THE RYOKAN COLLECTION

Designed for relaxed gatherings and creative exchanges centered around art, the café-bar Moya is the public face of Roka and Naoshima’s premier nightlife spot open to residents and visitors alike. Mere minutes on foot from the Art House Project near Honmura Port, Moya serves lunch and after-dinner drinks late into the night—in fact, it is the only venue on the island that stays open past 9 p.m.

Buy your drinks at the bar and unwind with them outdoors at the Muryoraku-an firepit, or stay inside where the music may make you want to get up and dance. Cocktails, both alcoholic and sober, feature Roka’s signature housemade herbal infusions. The original Gino blend of Italian-style specialty coffee masterminded by Kiyohisa Fugino is on the menu as well.

At lunch, two kinds of donburi rice bowls, roast-beef and seafood, are served with soup. Moya seats a total of 28 guests at comfortable lounge chairs and sofas and its 13-seat counter. Souvenirs sold at the shop include books on art and photography, bags by Haruka Nomura, artworks by emerging artists, and oyster and other food specialties of the Setouchi area.

Colored in deep earth tones of greys, golds, and browns, Moya is built of natural materials. Traditional plasterer Akiyoshi Tanaka of Arashiyama in Kyoto hand-finished the walls in the same traditional troweling style used in temples, shrines, castles, and machiya townhouses from generations ago. The shop walls at back are covered in washi cloth made by the Kyoto-based paper craftsman Wataru Hatano, who dyed them a rich dark brown using kakishibu persimmon tannin. Three granite posts supporting the cypress counter were repurposed from an older building on Naoshima. A contemporary nihonga painting on a gold-leaf ground by artist Ryo Shinagawa anchors the far wall, bringing a dynamic pop of fresh color to the space.