Son Inherits Father's Dying Wish and Creates 'an Island of Dreams'

Son Inherits Fathers Dying Wish and Creates an Island of Dreams
Weekends, as often as not, he circles the sea in his private plane.

Soichiro Fukutake, 59, is president of leading correspondence education firm Benesse Corp. Below, as he flies, are the islands of the Inland Sea.

On the southern tip of one of them, Naoshima island in Shikoku's Kagawa Prefecture, stands Benesse House, the modern art museum and guesthouse designed by architect Tadao Ando and built by Fukutake in 1992.

Most of the tiny island's 3,500 inhabitants are fishermen.

The scenery is beautiful, but residents are aging and the population is declining.

Recently, the island took over a waste treatment facility from neighboring Teshima island.

The facility was built to dispose of illegally dumped industrial waste.

"Naoshima island is Japan in microcosm," says Fukutake.

"The power of modern art, by highlighting regional individuality and regional differences, can bring the countryside back to life."

The museum is a showcase for avant-garde art by Japanese and foreign artists.

Fukutake went on to establish the Naoshima Fukutake Art Museum Foundation, and last year, again using an Ando design, built the Chichu Art Museum.

The entire three-floor structure is subterranean.

"I wanted a building that will last 1,000 years for art that'll last 1,000 years," he explains.

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