Ieura on Teshima

 

Today, I want to show you around Ieura (pronounce: “Ih-eh-oorah”) on Teshima.

It’s going to be a brief visit, I’m not going to show you every nook, just a few pictures of the village that you will most likely see when you come to Teshima, as this is where the main port of the island is located and where most ferries land, and this is also where two of Art Setouchi permanent artworks are located (usually the main reason why visitors come to Teshima), Was du liebst, bringt dich auch zum weinen and Teshima Yokoo House, plus a few temporary ones during the Setouchi Triennale.

It is also the largest village on this island, where you can find its only two schools as well as most of its rare shops.

When I go to Teshima, I admit that I tend to only go through Ieura to head to Karato where I spend most of my time on this island (this is where most are artworks are located as well as most of the people I know). However, Ieura deserves our attention too. Last year, during the Setouchi Triennale, I noticed that the village is changing, most likely because visitors tend to spend more and more time there, especially since Teshima Yokoo House has opened. New cafés have opened, a few minshukus too, and even a few shops more or less aimed at visitors.

Things are happening on Teshima. The “Naoshima effect” is spreading. And every time I return to Teshima, I see more visitors than the previous time, especially more foreigners (a little more than one year ago, I could spend the day there and not run into a single foreign tourist, it’s not happening anymore).

Little by little Teshima is becoming famous.

So before it gets too gentrified (OK, I’m exaggerating a bit), here are some pictures of the harbor and around that I took as I went through the village during my past couple of visits:

 

If you arrive on Teshima coming from Takamatsu or Naoshima, this will most likely be the first building you will see getting off the boat. Those signs, indicating some of the things that you can find in Ieura were made in 2010 by Hachijuro Fujishima, who worked hard to embellish the island (click on his name to learn about his quite unique story).

 

The port:

 

 

The “cat fisherman”. Just in front of Il Vento, you may sometimes run into this fisherman who is always welcomed by a bunch of cats when he returns to port. Even when he’s not here, the cats often hang out on the spot.

 

Il Vento aka Was du liebst, bringt dich auch zum weinen

 

The fishing boat that inspired the Big Bambú boat.

 

 

If you come to Teshima from Uno Port or Shodoshima, you’ll probably arrive on that ferry.

 

A few streets in the village:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bye Bye Ieura and Teshima, see you soon.