Many American travelers who care about architecture arrive in Japan already knowing Tadao Ando. They have studied the cross cut into a concrete wall in Osaka in monographs, and some have stood in his Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, completed in 2002. What they want from Japan is the buildings themselves, in their own light and at their own pace, and a night inside one of them.

This article reads Ando's work in Japan building by building: the Church of the Light, Awaji Yumebutai across the strait from Kobe, his museums on Naoshima and the Oval at Benesse House, and then Teshima, where Ryue Nishizawa and Rei Naito answered his walls with a single open shell. On November 5, 2026 we read the official pages of the church, the museums, the hotel and the ferry timetable, the Pritzker Prize and the Japanese press, and contacted none of them; the sources are listed at the end. For the ferries, the Triennale years and Inujima, see Beyond Naoshima: Seto Inland Sea Art Trail →, and for a longer design route through Takayama and Kanazawa, Kanazawa, Hida and Naoshima: A Design Route Through Japan →.

Key points

ASK US ABOUT AN ANDO ARCHITECTURE JOURNEY →

WHY AN ANDO JOURNEY NOW

Ando was born in Osaka in 1941 and opened his office in 1969. The Pritzker Prize, which he received in 1995, records that he was self-taught, with no degree and no training under a master. So the journey begins in Kansai: the Church of the Light of 1989 stands in Ibaraki, in Osaka Prefecture, and Awaji Yumebutai of 2000 lies across the water from Kobe, on the way to the islands of the Seto Inland Sea.

The timing suits it too. Expedia's report on travel in 2027, presented in Tokyo in October, said that travel from the United States to Japan on its sites grew by 20 percent in 2026 and that American travelers paid on average 1.5 times the overall nightly hotel rate. The same report placed Hyogo, the prefecture of Kobe and Awaji Island, second in the world among rising destinations, with searches up 95 percent.

THE CHURCH OF THE LIGHT

The building known worldwide as the Church of the Light is the Ibaraki Kasugaoka Church. Its own site says that the chapel, the hall and the pastor's house were all designed by Ando. The wall behind the altar is cut through by a cross, and the light that falls through it is the whole of the ornament.

What a traveler needs to know for 2027 is written plainly on the church's homepage. Regular building tours have been suspended entirely, because the volunteers who guided them have grown older or passed away. The church says it hopes to open for visits again and is considering a temporary resumption, without a date. Sunday worship remains open to everyone, and the church asks anyone who wishes to attend to write first through its inquiry form. It does not permit filming or photography for television or magazines.

For a visitor who knows the building from photographs, a Sunday service is the way to be inside it now, among the congregation, in the hour it was built for. We write to the church on your behalf and follow its reply; whether and when a visitor joins is the church's decision. If tours resume before your journey, we will tell you.

AWAJI YUMEBUTAI

At the northern tip of Awaji Island, which its operator describes as a little over ten minutes from Maiko in Kobe, Awaji Yumebutai is a group of buildings and gardens laid out to Ando's grand design on land where soil had once been excavated. It climbs the slope in layers, each terrace opening a new view, with the Hyakudan-en garden, an observation terrace, a conservatory and two forums among them.

It is the place to see how Ando handles water, stairs and a whole landscape at once, and the Grand Nikko Awaji hotel stands within it. Kobe, across the strait, is the place for dinner; how to find the real Kobe beef is set out in Authentic Kobe Beef: How to Check It and Where to Eat It →.

CHICHU AND THE LEE UFAN MUSEUM

On Naoshima the order of the buildings matters. The Chichu Art Museum, built in 2004, lies mostly underground so as not to disturb the view of the Inland Sea, and its rooms are lit by daylight, so the works change with the hour and the season. It holds works by Claude Monet, James Turrell and Walter De Maria. Entry requires a ticket for a set date and time bought online, and when they sell out, none are sold at the door. Photography, video and sketching are not allowed inside, and phones may not be used anywhere on the premises. It opens from 10:00 to 17:00 and closes on Mondays.

The Lee Ufan Museum, in a gentle valley between the hills and the sea, is a collaboration between the artist Lee Ufan and Ando. The semi-underground building follows the slope toward the water, and its spaces carry names that read like instructions: the Pillar Plaza, the Encounter Room, the Silence Room, the Shadow Room and the Meditation Room. For a closer reading, the museum offers a private tour for up to eight people at regular admission plus 2,160 yen a group, with reservations opening two months before the date. It too closes on Mondays.

HONMURA AND THE NEW MUSEUM

In the old village of Honmura, the ANDO MUSEUM sets a concrete box inside a wooden house about a hundred years old. Light reaches its gently curved concrete ceiling through a skylight in the old timber roof, and the rooms show photographs, sketches and models of Ando's work and of Naoshima's history. It reads best before the larger museums. It opens from 10:00 to 13:00 and from 14:00 to 16:30 and closes on Mondays.

On a hilltop near the village, the Naoshima New Museum of Art opened on May 31, 2025, the tenth Ando building at Benesse Art Site Naoshima, Tokyo Art Beat reported. A large roof follows the ridge of the hill, the outer walls are black plaster, and a staircase lit from a skylight runs straight down from the ground floor through two basement levels, with four galleries arranged on both sides. At the opening Ando said he expected the planting around it to grow so that within two or three years it would stand in a forest, so a visit in 2027 or 2028 catches that change under way. It opens from 10:00 to 16:30 and closes on Mondays.

A NIGHT IN THE OVAL

Benesse House, opened in 1992, remains both a museum and a hotel. Benesse House Museum is open every day from 8:00 to 21:00, and hotel guests enter free, so the galleries can be seen late in the evening and again before breakfast.

