At 2 p.m. on July 26, operations commenced at the first public bathhouse on the island of Naoshima in the Seto Inland Sea between the mainland of Honshu and Shikoku. Titled Naoshima Bathhouse "I Love Yu" (the "Love" represented by a heart symbol and "Yu" in kanji form) and designed by artist Shinro Ohtake in collaboration with the creative unit graf, the bathhouse is the latest addition to a growing collection of art treasures commissioned for Naoshima by Soichiro Fukutake, president of the Benesse Corporation based in nearby Okayama on the mainland.
Since the 1992 opening of the Benesse House Museum on Naoshima, Fukutake's Naoshima Fukutake Art Museum Foundation has sponsored site-specific projects by individual artists as well as the construction of facilities such as the Tadao Ando-designed Chichu Art Museum, which launched in 2004 and is home to a suite of Monet "Water Lilies" paintings.
The bathhouse is envisioned as both a work of art and a communal gathering point. In a statement released to the press, Fukutake said that the bathhouse "was initiated out of my feelings of gratitude to the people of Naoshima for their support of the previous various art projects executed on the island." He expressed the hope that the bathhouse will be "loved by residents and help support their vitality."
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