Places & destinations
JapanPlaces & destinations
Matsushima
Eight hundred pine-covered islets, one of Japan’s three canonical views since the seventeenth century.
On the mapMiyagi
The list of Japan’s "three views" goes back to the scholar Hayashi Gahō, who in 1643 placed Matsushima alongside Amanohashidate and Miyajima. The islets, carved by erosion from soft tuff, carry black pines twisted by the wind. Bashō passed through in 1689 during his Narrow Road to the Deep North and, so the persistent legend goes, was left speechless. Zuigan-ji temple, partly cut into the rock, keeps rooms painted by the Kanō school.