Matsushima

Collective designation for Japan's representative scenic sites: Matsushima (Miyagi), Miyajima (Hiroshima), and Amanohashidate (Kyoto). Selected by Edo-period scholar Lin Shunzai. Each location holds significant tourist value, attracting domestic and international visitors year-round. Represents Japan's natural beauty with extremely high cultural value. Internationally recognized as symbolic of Japanese landscape aesthetics.

Collective designation for Japan's representative scenic sites: Matsushima (Miyagi), Miyajima (Hiroshima), and Amanohashidate (Kyoto). Selected by Edo-period scholar Lin Shunzai. Each location holds significant tourist value, attracting domestic and international visitors year-round. Represents Japan's natural beauty with extremely high cultural value. Internationally recognized as symbolic of Japanese landscape aesthetics.

A scenic bay in Matsushima, Miyagi, dotted with approximately 260 islands. Recognized as one of Japan's three great scenic views since the Edo period, it has been celebrated in poetry for centuries as representing elegant maritime beauty. Attracting approximately 5 million visitors annually, sightseeing cruises around the bay are popular. Matsushima's landscape symbolizes Japan's marine beauty and earns high international esteem.

A scenic site on the Tango Peninsula in Miyazu, Kyoto Prefecture. A 3.6-kilometer sandbar uniquely traverses the bay's narrow waters. Its geometric beauty inspired the name 'heaven's bridge linking sky to earth.' Continuous popularity since the 17th century as one of Japan's Three Great Views attracts over two million annual visitors. Famous for '股のぞき' (viewing between legs upside-down), this inverted perspective creates 'reversed Amanohashidate,' evoking otherworldly beauty.

A castle with a National Treasure keep, nicknamed 'Crow Castle' for its striking black lacquered exterior. It houses Japan's oldest existing five-story, six-floor castle tower, and its beautiful setting against the Northern Alps backdrop attracts visitors year-round.

Japan's tallest single-drop waterfall in Wakayama, known for its sacred landscape unified with Kumano Nachi Taisha shrine. As a destination on the Kumano Kodo pilgrimage route, it embodies the fusion of nature worship and faith in Japanese spiritual culture.

One of Japan's Three Scenic Views in Miyazu, Kyoto. A 3.6km sandbar crossing Miyazu Bay lined with pine trees creates a unique landscape. Its name — 'Bridge to Heaven' — comes from the illusion of a heavenly bridge when viewed upside-down between one's legs.