Michelin Green Guide Setouchi & Shikoku — Three-Star Ritsurin Garden and Dogo Onsen Honkan, and All 57 Starred Sights

What the Michelin Green Guide is — 57 starred sights in Setouchi and Shikoku

This is the Michelin Green Guide (Le Guide Vert), which rates destinations rather than restaurants. The Japan edition is published in France: the 4th edition in 2015, the 6th in 2020, and the current one in 2025. Every star below is given with the edition that awarded it.

The 2015 edition newly awarded two stars to the islands of the Inland Sea, with stars going to Naoshima, the art island, and to newly listed Teshima and the Kankakei gorge on Shodoshima. Shikoku is large, and its stars are spread across Kagawa (Takamatsu), Ehime (Matsuyama), Tokushima (Iya) and Kochi. From Okayama on Honshu it is about 55 minutes by JR to Takamatsu, 2 hours 45 to Matsuyama and two and a half to Kochi. Reckon on one to two days per prefecture, five to seven in total. For a loop of the island by rail, an all-line JR Shikoku pass is worth pricing.

Two-star islands of the Inland Sea — Naoshima, Teshima, Shodoshima

The 2015 edition makes the islands of the Inland Sea and Naoshima two-star. On Naoshima, the Art House Project, which turned old village houses into artworks, is two-star, with Minamidera, one of its houses, Tadao Ando’s Chichu Art Museum, Benesse House — museum and hotel in one — and the Naoshima Bath “I Love Yu”, a working bathhouse that is itself an artwork, at one star.

Neighbouring Teshima is one-star, the Teshima Art Museum, a droplet-shaped shell where water wells from the floor, is two-star, and the Teshima Yokoo House one-star. The Kankakei gorge on Shodoshima is one-star, best from the ropeway in autumn colour. The Chichu and Teshima museums normally require timed online booking and have fixed closing days — check before you take the ferry. The island villages are people’s homes, so walk quietly around the Art House Project.

Three-star Ritsurin Garden, and Kotohira-gu

Ritsurin Garden in Takamatsu is three-star. The Matsudaira lords completed this stroll garden in the Edo period; its meticulously trained pines and the Kikugetsu-tei teahouse on the pond are two-star, and the arched Engetsukyo bridge and the hill Hiraiho are one-star. At Kikugetsu-tei you can take matcha looking out over the water. The city of Takamatsu, the open-air Shikoku Mura of relocated farmhouses and the reservation-only Isamu Noguchi Garden Museum are one-star.

Kotohira and Kotohira-gu — “Konpira-san” — are two-star. It is 785 stone steps to the main shrine and 1,368 to the inner one. The Shoin, with screen paintings by Maruyama Okyo, is two-star, and the Emado, hung with votive paintings of ships, one-star. At the foot, Kanamaruza, the oldest surviving playhouse in Japan, is one-star; after seismic strengthening, kabuki resumed there in 2024.

Three-star Dogo Onsen Honkan, Matsuyama Castle, Uchiko and Ozu

In the 2015 edition the Dogo Onsen Honkan in Matsuyama is three-star, with Dogo Onsen, the city of Matsuyama and Matsuyama Castle at two stars. Built in 1894, the Honkan is a three-storey wooden public bath crowned by a drum tower. Conservation work ran from 2019, and the whole building reopened in December 2024. Matsuyama Castle keeps an Edo-period keep; a ropeway takes you up the hill, and the view from the keep is one-star. Ishite-ji, one of the 88 temples of the Shikoku pilgrimage, is one-star.

South of Matsuyama, Uchiko is one-star, as are Yokaichi-dori, its street of merchant houses built on wax, and the Taisho-era playhouse Uchikoza. Note that Uchikoza has been closed since September 2024 for about four years of conservation work, with occasional openings of the dressing rooms in the meantime. The hillside villa Garyu Sanso above the Hiji River in Ozu, Uwajima Castle, and the Shimanami Kaido linking Honshu and Shikoku are one-star.

Tokushima — Nishi-Iya, the vine bridge and Oboke

Deep in the mountains of Tokushima, the Iya valley is one-star in the 2015 edition, and Nishi-Iya and its walking route are two-star. The Iya vine bridge, woven from living vines, is one-star: you can see the river through the gaps underfoot, and it swings. It is rebuilt about every three years and closed while that happens. Further in, Higashi-Iya and the paired Oku-Iya vine bridges are one-star.

The Oboke gorge on the Yoshino River is one-star, seen from a sightseeing boat among the rock formations. Chiiori, a thatched farmhouse restored as lodging, is one-star as well. Public transport in Iya is thin — buses from JR Oboke Station are few — so a car tour or a private vehicle is the realistic option. The mountain roads are narrow with tight bends; drive carefully if you rent.

Kochi — the castle, Katsurahama, the Shimanto River, and model routes

In the 2015 edition Kochi and the Pacific coast are one-star, and Kochi Castle, which keeps both its Edo-period keep and its Otemon gate, is two-star. The weekly Sunday market on the street in front of the castle, the Makino Botanical Garden of the botanist Tomitaro Makino, Chikurin-ji on the pilgrimage route and Katsurahama, with its statue of Sakamoto Ryoma, are one-star. West of there the Shimanto River is one-star, known for its chinkabashi — bridges built without railings so floodwater passes over them. At Shikoku’s southwestern tip, Cape Ashizuri and its view are two-star.

Michelin Green Guide Setouchi & Shikoku — FAQ

Star ratings: ★★★ worth a special journey / ★★☆ worth a detour / ★☆☆ interesting. Stars come from the 4th (2015) or 6th (2020) edition of the Michelin Green Guide Japan, as noted for each sight, and are reviewed with every edition. “Starred sights” counts every entry the guide awards stars to — including buildings inside a site, museum pieces, viewpoints and routes — so it is not a count of separate locations.