Ogijima

Locally knownKnown to people who live here. Not in the international guidebooks.

Researched and written by Hinato

OgijimaSetouchi Triennalelighthousecatsisland village

Photo: KimonBerlin / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0) · original

A visit to Ogijima is easy to underplan — bring more time, and less certainty about what you'll find, than you'd expect.

Ogijima is a village stacked on a slope. The houses climb the hillside above the port in tiers and the ways between them are stone steps and alleys rather than roads, which means nothing is delivered by vehicle and everything is carried. Walking it is the experience; there is no other way through.

At the port stands Jaume Plensa's Ogijima's Soul, a white canopy of letters from eight alphabets that serves as the ferry terminal — one of the permanent works of the Setouchi Triennale, which has brought art into the empty houses up the hill. The island is also known for its cats, which are numerous and unbothered.

What to know before you go

Access hours

Island accessible by ferry | Artworks and facilities keep their own hours

Closed: Confirm ferry timetables and artwork opening days before travelling

When to go

Year-round | Spring and autumn for walking the village

Fee

Free to walk | Ferry and individual artworks charged separately

Time to allow

Half a day including the ferry

Access route

Getting there in detail

Ogi-cho, Takamatsu, on Ogijima. Ferries from Takamatsu port take about 40 minutes, calling at Megijima. The island is free to walk; almost all routes are stone steps and steep alleys, and it is not suitable for wheeled luggage or pushchairs. Ogijima's Soul by Jaume Plensa stands at the port as the ferry terminal. Permanent Setouchi Triennale artworks are installed in houses through the village and keep their own opening arrangements.

Local knowledge

**Leave the wheeled luggage behind.** The village is stone steps. There is no route into it that avoids them. **The lighthouse is unpainted.** Dressed granite from 1895, one of very few in Japan left in bare stone. Thirty-five minutes on foot along the shore from the port. **Art is inside the houses.** The permanent Triennale works are in former dwellings up the slope, with their own opening days. Outside festival periods some are shut. **Cats, and people who live here.** Both are used to visitors and neither is an attraction. The village is inhabited. **Forty minutes each way.** Plus Megijima on the same route. Check the last sailing before starting up the hill.

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