When we awoke early in the morning of day 9 (September 22), we were already at our destination for the day, Inujima. Inujima means “Dog Island”. It is located in Okayama Prefecture. The weather was already looking nice.
We arrived on the island by a passenger ferry. The breakwater at the port had some graffiti that said Inujima (犬島). This island is an artist island, where artists can come and work on large scale projects. In some places in Japan, they have decided to combat rural depopulation with some unique incentives like this. There is a similar town in Kumamoto called Tsunagi.
The obvious thing coming on shore is that all the rocks are granite! I had to be coaxed along to the tour instead of exploring. 😉
We were given a nice overview of the history of the island. The island’s granite was a valuable resource, and was used for building Osaka Castle and the Osaka harbour. It is beautiful stuff.
In 1909, a copper refinery was built on the island. It was only in operation for about 10 years. The ruins can be seen all over the island. The ruins have been incorporated as part of the art installations.
There are at least two phases of granitic intrusions on the island. Compositionally, they are differentiated by the more aluminum/iron rich (full of garnets, I believe) yellow stained granite, and the less iron rich, grey coloured granite. There is a dark contact between them to attest to their difference in age, which can be seen all over the outcrops. It has been many years since I took igneous petrology and there are no specific scientific papers on the granites here, so I am hoping my interpretation on the presence of garnet is correct.
Inujima is an art island. Throughout the island are all kinds of art installations. The main attraction is an installation that uses pieces of the house of Yukio Mishima, the famous author who attempted a coup in 1970 and committed ritualistic suicide. Needless to say, it was very creepy (note that the artwork above is not part of that!).
Much of the artwork is outside. This one uses pieces of the local granite!
At the highest point of is a small shrine. I had asked if there was a fire, but they purposely scorch the sides of the wooden buildings to prevent infestations from insects.
Since it is Inujima, one of the artists made a big statute of a dog!
There was a gathering catered to the artists of our group. I found out that a quarry was nearby so I asked if I could see it. A fellow Canadian resident showed me the way!
The rocks have these wonderful dendrites on them. I said to everyone that nature can also produce art. I hope they preserve some of these.
The granite also had wispy pink streaks with higher concentrations of garnets (I am assuming!). Stunning.
As we made our way back to the ship, we stopped at a beach. I wanted to check it out!
Watanabe-san had eagle eyes and noticed there are tiny little corals in the shell accumulation on the beach.
There’s one!
We collected a whole bunch of them. It must be hard for them since the water is not so clear in the Setouchi Sea.
Before we set sail, we were treated to a performance by the musicians on our journey. 素敵です！
As it was the last day on board, we had a BBQ on the deck as we departed Inujima. A great way to cap off an amazing day of geology and art on Inujima!
Raised Beaches 
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