Above it, on the hill, the Oval has six rooms, numbered 401 to 406, reached by monorail from the museum and set higher than any other rooms at Benesse House. Only guests staying in the Oval may enter it. The four twins measure 30 square meters and the two suites 70, and each room holds a work of its own, among them Richard Long's River Avon Mud Fingerprint Circles in suite 403 and David Tremlett's wall drawings made for rooms 404 and 405. The Oval Lounge, open only to these guests from 7:30 to 18:00, serves breakfast and a welcome drink, keeps books on art and on Ando, and hangs Christo and Jeanne-Claude's project for Surrounded Islands in Biscayne Bay, Miami.

The Museum and the Oval do not accommodate children aged five or under, and a specific room number cannot be guaranteed. Two dates matter in early 2027: the whole hotel closes from January 12 to 18, and the Terrace Restaurant and the Beach building from January 4 to March 4.

The low white concrete shell of the Teshima Art Museum, its oval opening facing the sky, set into a green hill

TESHIMA AS THE COUNTERPOINT

After Ando's walls, Teshima offers the opposite gesture. On a hill in Karato, the Teshima Art Museum by the architect Ryue Nishizawa and the artist Rei Naito sits among terraced rice fields that had been left fallow and were brought back with the island's residents. It is a low concrete shell about 40 by 60 meters with not a single column, open to wind, sound and light through two openings, and its planting is made entirely of grasses that grow wild on Teshima. Naito's Matrix of 2010, water rising from the floor throughout the day, is the only work inside.

The hour to choose is the Special morning program, held from 9:00 to 10:00 before regular opening on December 13, 2026 and on January 17, February 14 and March 14, 2027, at 2,300 yen with admission. It shows the moment the day begins and water is born from an empty floor. Regular entry is by a ticket for a set date and time; the museum closes on Tuesdays from March to November and from Tuesday to Thursday between December and February.

Near the harbor at Ieura, the Teshima Yokoo House is an old house in the hamlet remade by the architect Yuko Nagayama for the work of Tadanori Yokoo: eleven two-dimensional works in the main house, the storehouse and the barn, and installations in a stone garden with a pond and a cylindrical tower. Nagayama's tinted and red glass changes the light and color of each room. The high-speed boat from Miyanoura on Naoshima reaches Ieura in a little over 20 minutes and skips an island whose museum is closed that day; the full ferry picture is in Beyond Naoshima: Seto Inland Sea Art Trail →.

WHERE STAYGO COMES IN

We usually give this part of a journey five or six nights: two in Osaka or Kyoto with a Sunday kept free for the church, one in Kobe or on Awaji, and two or three on Naoshima with a day on Teshima, set around Mondays on Naoshima and Tuesdays on Teshima.

Within Signature, our planning for journeys of 7 to 21 days, we set out the order of the buildings, the timed tickets for Chichu and Teshima, the boats and the cars, and arrange the room in the Oval as early as the hotel allows, together with the private tour at the Lee Ufan Museum. We write to the church about the Sunday service on your behalf; the decision is the church's. Rooms and visits are settled with each house in the simplest way available, usually on your bill or on the day. For the Kyoto side of the journey, the imperial villas are covered in Katsura Imperial Villa Reservation and the Moss Temple →.

SOURCES AND HOW WE CHECKED

We read the pages below on November 5, 2026. Opening hours and closing days change; we check them again when we plan. We did not contact the church, the museums, the hotel, the operators or any other body.

QUESTIONS TRAVELLERS ASK

Can you visit the Church of the Light in 2027?

As of November 5, 2026, the church has suspended all regular building tours and has given no date for resuming them. Its Sunday worship is open to everyone, and it asks those who wish to attend to write first through its inquiry form. We can write on your behalf; the decision is the church's.

Which buildings on Naoshima are by Tadao Ando?

Benesse Art Site Naoshima lists five: Benesse House Museum (1992), the Chichu Art Museum (2004), the Lee Ufan Museum, the ANDO MUSEUM in Honmura and the Naoshima New Museum of Art, opened in 2025. All but Benesse House Museum close on Mondays.

Can anyone visit the Oval at Benesse House?

No. The Oval is open only to guests staying in its six rooms, and it is reached by monorail from the museum. The hotel does not accommodate children aged five or under in the Museum and the Oval.

Do I need tickets in advance for the Chichu Art Museum and the Teshima Art Museum?

Yes. Both admit visitors with a ticket for a set date and time bought online, and when they sell out, none are sold at the door.

What is the morning program at the Teshima Art Museum?

A one-hour visit from 9:00 to 10:00, before regular opening, to see the water of Rei Naito's Matrix begin to flow. The remaining dates are December 13, 2026 and January 17, February 14 and March 14, 2027, at 2,300 yen with admission.

ASK US ABOUT AN ANDO ARCHITECTURE JOURNEY

Send us your dates and the buildings you have in mind. We will set them in an order that meets each closing day, the timed tickets and the boats, and arrange the stays, including a night in the Oval as early as the hotel allows.

Begin planning →

We reply within 24 hours, in writing

Some of the restaurants and bars we arrange seat guests only by introduction or membership. We ask on your behalf; the table and the evening are the house's decision. We do not publish their names.

Also from STAYGO
Beyond Naoshima: Seto Inland Sea Art Trail → Kanazawa, Hida and Naoshima: A Design Route Through Japan → Onomichi and Setoda: Hillside Temples, Lemon Islands and guntû → Katsura Imperial Villa Reservation and the Moss Temple → Authentic Kobe Beef: How to Check It and Where to Eat It →