How a polka-dotted pumpkin became the world’s most coveted art installation

Naoshima, Japan: By the time I reached Buffalo, it was undeniable: The pumpkins were everywhere. It started on this remote island in western Japan,...

Naoshima, Japan: By the time I reached Buffalo, it was undeniable: The pumpkins were everywhere.

It started on this remote island in western Japan, where for many, Yayoi Kusama’s spotted pumpkins are the main event. A rotund red one greets ferries arriving at the western port of Naoshima, a magnet for culture-sniffing touristsseeking its museums and contemporary art installations. Pumpkin trinkets fill thegift shops. The local buses are covered in Kusama’s signature polka dots, with pictures of the beloved squash plastered on their sides.

On the island’s southern shore, a yellow pumpkin crowns the quiet sea, swarmed by iPhone-wielding visitors at nearly all hours of the day. The pumpkins have become so much a part of Naoshima’s landscape that when I left with only a haphazard photo of the yellow one, snapped while running one morning, it felt borderline sacrilegious.

I was apathetic at first. I’d taken a plane, a car, two trains and a ferry to get there - surely, there were more interesting things to look at than a giant Instagrammable fruit.

But the pumpkins weren’t done with me.