Matsushima Bay
About the Matsushima Bay Camera
This camera looks out over Matsushima Bay in Miyagi, counted since the seventeenth century as one of the Nihon Sankei — the three great views of Japan, alongside Amanohashidate and Miyajima.
What makes it distinctive is the scale of repetition: over two hundred small islands, most of them tufted with pine, scattered across a shallow bay. They are the eroded remnants of a drowned landscape, and the soft tuff they are cut from is why so many have been undercut into odd shapes at the waterline.
Those islands also acted as a partial breakwater during the 2011 tsunami, and Matsushima suffered less damage than neighbouring stretches of the Sanriku coast — though it was far from unaffected. The bay is worth watching for light and weather: mist between the islands at dawn is the classic Matsushima image.
Highlights & Nearby
- •Watch for: the pine islands, boat traffic across the bay, mist at dawn, seasonal light
- •Nearby: Zuiganji, Godaido, Fukuurajima, Matsushima-Kaigan Station
- •Note: dawn mist between the islands is the view Matsushima is best known for
