was what got me started.
I knew about the Community Revitalization Cooperator program, which supports people moving from cities to rural areas. After spending about a year considering where in Japan to go, I decided to move to Kurashiki City.
I’m affiliated with the Matsushima Branch School Art Museum Association and work in the Kojima and Shimotsui areas.
I visit Matsushima three or four days a week. My current projects include improving the Matsushima Branch School Art Museum and restoring a house on the island that we were able to borrow.
I’m working away at fixing a house with a collapsed roof and floors.
There’s also a relatively new annex, which has a wakame seaweed dryer.
In the future, I’d like to run an inn here where guests can experience things unique to Matsushima.
I’ll figure out the specifics as I go. For now, I’m working on repairs day by day.
How often do people visit Matsushima, and what kinds of people come?
Wakimura
People who fish for wakame seaweed come to the island every day from February to May.
Some people come back about once a month to visit family graves, while others have vacation homes here.
I think there are about three or four houses that are fit to live in.
How have the people around you reacted to your activities on the island?
Katayama
Many people support us. Some wave to us from their boats when they see us.
Matsushima used to have many fishermen. The main jobs on the island were fishing and teaching at the school.
Someone’s mother or another would make lunch at the school. People who went to school here have told me, “We had home-cooked meals every day.”
“You caught a lot of fish today, didn’t you?” “Oh, aren’t those daikon from so-and-so’s place?” Maybe conversations like that took place during lunch breaks.
The island’s “common language” is fishing.
When fishing, you have to figure out all sorts of things, like where the fish are and when they’re likely to bite. The islanders know a great deal about it.
We’re serious about catching fish too, so asking them about the tides and fish has helped us get to know one another.
The sea is fascinating—mysterious, even. For example, you can discover things you can’t see, like “there are different currents on the seabed.”
This connects to art, too. People often don’t realize “what exactly they are looking at.”
Sculptures are actually hollow inside. I was reminded of something an expert in Western art once said: “Everything has a reverse side. We have to think about what it is that people are really seeing.”
Sometimes I think that idea is actually on the same level as saying there are hollows on the seabed where fish gather.
I imagine some works can only come into being by being on Matsushima, right in the middle of the Seto Inland Sea. What challenges lie ahead?
Katayama
Transportation is a challenge. Establishing a regular ferry route seems difficult, but we recently built a new pier, and I hope we can restore a boat that can carry nine people and have it ready by spring.
We’d also like to offer new ways to enjoy the island, such as camping and activities for groups.
Matsushima is close to the mainland and easy to get around, and though it’s small, you can experience its rich natural environment.
I think we can showcase things that can only be done here, using products from the island and Shimotsui.
Rather than putting on large-scale events, we want to steadily build up small things over the long term and make this a place where both artists and people who enjoy art can fully experience island life.
From the Writer
I’ve lived in Okayama Prefecture for four and a half years, but I was surprised to learn that people were working to “turn a closed school into a hub for sharing art” on Matsushima, a place I’d never visited or even heard of.
On the day of my interview, children’s voices echoed through the school, which had had no students for about 30 years. It really moved me.
Katayama is an artist who also cares about the island and the community, while Wakimura is preparing to open an inn on the island.
What kind of art will emerge from Matsushima, and what news will we hear in the future? I’m also looking forward to the free admission days.
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